Given that most of today’s system environments are highly complex, usually heterogeneous, and based on years of ongoing development, expansion and upgrading, securing a clear overview of configuration details and software versions becomes continually more difficult with each passing day. Although software distribution and release management is already commonplace in most user systems, software-supported administration of network and system components encompassing logged changes is still in its infancy.

New Version 6 of theGuard! NetworkManager marks the debut of the Provisioning module, ingeniously ready to tackle this very pressing need.

• Reads out configuration data of different manufacturers
• Compares to historical configuration records
• Logs and/or warns of changes
• Edits and saves configuration data
• Creates configuration macros
• Integrates into NodeManager / map / PSM
• Scheduler-regulated
• Loads new firmware versions (software distribution)
• Telnet/SSH support
  

In practice, the primary task of the new module is managing configuration data. Access-required login parameters such as login name, password, etc., are filed in so-called authentication sets and assigned to device groups. The Scheduler runs everything else fully automatically – configuration data is read from the network components and saved to files. The most current file in each case is compared to the previous, any change detected is written to the log. Familiar theGuard! NetworkManager alerting functions can act in response to any unwanted changes.

Stored configuration data can be edited. Writing back can ensue manually for a single device or an entire device group or can also be regulated by the Scheduler and thus distributed automatically. Processes which do not terminate are noted in the log. The same procedure is followed in the case of new firmware versions; each manufacturer-specific CLI command to initiate the load process is discontinued so that loading will run via TFTP.

Basic CLI commands for configuration administration and software distribution are supplied for specific network components of different manufacturers. Users can also create any of their own configuration macros as needed; these will then be available to use through the Custom menu of theGuard! NetworkManager in Node Manager, a map or from a PSM. Necessary parameters such as selected node, selected port, etc., are then passed to the macro, thus making short work of highly complex configuration tasks.

For information on implemented manufacturers/components or the necessary extensions or product integrations of other vendors, see: psm.realtech.com.