VitalQIP
®AM 1. 8New Features
VitalQIP
®
DNS/DHCP & IP Address Management
Software and Appliance Solution
AM 1.8 New Features
May 2012
Table of Contents
1.
Document Purpose ... 3
2.
What’s New in VitalQIP AM 1.8? ... 3
2.1.
One Platform: ... 3
2.2.
Root password management via AMS ... 5
2.3.
File Group Enhancements ... 5
2.4.
AMS Actions Screen ... 5
2.5.
New Appliance models ... 6
2.6.
Improved Access to Appliance Logs ... 6
2.7.
Improved Log Rotation ... 7
2.8.
Appliance uptime ... 8
2.9.
Static Route Configuration from AMS ... 9
3.
VitalQIP Offerings ... 9
3.1.
VitalQIP is very flexible ... 10
1. Document Purpose
This document provides an overview of new and enhanced features of the VitalQIP® Appliance release AM 1.8. This
document’s audience is the current user base and potential new users.
The VitalQIP AM 1.8 release is the latest release in our next generation architecture. VitalQIP continues to evolve and exploit the new technologies in the market today as well as features to benefit the overall user experience. The market continues to move at a rapid pace with focus that remains on leveraging IP in every way possible, which continues to push the VitalQIP product and its capabilities and operation in our customers' environments on the critical path.
VitalQIP AM 1.8 release extends the architecture finalized in AM 1.7 by introducing new features as well as the standard patch release bug fixes.
Alcatel-Lucent VitalQIP DNS/DHCP & IP Address Management (IPAM) Software helps organizations efficiently configure, automate, integrate and administer IP services across their entire network - locally or globally. Compatible with multi-vendor technologies, this solution helps organizations centralize the planning and administration of IP addresses thereby delivering significant reductions in infrastructure support costs and improved network availability. VitalQIP is widely regarded by industry trade groups as the leading IP Management product in the industry and has deployments in over 850 customers including some of the largest telecommunications companies, financial service institutions, universities, and civilian & non -civilian government agencies.
This document intends to provide Alcatel-Lucent customer teams and business partners with a brief update on the new features introduced for the VitalQIP AM 1.8 release. It provides a high-level overview of the new features and functionalities for each of the software components. It does not however intend to replace any of the VitalQIP user documentation. For technical details associated with the described features, please refer to the VitalQIP Appliance administrator/user documentation and release notes.
2. What’s New in VitalQIP AM 1.8?
Some of the key enhancements of AM 1.8 are:
One Platform Approach (AMS Package) File Groups Enhancements
AMS Action screen New Appliance Models Improved log rotation Appliance uptime Setting root password
AMS management of Static routes
The feature highlights below provide additional details around these capabilities. If you are not familiar with the other features that were made available in the previous VitalQIP Appliance releases, please refer to the new feature documents from previous versions and the most current VitalQIP product description guide.
2.1. One Platform Approach (AMS Package)
Starting in AM 1.8 there will noo longer be separate appliance models such as AMM1200 or ESM1200. When ordering appliances, customers order a QIP appliance (QIP 500, QIP 700, QIP 1200, QIP 1200-RAID, QIP 5000) regardless of task. Customers are free to choose how they configure the appliance: enterprise, remote or management station. They can choose to run the AMS on an enterprise server, remote, or to dedicate an
appliance as an AMS. All AMS systems are now true appliances so they will receive OS patching via the system-patch2 packages.
A single VitalQIP appliance can run AMS, Enterprise and DNS/DHCP services: AMS, ESM and AMM Appliances will be replaced by “QIP” Appliances QIP 500, QIP 700, QIP 1200, QIP 1200-RAID QIP 5000
The AMS will be created by deploying/activating the AMS Package. The ESM can then be created by deploying Enterprise (jre, sybase, enterprise) packages. This will reduce complexity, simplify inventory & delivery, and thereby improve overall quality and customer satisfaction. Only one (1) ISO will be needed, however, we’ll still build out QIP, AMS and Enterprise vmware images.
“One Platform” with AM1.8
The new single ISO image contains all the packages for remote and enterprise servers allowing packages to be imported into an AMS using importpackages.
Packages can also be imported from a USB stick attached to the appliance
2.2. Root password management via AMS
The Root account password can be changed on any appliance via the Manage Accounts option on the AMS. This allows customers to change the root passwords of all their appliances as opposed to having to log into each individual appliance and change the passwords. Customers must use this feature with caution because if they lose the root account password it can’t be reset.
2.3. File Group Enhancements
Prior to Release 1.8, administrators could only deploy File Groups from the AMS to /opt on the appliances. In release 1.8, administrators can deploy files to other directories by editing the fileGroup-manage.conf configuration file. This allows users to modify /etc/resolv.conf and other system files using File Groups.
2.4. AMS Actions Screen
A new Actions screen is now under system logs. The actions screen allows an administrator to search and view system-wide list of deployments, reboots, etc. across all appliances and appliance groups.
This data is now quickly available to administrators.
2.5. New Appliance models
2.6. Improved Access to Appliance Logs
2.7. Improved Log Rotation
Log rotation and variables are now configurable. Parameters are now configurable from the /etc/logrotate.conf file. Rotate every x number of days and compress or not compress logs are a couple of the new optional parameters.
2.8. Appliance uptime
Appliance uptime is now displayed on the appliance properties screen. The uptime can be refreshed at anytime by clicking the uptime button on the right side.
2.9. Static Route Configuration from AMS
AM 1.8 brings the ability to create additional static routes for appliance interfaces directly from the AMS. The current routes are captured prior to editing.
• Routes can now be created directly from the AMS
• Current routes (if defined on the appliance) are captured prior to editing • Choose “Interfaces” button on Appliance Properties screen
• Auto-Recovery if route is not defined properly and communication between AMS and Appliance is disrupted
3.1. VitalQIP is very flexible
VitalQIP is available in off the shelf software
Or one of the Appliance offerings below.
VitalQIP is a centralized IP management tool, which is also used to configure DNS and DHCP servers from a variety of vendors. This provides a tremendous amount of flexibility to bring VitalQIP in to existing environments and provide consolidated management of the existing infrastructure.
VitalQIP supports the following servers.
Alcatel-Lucent DNS servers Alcatel-Lucent DHCP servers Microsoft DNS servers Microsoft DHCP servers
Any BIND 8 or 9 compliant DNS server Alcatel-Lucent Software Appliances in a Virtual environment
Alcatel-Lucent Appliances
Alcatel-Lucent Software Appliances Alcatel-Lucent DNS and DHCP on
Riverbed Wan Optimizer
End user PCs, broadband devices, etc. utilize RFC compliant DHCP or DNS transactions to interface with these servers.
Please see the VitalQIP Release Notes for the latest releases of software supported.
For Further information on VitalQIP please visit http://enterprise.alcatel-lucent.com/?product=VitalQIP&page=overview