Avocent Corp. has made another step in integrating the capabilities it gained last year by buying LANDesk, one that an analyst says puts it among the leading companies in merging in- and out of band system control.
The company said Monday it has begun integrating its DSView 3 data centre management platform, which has off-line or out of band management control over servers and routers, with LANDesk Server Manager, which inventories, manages and patches in band rack-mounted and blade servers.
The capability is being shown off this week at the Interop show in Las Vegas, prior to the release of the updated DSView 3 in the first week of July.
“This is the first demonstration of being able to perform in- and out-of-band management from a single console,” said Graham Holt, Avocent’s director of product management for software platforms.
“It’s a major advance because DSView is becoming a platform for next-generation data centre management.”
The two products will continue to be sold separately and priced the same, and to get the advantages organizations will have to have both, but the updated DSView will include the ability to harness some of Server Manager’s abilities to remotely manage servers.
In short, DSView 3 and LANDesk Server Manager can talk to each other, at least in a limited way, through their Web interfaces.
DSView 3 can now remotely turn on and reset troubled servers, Holt said, but, in his words, didn’t touch the insides. If those servers are linked to Server Manager, they can be actively managed round the clock from within DSView – for example, setting up policies to automatically apply a patch or reboot a server.
The capability will help DSView evolve into more than a series of point tools into a strategic platform, said Dennis Drogseth, vice-president at Enterprise Management Associates.
Avocent and Raritan are two companies in the vanguard of merging in and out of band management into one platform, he said. Others such as Hewlett-Packard, IBM, BMC, CA treat out-of-band server management “as a sideshow,” he said, not understanding yet there’s a need for a more strategic approach to remote server management.
Holt believes that once administrators understand the early capabilities the upgraded DSView can handle, they’ll ask for connection to more functions of Server Manager, such as the ability to isolate an infected server from others. Then DSView 3’s out of band connectivity could be used to diagnose and fix the server.
Asked why the two products aren’t being completely integrated into one suite now, Holt said some administrators don’t want all of the functions such a platform would offer. However, he said Avocent will continue to merge their functionality.
The upgraded DSView will not change its version number, he said. Current users will get the added functionality a maintenance update.
In addition to linking to Server Manager, the updated DSView 3 will connect to HP Software Network Node Manager, NetClarity Network Security Solution and Uptime Devices for Physical Security.
Avocent also announced the updated DSView 3 will include a mobility module allowing IT managers to remotely control network devices from handhelds.
