ISMEGA

ISMEGA is an Intelligent SNMP Mediator Gateway, providing multiple functions:

• SNMP Gateway: SNMP Agents and SNMPv3 proxy
• Multi-protocol Event Translator, Relay and Dispatcher
• Secure Console Port management agent
• Smart Data Collector for (local) real-time data Collection, Aggregation and
Transformation, Real-time or Batch data transfer (to remote NOC)
• Mid-level manager, Time scheduler, ...

It provides:

• SNMPv1, v2c and v3
• Logging, auditing, ...
• Inter-process communication
• Generic data-structure definitions
• Flexible structured configuration language parser

Imagine, you have a remote site or a computer room equipped with numerous heterogeneous devices. Some are classical computers, others are routing data traffic, and others are used for voice or video conferences, without forgetting the underlying communications transmission infrastructure (ISDN, ATM, SDH/WDM, VSAT, broadband ...) and, of course the environmental monitoring (humidity, temperature, contact relays, movement detectors, video surveillance, UPS ...).

Each component has its own - often complex and proprietary - monitoring and control interface, to connect to the equipment (Ethernet TCP connection, SNMP, ASCII or full screen terminal console ...), sometimes with a complete and specific management dialog for accessing very long lists of configuration, status or health related cryptic parameters.

ISMEGA is he answer to your questions:

• How do I reach all these heterogeneous distributed systems components from a central control system, with enough security protection?
• How do connect the respective management port of all these elements so that they can be only joined through a separate management network?
• How to avoid overloading my reduced capacity long-distance lines, while continuously scrutinizing any significant deviation of a large bulk of individual performance observables?
• How to transform all these awfully complex raw monitoring data into human understandable information?
• How do I script a multi-device scenario for establishing a video conference on demand?
• What do I do when I quickly need to switch IT functions (including hardware, software, communication systems, ...) to a back-up - possibly distributed - infrastructure?
• How do I multiplex a single device control port between geographically distributed operators, while an existing monitoring system is already connected?
• Can I have automated live interpretation of monitoring data, providing alerts and performance gauges?
• How do I cope with the need to interface an automation program to a control screen port only designed for human direct manual interactions?

These are some of the reality-based challenges that have lead to the development of our ISMEGA technology.

ISMEGA takes full advantage of the power of modern scripting languages, not only for the flexibility of implementing an ad-hoc puzzle of protocol interfaces and data processing modules, but also to provide easy configuration tuning of complex functions.

ISMEDIA supports a wide range of physical and logical interfaces to access devices, their state messages and their commanding capability. Its purpose is to enlarge the span of automated management also to legacy devices.

ISMEGA permits the exhibit a streamlined interface vis-à-vis the management centre, for instance SNMP and SSH.

ISMEGA offers sophisticated event management functions, to transform, react upon, and also generate notifications of adequate severity.

ISMEGA adds multiplexing, intelligence and active software to (often exclusive) device local console ports.

ISMEGA permits to easily implement a custom defined MIB definition into a compliant SNMP agent for any apparently exotic confined component.

ISMEGA offers a rich framework of processing functions that can be custom assembled to implement smart fault and performance management information gathering.

ISMEGA permits to custom balance the load between traditional data polling (explicit get requests) and more useful data push (via unsolicited notification) for centralisation of monitoring information

ISMEGA also extends the often operator annoying and less-trusted software agent barrier to the managed devices with direct - but controlled, possibly logged and watched - SSH protected access to the native equipment interface, being for file transfer or interactive commanding.