porttracker

porttracker has been designed to address every day issues that organisations encounter when managing their IP Switch and router environment whether a few thousand or hundreds of thousands of ports are deployed.

It eliminates the manual effort normally needed to achieve these tasks and the overhead frequently encountered in coordinating disparate groups such as configuration management, change control, server and security management. runIP brings the same high levels of efficiency to managing the VitalQIP remote servers and server software as VitalQIP brings to managing the IP assets. This dramatically increases the ROI on VitalQIP.

The runIP solution builds upon and packages the experience developed by n3k in deploying and supporting thousands of remote servers in hundreds of VitalQIP deployments. It has equal appeal for enterprises demanding increased efficiency and reduced cost of ownership for their existing VitalQIP installations as it has for those seeking to leverage the efficiency and success of their initial or early stage deployments.

• fast deployment
• low capital and ownership costs versus traditional hand built servers
• optimized secure platform for DNS and DHCP servers
• unique Management Station and Package technology for upgrades
• high availability DNS
• comprehensive single vendor support for the whole solution
• scales to meet the demands of the largest enterprises
• space preserving solution that only uses 1u in a 19 inch rack

Each runIP appliance is delivered ready configured with your required TCP/IP configuration. All you need to do is plug in the power supply and make the newtork connections. Then you are all set to activate your new runIP appliance by pushing the version of VitalQIP remote server software that you plan to run on your runIP appliance. To put the appliance into full operation all that is then needed are DNS or DHCP generations from VitalQIP, whether as a stand alone unit or as a high availability paired combination.

runIP appliances feature a hardened, minimised kernel with security tightly locked down to firewall standards avoiding human error and the costly time you would otherwise need to

• purchase servers and operating systems
• hand build, validate and secure traditional servers
• install, configure and validate VitalQIP DNS and DHCP services

Reduce all of this to a simple point and click selection at the runIP Management Station to push fully validated and configured server software to your runIP appliances. Whether at initial deployment or after installing a replacement unit a runIP appliance can be rebuilt within minutes.

Each appliance also incorporates support for a second network interface. This further enhances availability by allowing connection to two different network segments thereby avoiding a single network failure preventing access to your DNS server. Alternatively this facility can be used to separate the management interface from the delivery of the DNS and DHCP services.

At the same time runIP conserves space ... even when you deploy a fully redundant solution of paired appliances you will still only use 2u in your racks, whether in an enterprise data centre or a remote office. In fact a pair need not even be in the same rack. They need only be connected to the same network segment in order to be paired. If a segment is spanned across multiple locations this can assist in providing a disaster recovery solution.

All of your communications with the Management Station are via an intuitive web based GUI. Communication between the Management Station and the appliances is encrypted to protect sensitive configuration data while in transit through your intranet or over the public internet.

Whenever you want to upgrade your appliances to a higher release of the VitalQIP DNS or DHCP services you will benefit from the management package technology developed specifically for runIP. Using a central Management Station you define which units run which services and the exact versions of VitalQIP DNS and DHCP servers to be used. The management packages needed in order to do this are made available for internet download via your Annual Subscription Service.

The Management Station allows you to centrally administer the VitalQIP server software configuration for the runIP Appliances you have deployed. And even the underlying runIP software platform can be upgraded without any need for physical access to the machines.

Appliances can be treated individually, or grouped so that upgrading a whole group of appliances becomes as easy as upgrading a single appliance. A special group is a high availability pair, which can then be included in higher level groups to match your chosen upgrade and management hierarchy

Uniquely, the Management Station also features a multi level point and click rollback facility so that you can easily back out any upgrade or patch if it interferes with the effective operation of your network services.

The runIP solution is completed by integrated monitoring of the DNS and DHCP services as well as the operating system. Furthermore, your DNS service can be made resilient via automatic takeover of a logical IP address (in addition to the DHCP failover option provided with the Lucent DHCP server) if the boxes are deployed in pairs. DNS propagation delays on failover can be minimised or eliminated.

runIP appliances also offer extremely high performance DNS. Whether acting in caching or authoritative mode, runIP appliances are capable of exceeding 30,000 queries per second.

Events can be forwarded to other network management consoles via a customizable user exit. Alternatively, events can be notified by email.

The runIP monitoring solution will also automatically restart services if it finds that they are not running ... further reducing the need for manual intervention and maintaining high availability.

The Annual Subscription Service incorporates your hardware support. A variety of options are available depending on your location and needs ranging from an appliance replacement service, through next business day on site engineer visit to a comprehensive 7 x 24 onsite service with 4 hour response on a three or five year basis.

The Annual Subscription Service incorporates support and maintenance for the whole runIP environment. We develop and make available Management Packages for both the runIP Appliance operating system environment and the various versions, upgrades and patches for the VitalQIP DNS and DHCP server software. Problems can be reported by telephone or email with a four working hour initial response.

We provide Management Packages both on specific user request and as new versions, upgrades and patches become available. They are generally made available within five working days from request or release.

The runIP Solution delivers immense efficiency gains in managing the VitalQIP software environment mirroring those which can be gained from managing the IP assets by VitalQIP itself. It incorporates the very best in appliance packaging and technology and combines our deep knowledge of the VitalQIP environment and our understanding of how you can achieve impressive savings to further increase the ROI on a VitalQIP investment which we have gained from being the leading provider of such products and services to blue chip corporate clients spanning a wide variety of sectors including Banking, Insurance, Retail, Distribution, Telecommunications, Media, Manufacturing and many more.

runIP encapsulates our experience of developing and delivering best practice implementations ranging from planning new enterprise rollouts to maintaining and optimising existing operations. Our professionals are available to offer the back up and support you need, when and where you need it, so you can leverage your IT infrastructure to meet your business objectives.