Out-of-Band Management Keeping Disasters at Bay

By Susan J. Campbell
TMCnet Contributing Editor

Out-of-band management strategies that have developed over the years have drastically reduced the down times experienced in data centers. Whether it is through virtualization or remote access to administrators, out-of-band management is keeping data centers on their toes and companies from experiencing catastrophic failures.

According to this Data Centre Management report, traditional troubleshooting was a long and drawn out process that involved a hodgepodge of devices just to locate the failing server. The mere length of the process put the network, infrastructure and the data at risk.Today, hosted applications are giving administrators the insight into their processes through out-of-band management that quickly recognize the problem before it develops into a meltdown. External KVM over IP technology are deployed into servers and operate independently, which gives the off-site operators control over the entire system.

The major advantage to using infrastructure management appliance is that they establish a larger array of connectivity. But virtual KVM is making larger advances in out-of-band management capabilities.

Out-of-band management controllers are placed in computers within the server chassis, which actually run independent of the server’s central processing unit. A mouse sync is not needed to enable the KVM.

This integrated setup is different in the external KVM over IP process in that out-of-band management with the internally-placed controllers offer IPMI power control, which allows for remote server power cycling and easy monitoring of the server's processes.

The internal controllers, which are IMM, RSA (News - Alert), iLO, and DRAC, will let operators know when the health metrics are at critical levels. The controllers also put up a user interface that allows for the remote control of the system.

Out-of-band management controllers and the integration of this solution with applications is becoming increasingly valuable as more data centers adopt ISO 27001 for the security and management of the information.

Just like out-of-band management, virtualization is also taking a bigger role in the data center today. Since virtual machines don't have physical ports in which to connect, VM management software is allowing access to systems that need servicing. This is possible due to the advancements in integrating system management and infrastructure management processes.Due to the increased roll of out-of-band management practices and virtualization, appliances dealing with infrastructure management are left to take care of the server and nothing else; making for a much more efficient and trouble-free data center that experiences fewer problems and less downtime. 

Edited by Tammy Wolf

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