(For Network Administrators)

In the last Compucon Education Forum of November 2006, we have briefly introduced Remote Monitoring technologies- monitoring by HTTPS, alerts by email and access by VPN. Compucon has since mastered the technology further and is ready to offer Remote Server Monitoring to schools right now using open standards, low cost, secure and powerful technologies. The Compucon scheme consists of 2 levels of monitoring and control- with Windows operating system running and not running.

A piece of Windows based software called Super Doctor provides all system hardware health monitoring, performance tracking, Windows OS level event logs information, alarm alerting and rebooting control on an easy to read graphical user interface. The screen can be on a desktop of the local network or through HTTP remotely such as from home or Compucon House. Standards used are WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) and SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol). All Compucon Servers are bundled with this software. The attached slides provide details of the services provided.

The more advanced tool is based on open standard IPMI (Intelligent Platform Management Interface) Version 2.0 for pre-OS monitoring and control. The tool consists of dedicated hardware and IPMI View software. The hardware has its own processor, firmware and network interface. It lives on 5V and operates even when the server is powered off on the front panel. The software is OS independent and is capable of editing the BIOS and stopping and starting the server remotely. A further advanced component is KVM over IP. It allows the remote admin person to take direct control of the server over the Internet. IPMI has a small price premium.

Compucon intends to provide remote monitoring and control of Compucon Servers from Compucon House for schools for one year free of charge. We will either train up school staff to take over or continue to offer the service depending whichever arrangement is fit for purpose.

See also:  Super Doctor III (Compucon Channel Members only)