It s time to confront IT complexity and deal with it With Avocent s Control and Manageability Solution
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. The Challenge: 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 effi ciently? 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 confi gure and manage, or even reboot a server, from just about anywhere. Benefit: Secure, remote, centralized management means improved response times, greater effi ciencies 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 effi cient upgrade and patch downloads. Benefit: Flexible authentication options allow the solution to easily integrate into existing security models.
Power Management: Taming the hungry beast 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 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. 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 effi ciently 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 simplifi es tasks. Rack Security Control Flexible access. Security features include system and user log management, as well as event notifi cation, exit macros and access control by zones. Once logged on, a full range of encryption modes supports multiple policies. 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 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.
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 unifi ed management platform. When a situation arises, alerts and notifi cations can be sent via SNMP, IM or email. MergePoint Unity TM 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, fi rmware 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 affi liates in the US or other countries. All other marks are the property of their respective owners. 2009 Avocent Corporation. All rights reserved. 1209-CM-SB-EN