Due to the demands of modern day business, network infrastructures continue to grow along with the number of “out-of-band infrastructure” (OOBI) management devices. With Lantronix’ vSLM™, ‘managing the management equipment’ is no longer a challenge. Through a centralized point of access and common interface, the vSLM enables administrators to quickly and easily access equipment anywhere in the enterprise with just a few mouse clicks.

The vSLM simplifies administration by offering multiplatform client access through a standard web browser for a single point of consolidated access with simplified views to OOBI management devices and attached equipment. This centralized authentication minimizes administrative burdens. Additionally, since user account information is maintained in one place, there is no need to maintain separate user-names/passwords for each management device. Users can also be remotely authenticated using LDAP, RADIUS, NIS, Kerberos, and TACACS+.

Streamlining overall operations reduces administration and maintenance costs. With consolidated remote access, network administrators can quickly isolate and access problem equipment. This can minimize the impact of system down time and improve employee and company productivity. Additionally, the vSLM reduces total cost of ownership for data center equipment. Automated firmware deployment tools also reduce time and labor.

The vSLM helps IT departments adhere to corporate security policies. As a proxy between administrators and OOBI management devices, access is well defined and easily controlled, particularly where access is required outside a firewall or NAT-based router. Users are only allowed to access the devices and attached equipment with granted access specific rights for read-only or read/write access, and provisions for remote authentication. To ensure accountability, user access audit logs maintain a record of login success/failure, user login/ logout, and port open/close activity. And whether connecting via a web browser or a command line (CLI), 128-bit encryption (SSL/SSH) ensures secure connections to the end-user equipment along with strong authentication.

For quick and easy setup, Auto Discovery finds device and port assignment, eliminating the time-consuming task of manual configuration. Auto Discovery supports Lantronix Discovery Protocol (LDP) for and SNMP for all other devices. With the click of a button the SLC Update tool automates firmware deployment to console servers. All console messages are captured and stored to the internal hard drive, providing secure and permanent storage. Console logs may be conveniently accessed through the web interface. System configurations can also be saved and restored, providing rapid recovery of inadvertent configuration changes and peace of mind. Dual Ethernet adapters provide connection to OOBI management devices on the network, while remote users connect through another, providing greater security.