It’s time to confront IT complexity and deal with it
With Avocent’s Control and Manageability Solution
The Challenge:
What makes up effective
data center management
and control?
Chances are the answer is different for
everyone reading this. Some need more
insight into how resources are being
used. Some need tighter reins on power
consumption. Some need a simpler way to
effect changes across multiple locations.
The variations are endless. Because no
two scenarios are identical, Avocent
has chosen to offer a wide variety of
products to solve unique and changing
needs. Think of a tool shed, full of items
all ready to serve you, all able to mesh
together into a single, cohesive solution.
Getting a handle on what always
seems to be “out of hand”
It’s like trying to hold on to a heaping handful of sand; your data
center sometimes seems on the edge of falling out of control.
Quaint metaphors aside, how do you plug those nagging
holes in your operations management? How do you keep tabs
on and maintain command over a jumble of heterogeneous
servers and other geographically dispersed components?
Or give your staff the power and the tools they need to work
more efficiently? Or better plan for anything that comes your
way, while at the same time reducing your overall costs?
Avocent’s Data Center Control and Manageability Solution delivers
secure, automated, real-time tracking and control of all your
servers, embedded technologies, network equipment and power
devices. This gives your IT staff what it needs to effect positive
change from any location, at any time of day or night, without
regard to hardware type, operating system or network status.
DATA CENTER CONTROL AND MANAGEABILITY
Helping You Simply Command Your
IT Infrastructure
The Answer:
A powerful platform for powerful
control
Created from our large portfolio of proven, industry-leading
hardware, software and embedded technologies, Avocent’s
Control and Manageability Solution platform is designed to
address three areas of top importance: centralized
management, power usage control and forward-thinking rack
management.
Centralized Management:
Access and control over all IT assets–
physical and virtual–from a single screen
When we say “centralized,” we mean it. Avocent technology
gives administrators a single-rack view of all computer systems,
servers, serial-based devices and power distribution products,
no matter the vendor or operating system. With it in place, you
and your staff can count on:
Greater Access – From anywhere you can get
online. The Web-based, single sign-on interface
enables you to remotely configure and manage, or even
reboot a server, from just about anywhere.
Benefit: Secure, remote, centralized management
means improved response times, greater efficiencies
and even reduced travel expenses.
Increased Availability – The holy grail of IT.
Avocent’s hub and spoke architecture ensures
failover access authentication across all
components, all the time. It is also designed to
enable click-and-connect management of
everything from blades and servers to routers and
power distribution units. But control is not limited
to in-band connections only. Out-of-band
management options give you access to
components even when the network server
hardware or installed OS is having problems. This
is tremendously important considering that up to
20% of unplanned downtime is caused by
infrastructure failure.
Benefit: By reducing system management
complexity while increasing the remote
accessibility of assets, you minimize downtime.
Broad-Ranging Security – Remote access
that enhances your existing policies. The
Avocent solution is ready to integrate into your
existing security protocols. For example, it
supports all levels of access from individual LDAP
to fully-managed authentication and reporting
across all KVM, USB and serial ports.
Additionally, Virtual Media is fully supported,
allowing managers to map various media types to
a remote server for efficient upgrade and patch
downloads.
Benefit: Flexible authentication options allow the
solution to easily integrate into existing security
models.
Power Management:
Taming the hungry beast
Avocent’s Control and Manageability Solution provides you with the
tools you need to monitor energy consumption, costs and trends
across all levels within the data center and remote locations.
“
“The total amount of
national data center energy
consumption doubled
between the years 2000
and 2006 … it will nearly
double again by 2011.”
– 2007 EPA Study
”
Monitor Usage – Individual assets to company-wide.
Power consumption can be monitored and reported at any
level of granularity needed, from individual PDUs and racks to
rows of racks, the data center, even the entire company.
Benefit: Get a better understanding of exactly how your
power is being used to make more informed decisions.
Control Capacity – Use your power more efficiently.
Real-time and historical data give you insight into how to best
set thresholds and alerts, plus plan for growth.
Benefit: Prevent circuit overloading and see in real time how
changes impact usage.
Pinpoint Problem Areas – Get tighter command over
the power guzzlers. By identifying the highest users of
power, from the rack to the center to the company, you can
calculate and compare expenses by area and trend.
