OpenRSM: a lightweight integrated open source remote management solution

Abstract

SUMMARYThe management of the corporate information technology (IT) environment is rapidly increasing in complexity as server logic architecture becomes more distributed and the number of entities deployed increases, forcing enterprises to resort to thick, complex and expensive high-end integrated systems and network management solutions. Investing in such systems can be ineffi cient for small and medium corporations, since the vast majority of management tasks performed are routine tasks, while personnel specialization requirements and costs are high. At the same time, the open source community has not yet produced a reliable and complete system and network management solution. Even though there are open source initiatives specializing in specifi c fi elds of remote management, such as network management, there has been no integrated open source solution yet. This paper introduces the Open Source Remote Systems Management (OpenRSM) platform. OpenRSM is an integrated remote management system created by integrating individual specialized open source management initiatives and signifi cantly augmenting them to support additional functionality, so that a complete lightweight system and network management solution is produced. The system implemented facilitates daily management by providing an effi cient, simple and adaptable environment for the majority of management operations.

Deploying LiveWN Grids in the Greek School Network

“…Some of them are: OpenAudit for assets management and inventory, NINO and OpenNMS for network monitoring, WindowsGet and CURL for software management, TightVNC for remote desktop control, and a significant number of utilities and tools for smaller pieces of functionality ranging from zip tools and utilities, to network discovery and testing, report formatting or tree visual components. OpenRSM has been tested in four pilot installations, including a pilot installation in the Greek School network and has successfully passed extensive scale testing [10].…”

“…The proof of concept installation was tested within a LAN environment of 20 workstations running Windows XP, the operating system widely used in GSN school laboratories. OpenRSM was tested for scalability; in a similar environment during the stress tests, OpenRSM could dispatch up to 40000 management jobs [10]. The agent of the systems was installed via the internet and jobs were designed to provide solutions for software transfer of the LiveWN ISO image, the remote installation Virtual Box, virtual machine configuration and virtual machine execution.…”

“…Considering such a prospect, it is obvious that efficient management solutions need to be employed. The current paper proposes the integration of LiveWN with OpenRSM [10], an open source tool for systems and network management, in order for the former to be transferred, installed, and massively run on demand throughout GSN labs. OpenRSM is light-weight, usable and scalable and can remotely manage systems and network.…”

A Grid-enabled CPU Scavenging Architecture and a Case Study of its Use in the Greek School Network

“…The major areas of interest for future work are [22]: On top of these directions, which are LiveWNspecific, extra work has to be done, so that resources of significant size will be manageable with minimal effort, either for the automated installation of clients under Windows OSs [34] or for the uniform application of resource scheduling policies across multi-cluster farms of machines.…”

Managing Network Elements in the Computer Network

“…The management of the corporate information technology (IT) environment is rapidly increasing in complexity as server logic architecture becomes more distributed and the number of entities deployed increases, forcing enterprises to resort to thick, complex and expensive high-end integrated systems and network management solutions. Investing in such systems can be inefficient for small and medium corporations, since the vast majority of management tasks performed are routine tasks, while personnel specialization requirements and costs are high [8].…”