Xandros BridgeWays is a system management platform, targeted to administrators, that enables them to centrally manage multiple Linux/UNIX machines (Red Hat, Solaris, Xandros, Debian, Novell and Oracle Linux) from an MMC-like console that can be installed on either a Windows or Linux workstation. Only the Red Hat version of the product is currently available; all others are in beta testing as of this writing.

Architecturally, the application is a client/server platform in which the core framework is installed on a centralized server (any server on the network), and individual server agents are deployed to each managed server. The administrator's console--called the Xandros Management Console (xMC)--is then installed on the admin's workstation (Windows XP/Vista, Xandros, or Red Hat). The admin uses the xMC to connect and login to the central server (also called the Community Management Server, see below) to perform management tasks; and the vendor additionally states that with xMC the admin can additionally integrate Windows components such as Active Directory. xMC itself features a look and feel similar to Microsoft's MMC; the vendor targets the console to Windows Server Admins looking to manage Linux servers.

Functionally, the vendor touts the product's ability to create and manage a "Managed Community," a collection of servers that are aware of one another's individual specifications and running services through the above client/server architecture. The vendor states that this community infrastructure facilitates automated configuration notifications to the administrators such that if a change is made to one server that may potentially impact the service of another managed server, an alert is presented to the administrator for proactive remediation. The above mentioned Community Management Server coordinates the information sharing between the servers as well as hosts shared network-based user accounts across all servers.

Four individual components of Xandros BridgeWays are expected to be made available:

- BridgeWays Administration Management Edition, for the management of community servers through a graphical console as described above

- BridgeWays Deployment and Management Edition, for the deployment of desktop and server OS images over the network

- BridgeWays Systems Monitoring Edition, for health and performance monitoring with alerting and performance reporting

- BridgeWays Storage Management Edition, which integrates storage assets into the managed community

The above components can be purchased and utilized individually; and in addition the vendor is expected to offer the BridgeWays Enterprise Management Suite bundle with the user's choice of two, three, or all four of the above components.

Contact Xandros for further information.

product submission by EITPlanet Staff

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