Wondering how other go with this.. i am trying to get a smooth remote policy going. I know i can remote with VNC to a external Unity/lanshare etc.. but what i realy would like is a remote monitoring tool like remotely anywhere. It displays a dashboard with all usefull info lke events etc. Especially when you have more then one and at remote locations a consolidiation (got to love the use of this word here) of remote tools is very handy.

Any thoughts ideas?

Thx Menno

My guts tell me that SNMP monitoring is the answer to this question, but I am not enough of an IT person to know quite where to begin. In the wonderful world of broadcast and IT convergence, here's a piece of the puzzle that the IT folks can probably provide some guidance for us broadcast folks.

When I have some spare time, this is the direction I intend to look in.

In the short term, I like UltraVNC a lot for remote access.

Menno, are you looking to monitor one Unity or several?  If multiple syytems, are they in one location or at various client sites?

Hmmm snmp that sounds intersting.. will look into that!! Thanks

Randall, several systems on several locations.. and all i want is to get ahead of the problem instead of sitting and waiting for a customer to call me stating they lost a drive... pure preventive monitoring..

Thx..

Menno

First, I'd set up e-mail notification.  Every event will be isolated into a single e-mail, and can be stored in your e-mail program for a lifetime-to-date history.  The e-mails will tell you which system sent them.

Otherwise, would you run the monitoring constantly, or just when you need to check something specific?  I have all my Unity systems in a glassed-in server room, and I can see the screens just passing by.  I leave the Monitor Tool running, as well as Server Log Viewer.  One quick glance, and I can see if all my DEAN lights are green, etc.

I have a Belkin Remote access to my KVM, its secured with SSL and absolutely no load on the server, you can also switch from Engine to XT pretty fast.

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=278385

its a pretty good hardwre.

Interesting device this Belkin.. will check out the demo they have on the site.. thx!

In my case it is not the remote that is troubling me it is the need for a status window and then not one but 4 :) so i can active monitor the systems outside.. on a big screen like a plasma or something hehe ..

Menno

Again, I do not claim to be any sort of IT Guru (I'm learning!) but the danger of email notification is, of course, exposing your Avid Media network to an external network.

I have inquired about this at my organization and learned that we do not even use SMTP mail due to Spam concerns.

I'd be interested to learn how others balance security versus notification, at their facilities. Anybody?

"... exposing your Avid Media Network to an external network ..."

The File Managers should be password protected, have nothing is set to "Shared", and never, ever, use an internet browser on them.  The IT guys can also use various methods to further buffer them from outsiders.

You can have the Unity Server connected to the your Network, and send SMTP traffic to your local Email server with SMTP Relay.

With regards to SPAM, there are some free services our there that you might be helpful, like DNS Filtering. etc..

But one things for sure, Disabling Email notification is a BAD idea,  you should always have this feature on.

Thanks for the suggestion, briMestone.

Seeing as I work for a giant, publicly-traded megacorporation, the IT policy is understandably restrictive and beyond my control. I will certainly investigate my options when I have some time to spare.

Rob, you are not alone when it comes to security issues. We also have that in bigger companies (200 people or more). It is a risk exposing the system to the net no matter how secure you try to be. What we did was take it up one level higher, We provided the IT department with 4 ip addresses that should be able to access certain ports. The agreed to that as they can very easily monitor what goes on and shut down when needed.

To get there took us about 3 months and now we have access i want more haha.. i was looking into remotely anywhere that offers monitoring and remote desktop features (even on a pda!) which looks very promising.

Menno

My server is behind a Hardware Fireware, and it will take some massive skill to bypass that. and inside my LAN, the unity server along with its client is on it own vLAN therefore network broadcast is isolated.

now i know, its not a solid security, but it good enough to keep Blackhats out of my Unity.

Neither do we-  no SMTP mail at all.   Except the fact that my blackberry and my outlook goes ape when a drive error hits.   

The people that are the ones that made the firewall?  They know where the holes are,  they cut them.   We have a specific server that can receive SMTP mail,  and then forward it through the enterprise email servers.  It's used for a number of systems   The "straddling" server also only accepts emails from certain hosts, and only with certain IP addresses. (when we popped to a backup FM for a bit,  alerts stopped coming through)   

It CAN be done,  as my mega-corporation is bigger then yours,  it's just a question of finding the folks who are willing to make it happen.

JDS

lawsonr:

Again, I do not claim to be any sort of IT Guru (I'm learning!) but the danger of email notification is, of course, exposing your Avid Media network to an external network.

I have inquired about this at my organization and learned that we do not even use SMTP mail due to Spam concerns.

I'd be interested to learn how others balance security versus notification, at their facilities. Anybody?

There are TONS of different Firewall manufacturer, (Not to mention Software based)

Firewall Brand, Model Number, Revision Number, Unity Local IP address, Ports Vulnurability are just some information that an Intruder needs to know and Master before they can get in.

In the IT world, thats not considered to be "welcoming" on the other hand, user error is the weakess part of the whole security. ei. VPN access leak, Transmit data over non-secured connection, or simply just an "Inside Job".

But again. just an opinion.