Intelligent IPM-2

Overview

Remote Power Management for Remote Branch Offices

As enterprises and servers increase the amount of servers and network gear in remote locations, the ability to hands-on manage each device becomes increasingly complex. The amount of equipment, the distance between each field site and the ongoing constraint of the number of available personnel make this challenge even more difficult. The number one priority in managing each device is to ensure that each element is operational—that is, up and running.

Two common examples where managing remote equipment are critical to their organization’s business are: 1) Remote branch offices with IT & network equipment placed at each location, and 2) Wi Fi networks that encompass many pieces of individual equipment at numerous locations. In either case, the amount of equipment on the network(s) far outnumbers the amount of IT/equipment maintenance personnel. Their first priority is to keep the network(s) up and running. In order to do so, they require solutions that allow them to be able to remotely restore locked-up or failing equipment, whether it is a router, server or PC at a remote branch office, or an access point or router at one its Wi Fi Hot spots.

Remote Power Management of the IPM-2 individual receptacles allows a network manager to power off, power on and reboot network devices from any location via secure web interface, SSH, or out of band (dial-up) session. Now the network operations center can eliminate dispatching a field service person for manual intervention. Using a Sentry IPM-2 they can quickly restart locked-up remote servers & internetworking devices to ensure that the network is fully operational around the clock.

Global View for the Distributed Enterprise

Use the exclusive Sentry Enterprise View PDU Management software to find, access and control all the Sentry IPM-2 units on your network. Enterprise view uses auto-discovery to locate and report each IPM-2 and other Sentry units on your network and then provide access to control each unit’s outlets settings. Turn on or off individual outlets or use it to power cycle an outlet to reboot and hung-up server or other device.

Remote Power Control

Individual or group outlet remote power control to cycle power and reboot any selected server(s) or other network device(s).  Use TCP/IP (HTTP, HTTPS, SSH, Telnet, SNMP) or RS-232 to communicate with each Sentry and rectify locked-up network devices. Assign outlets to a group for control of dual-power supply servers and other gear with a single command.  Create an unlimited number of groups with any combination of outlets associated to each group.

LDAP and LDAPS

LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) and LDAPS (Secure Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) are software protocols for enabling anyone to locate organizations, individuals, and other resources such as files and devices in a network, whether on the public Internet or on a corporate intranet. Sentry firmware code 5.3b and newer includes support for LDAP v3 and is configurable to operate with any Directory Service.  It has been tested with these Directory Services: Microsoft’s Active Directory, Novell’s eDirectory, and Apple's Open LDAP as the Directory Service.  

With LDAP support enabled, when a user begins a session with a Sentry product and provides the username and password to the login process, LDAP is used to communicate with a Directory Service to authenticate the user.  

Specifications and Features