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Analysis: Out-of-Band Management: Page 2 of 10

The big push in server technology is the use of an on-board system-management processor that can serve as a direct management interface. The premise is similar to the serial-management console used in many high-level network and storage systems, but with the richer features that are available over a Web GUI. In the past, many first-tier server vendors may have offered a basic interface to provides access to hardware functions regardless of the state of the OS.

Five key protocols govern remote-management interfaces. The most recent contenders are IPMI, SMASH, and WS-Management (Web Services Management). These newer protocols offer greater monitoring and management capabilities than their predecessors, SNMP and WBEM--(see "A SMASHing Success?")--but many vendors offer IPMI and SMASH support only to ensure cross-platform compatibility. They design their embedded management processors for improved integration with their own high-level enterprise-management products.

Most of the first-tier server vendors now provide for OBM with an integrated system-management processor that offers enhanced capabilities beyond the basic functionalities offered by IPMI and SMASH. DRAC (Dell Remote Access Card), Gateway's GLO (Gateway Lights Out) systems, Hewlett-Packard's iLO (Integrated Lights Out) management processor, IBM's RSA (Remote Supervisor Adapter) and Sun Microsystems' ILOM (Integrated Lights Out Manager) have emerged as viable options for network-based remote-server management. These subsystems offer remote-management features, such as power cycling, CLI-based scripting, secure user authentication, event logging, console redirection and support for virtual storage media; include browser-based access independent of the OS status; and allow an ordered restart of a hung system.

For systems that don't offer an integrated management processor, American Megatrends markets the MegaRAC card (see "Bridging the Gap"). For about $500, this PCI card can be used in legacy systems to provide a number of remote-management features available in newer systems. Although the MegaRAC card offers features like power control, video redirection and KVM-IP for older PCI-based systems, its environmental reporting capabilities are limited by what information is available from the OEM system and the interface it uses for that transfer.

Integrated system-management processors interact directly with the server's hardware, making them an excellent tool for OBM purposes, but these systems have been designed to communicate primarily over a dedicated or a shared Ethernet port. For these to be part of a true OBM solution, the service processors must be placed on a separate, high-availability network, with the accompanying per-port costs. Avocent has developed its MergePoint product to combine management port aggregation with multiplatform support and secure user authentication (see "MergePoint Fuses Port Aggregation, Multiplatform Support" at ). Most system-management processors also offer serial redirection of text-based CLI functions, but OBM access to these requires an additional serial console server to aggregate the connections to serial ports from multiple systems.