Benefit: Better align the data center to power usage goals,
which enable chargebacks.
Rack Management:
Control access, power and usage across
the rack, top to bottom
No matter the size of the data center, it always comes down to
what’s going on in the rack. Avocent technology gives you a
myriad of tools to monitor and control down to the individual
rack device.
Interface to Multiple Points. In- and out-of-band
access gives you statistics and reports viewable via the
Web-based interface and enables remote control of
individual resources.
Benefit: Work more efficiently and effectively.
Rack Power Management – Control power down to
the port. Power measurement can be conducted and
control can be administered down to the PDU level
through usage alerts and on/off remote outlets.
Benefit: Integrated power management tool simplifies
tasks.
Rack Security Control – Flexible access. Security
features include system and user log management, as well
as event notification, exit macros and access control by
zones. Once logged on, a full range of encryption modes
supports multiple policies.
Benefit: Authentication and access control provide
added protection within your security framework.
Rack Planning – Real-time change management.
Avocent’s specialized modeling tools enable you to create
multiple, virtual data center scenarios, complete with
usage statistics (such as power, heat and weight) and
component data (port availability, capacity, etc.).
Benefit: Through life-like rack representations, you
actually see where the rack is currently located and what
would happen if you moved it somewhere else.
“
“The time-sensitive nature
of the publishing business
demands the immediate
identification, assessment
and resolution of IT
infrastructure incidents.
Out-of-band management
tools by Avocent help us
in our ongoing efforts
to keep our network
running smoothly.”
”
– Group IT Network Director, Ian
Wightman, Trinity Mirror
Components
Management Software
•
DSView® 3 software is the
centralized management component
of control and manageability. The
software is the single-rack view
needed for all your servers,
embedded technologies, network
equipment and power devices.
•
The Avocent DSView 3 Power
Manager software adds power
monitoring and reporting capability
to the access and control functions
of DSView 3 software.
•
MergePoint® Infrastructure
Explorer provides visual
documentation of data center assets
and utilization, enabling accurate
and comprehensive capacity
planning and detailed assistance for
operations and maintenance.
Management Appliances
•
Avocent PDUs include single-phase and three-phase models
that support strip-level metering, outlet-level metering or
outlet-level metering and switching. Integrate the information
gathered from the PM 1000/2000/3000 PDUs with DSView 3
Power Manger to generate historical graphs and reports in
order to get a clear power picture of the data center.
•
The MergePoint SPM merges both proprietary (e.g., DRAC,
iLO, RAS) and open service management protocols (such as
IPMI) onto a unified management platform. When a situation
arises, alerts and notifications can be sent via SNMP, IM or
email.
•
MergePoint UnityTM appliances provide remote KVM
access to servers. This gives system administrators a
centralized management system for power control of their
servers.
•
ACS 6000 console servers provide remote access for
console port management. They provide secure, remote
access to IT devices and UNIX/LINUX-based servers.
We don’t play favorites
Our solution operates in a heterogeneous data center environment
In Conclusion
The Avocent Control and Manageability Solution is a melding of
proven, industry-leading hardware, firmware and software.
Working together, these elements create a single,
comprehensive user interface for all of your remote access and
control requirements. The point-and-click functionality allows for
easy device manipulation and highly-secure, user-rights
management that is completely integrated with the
heterogeneous mix of hardware and operating system common
in today’s data center. Add in the total consolidation of KVM,
serial, embedded technologies and power management into
one platform, and you have a solution that will serve your data
center management needs now and far into the future.
About Avocent Corporation
We believe IT complexity should never stand in the way of
achieving a business goal.
Avocent is a leader in open, modular software and hardware
solutions that rapidly enable our customers to better tackle
the chaos of their information technology environments. Our
innovations drive lower costs, lower risks and greater agility,
enabling IT to meet more and more demanding service levels.
It’s no wonder that some of the world’s leading brands depend
on Avocent technology to simply manage their mission critical
IT resources.
www.avocent.com
Avocent, the Avocent logo, DSView, MergePoint, MergePoint Unity and
Simply Manage are trademarks or registered trademarks of Avocent
Corporation or its affiliates in the US or other countries. All other marks are
the property of their respective owners. © 2009 Avocent Corporation. All
rights reserved.
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