The Opengear CM4000, IM4200, and IMG4000 series of appliances are Console servers, Infrastructure Managers, and Management Gateways that provide administrators with the ability to remotely access and manage multiple devices in their data centers through a single appliance.

The CM4000 appliances each contain multiple serial ports (from 1 to 48 depending on the model) that are attached to the serial console ports of the devices or servers in the data center. The administrator can then access the serial ports of those devices by first establishing a connection to the console server appliance itself. Such access can be in-band in nature, where the administrator would connect to the CM4000 appliance through a WAN or LAN TCP/IP connection; or out-of-band, where the administrator could connect directly to the CM4000 appliance either through dial up/ISDN (with a modem connected directly to the CM4000 itself), or a local serial console (telnet) connection.

RDP/VNC connections over serial or Ethernet connections to the target machines are also supported, via built-in support for remote machine access via SSH port forwarding and RDP/VNC technology. Called "Secure Desktop Tunneling," the technology tunnels an RDP/VNC session from the remote user to the CM4000 appliance by forwarding the TCP/IP packets over an SSH secured connection. The CM4000 then forwards these RDP and VNC sessions to the computer being accessed through the local TCP/IP network or through the computer's serial COM port. In this way, according to the vendor, the administrator is able to remotely access and control any Windows RDP enabled computer, or any VNC client computer, through an SSH secured connection.

The CM4000 appliance is based on a customized Linux kernel, and facilitates connectivity to devices running multiple types of operating systems, including Solaris, Windows, and Linux; as well as network appliance serial consoles including firewalls and routers. The vendor notes multiple security features of the console servers, including encrypted communications; filtering and access logging (including support for off-line archives); and support for per serial port user access lists (password, account, or IP address). Management of the CM4000 appliances themselves is via a browser-based GUI (HTTP/HTTPS), CLI (Linux Shell), or SNMP.

Key differences in the CM4000 models are primarily focused on the number of ports; with the CM4001 being a wall-mount sized model with a single serial port; the CM4008 a desktop model with 8 serial ports; and the CM4116 and CM4148 1U offerings with 16 and 48 ports, respectively. Each of the offerings has a single 10/100 port and a single serial console port (DB9).

The IM Series appliances are beefier entries (both in memory and in available Ethernet ports) targeted primarily to serve as management gateways--providing both the ability to manage multiple devices directly (the IM appliances are a superset of the CM series functionality) as well as manage additional CM series consoles in shops with more than 48 attached devices. The IM then assumes the duties of being a single point of contact; including maintaining user profiles, authentication, logging all access, etc. It also provides out-of-band access as well as serving as the point of secure UDP and TCP port forwarding to all network connected devices.

Other IM appliance features include a built-in modem with automated dial-out capabilities in the event the network connection breaks down; 2 Ethernet ports with bonding for auto failover or additional out-of-band access; and redundant power supplies. Three models are available: the IM4208-2 (8 serial, 2 Ethernet ports), the IM4216-2 (16 serial, 2 Ethernet ports); and the IM4248-2 (48 serial, 2 Ethernet ports).

Finally, the IMG series appliances are similar to the IM series offerings; with the exception that both multiple Ethernet and serial ports are offered within the same appliance for device management. The dekstop model, the IMG4004-5, supports 4 serial ports and 5 Ethernet ports (four of which can be used for the management of devices); and the IMG4216-25 is a rackmount model with 16 serial ports and 25 Ethernet ports (24 for management). The desktop model additionally boasts dual USB ports (one internal, one external) and a single CardBus slot for additional out-of-band access capabilities; while the rackmount model offers a single USB port (no CardBus slot) and dual AC inputs (to separate power supplies) facilitating connections to disparate power sources, facilitating automated power failover. In each of the devices, one of the Ethernet management ports can be configured for Ethernet access failover, or out-of-band management.

New to the Opengear product line is the inclusion of the open source Network UPS Tools package, facilitating the remote monitoring and control UPS gear from multiple vendors, including APC, Belkin, MGE, Powerware, Tripp Lite, etc.

Current base pricing ranges from $295 (CM4001) to $2,795 (IM4248-2 with dual DC power supplies). Visit the Opengear Web site for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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