Systems Management

Systems management is an important but frequently overlooked factor in selecting the right server product orIPMI Overview storage appliance. But ultimately systems management components and capabilities are determining factors in the quest to take control of your burgeoning IT infrastructure.

Systems management encompasses software and hardware functionality, Operating System and application level administration, and in-band and out-of-band communication channels. In datacenter scenarios it could also include elements of HVAC and other environment management such as rack fan-speed and power consumption monitoring and control.

At the OS level managing large deployments would be difficult and time-consuming without some level of automation to carry out multiple simultaneous bare-metal installations with little or no user intervention. This is all the more poignant as the concept of virtualization takes hold in the sphere of options available for systems consolidation and maximal resource utilization in the datacenter. Administrators are constantly on the edge in trying to keep systems up to date with the latest bug fixes and security updates without compromising application compatibility or service availability. This can very quickly become impossible to achieve without wasting administrative resources on just this task alone.

Remote system monitoring and instrumentation is another very important aspect of the systems management paradigm. Keeping a check on the health of a system, such as processor temperature, fans speeds, power usage and a host of other hardware level components - is just as important as making sure that the OS and applications are humming along smoothly. Many disparate tools and components are available on the market to achieve this sort of system monitoring, and indeed, many component vendors have produced their own tools and methods for management and monitoring. However, a consensus has formed around an industry standard that is OS agnostic and, better still, very cheap to implement, learn and use. The Intelligent Platform Management Interface (IPMI), is an industry standard specification for systems management and instrumentation.

IPMI is meant to be able to provide useful management functionality both in-band and out-of-band. The contextual distinction here is that out-of-band management requires simply that a functioning communication channel exist between the management application and the management target. Useful management functions such as power-up and power-down or reset of a remote IPMI target can take place via this out-of-band channel. IPMI functions outside the control blanket of an Operating System and in fact can play a role in OS deployment systems management tasks by allowing for firmware level (re)configuration prior to OS installation.

Keyboard Video Mouse

In datacenter environments it is neither appropriate nor desirable to have a keyboard, display monitor and mouse plugged into every system. Not only would the power consumption, heat generation and space waste be significant, but the sheer management headache of dealing with so many components would put even the most die-hard enthusiasts off. No, the better way of dealing with multiple systems in terms of gaining access to video output and mouse/keyboard input is to consolidate I/O in a device known as a KVM - an acronym for Keyboard Video Mouse. Rather than have a dedicated keyboard, video monitor and mouse for each managed system, a central KVM box will connect one keyboard, monitor and mouse to multiple systems at once, with administrator using either hardware controls on the KVM or its software utilities to switch between all available systems under management.

Serial Console & Console Redirection

Most every server motherboard vendor and OEM today provides a system management function known as console redirection. Console redirection allows for the export of the system firmware interface over a communication channel other than the standard VGA (video) port. So for instance the system firmware and boot screens can be managed and monitored remotely via a standard terminal session. In general the console is redirected to one of the standard on-board serial ports, but this can be further redirected to the LAN interface by way of an IPMI baseboard management card.

Datacenter Management

Even if your infrastructure pool consists of just a handful of servers and/or storage systems, it is prudent to deploy an all-encompassing management utility that can alert you to potential problems before they occur. It would be great for instance to find out that a hard disk is nearing the end of its workable life via S.M.A.R.T functionality, or that an application has stopped responding to service requests. Better still, the ability to do something about failing services or components via remote management tools is a boon. Another ideal function would be the ability to image new system or re-image existing systems with an entire OS and application stack via a few simple commands. Having this sort of monitoring and management capability in a single easy to use application that is platform independent is the holy grail of systems management. There are many tools available on the market to do just this; some proprietary, expensive and difficult to master - many Open Source, low-cost and easy to deploy and use. Being an Open Source company, we naturally advocate Open Source based solutions - however there are still some instances where proprietary options may be better (we just can't think of at this moment :).