Remote Systems Management
One of the most time consuming tasks for a System Administrator and thus important for the IT Management is how easy or hard it is to perform Systems Management. Some years back a System Administrator had to physically walk out to a server or a desktop that had problems, also known as "Addidas Management". Nowadays, Systems Management is mostly carried out from a remote location so that the System Administrator doesn't have to leave his desk.
The next steps in remote systems managment are to:
- Further automate the systems management process
- More focus towards multiple server and desktop systems management
- Enhanced management operation feedback/reporting
In general, performing Systems Management from both the user and computer perspective is essential and is solved using a policy based systems management approach.
Important remote systems management operations can be divided into the following categories:
Remotely start (wake-on-lan or WOL), stop and restart machines
A system administrator needs to have an easy way to start/boot/wake-up/stop/restart servers or desktops from a remote location. Not only one machine at the time but rather hundreds or thousands of machines at the same time. To aviod unwanted helpdesk calls, the system administrator also needs good reporting on how the selected operation performed. The reporting needs to be presented in an accurate, easy to understand, graphical format.
Remote policy update
When machines are powered on and connected to the LAN/WAN in different ways, the server or desktop needs to be upgraded with the latest configuration settings. In a modern Windows environment these configuration setting most commonly are carried out by Group Policy.
Remote automated software deployment
Keeping desktops and servers updated with the latest service packs, anti-virus definitions, patches, and software in general is the next step of a standardized Windows network environment. Management of the software deployment needs to be done in a structured way. Once an organization has a policy in place for deploying software the software deployment process takes few system administration resources. A good software deployment solution needs to have good reporting functionality in order for the helpdesk or system administrators to be able to be proactive instead of waiting for the users to call when there is something wrong with the software deployment.
Remote automated asset IT tracking
To further secure how your IT Assets actually look like, an accurate IT Asset Tracking process is important to reach and keep a standardized compliant Windows network. The IT Asset tracking process needs to look at IT Assets both from the perspective of the computer and the logged on user to be really efficient. This systems management category is also known as configuration management.
Remote control
For remotely taking control of one server or desktop at the time there are tools built into Windows that does the job. For example Remote Desktop.
Suggested Remote Systems Management tools
In order to help with you get better remote systems management process in place, Specops Software suggests the following:
To solve the remote wake-on-lan, restart, shut down, and Group Policy refresh Specops Software has complete toolbox called Specops Remote Admin.
As an Active Directory intregrated software deployment solution we suggest Specops Deploy, which is deeply integrated into Windows and uses the Group Policy infrastructure to full extent.
For your remote IT Asset tracking needs Specops Inventory is a choice that integrated well into the existing Windows Active Directory and Group Policy based environment.