Data Center Geeks Hub

Maintaining order and keeping control over your data center inventory is one of those demanding, grueling chores that cannot be entirely got rid of, unfortunately. But what can be – and, as you will see in a brief moment, has just been – done is making it as effortless and labor-saving as possible. The EasyDCIM v1.6.6 release we have the pleasure of announcing today is all about it! What stands as a pivotal change introduced on account of this fresh-new update is the feature that exerts a visible influence all across your system and is really simple in its premise, yet unbelievably serviceable in everyday use – the tagging functionality. Tags are like characteristics for a person; the same way you would describe someone as tall or short, in EasyDCIM you can characterize your assets by defining your own custom labels consisting of a name and color. Your current needs and imagination are the only limitations in their creation really. The complete list of supported entities includes: Colocations Devices Items Orders Clients What it means is that you are free to define tags for each of these groups separately, e.g. you can create tags specifically for the “Devices” group that you will later on assign to any chosen devices. Analogously, you can do likewise with all the remaining entities which this functionality is integrated with. All of this will be possible in the newly added “Tags” section, presenting the list of all tags ever created in the system with such details as their name, color, type and number of entities they are attributed to. What is more, you will be enabled to perform there such actions as: Adding new tags and editing them later on. Deleting existing tags and removing them from all assigned entities. Filter the results by a given tag in order to find all elements assigned to it. The scope of introduced changes by no means ends at this point since we have widened the scope of system tags’ influence to cover the most important system tables as well: Servers, Blade Servers, Network, Power, Colocation Services, Search Inventory, Orders and Clients. In each of these, it will be from now on possible to attach multiple tags to a single item such as a device, order or customer. You can also quickly create a new tag there if it suddenly turns out that you need one – without the necessity of moving back to the “Tags” section. We also know that each minute is worth its weight in gold, therefore, you will be enabled to perform mass actions including both assignment and removal of tags. To be more precise, you can select several items in the table and add to them as many tags as you wish or, on the other hand, delete all those that were previously assigned. Some other tweak-ups and cosmetic changes The installation of a remote agent has been further upgraded to allow for a higher level of automation - by making the process of database configuration entirely unattended, no manual actions will be required on your part. Possibility to define which installation templates customers should be enabled to see in the client area and use for system reinstallation. Added ability to display the list of server parts in the client area such as CPU, HDD, SSD or RAM. Looks interesting? Note that this is still not everything! As always, we highlighted the most significant changes of this release right here, therefore we cordially invite you to visit our website and check the complete changelog to discover the full spectrum of modifications. Explore More!

While a regular nine-to-five job schedule is something that most people enjoy and which may be the so-called norm for the majority, data center management cannot be recognized as one of them. As modern enterprise data centers become increasingly more complex, the notion of improving uptime, productivity, and efficiency emerges as the central point of each new EasyDCIM update aiming at effortless and time-effective management of your resources. And, as you will see with your own eyes in a brief moment, the 1.6.5 version of your favorite control panel covers this subject from A to Z! Proxmox VE straight in your EasyDCIM As you all know, EasyDCIM can boast itself in being perfectly capable of installing any of the supported operating systems and applications on existing servers in an entirely unattended manner. Today, this already quite an impressive range has welcomed yet another noble template in its ranks – Proxmox VE 6! Starting from the 1.6.5 version, EasyDCIM will make it possible to install an operating system together with Proxmox VE so that the end-customer receives a production-ready platform. Being a complete open-source solution for enterprise server virtualization with an inbuilt web interface, Proxmox VE is an ideal choice for the deployment and management of virtual machines and containers that at the same time allows you to optimize existing resources, reduce complexity and increase the efficiency of your data center with absolutely minimal effort. Raising the bar of all-inclusive OS installation The mere fact of attaining the magic of automated OS installation is not enough reason to slow down the tempo and rest on our laurels when there is still so much to be done to streamline the process a few steps further. For starters, with the new EasyDCIM v1.6.5 already on the loose, you may take every advantage of the introduced support for the first boot scripts which, as the name partially reveals, are run along with the first system reboot after its successful installation. Thanks to that, you as an administrator will be now capable of installing additional system packages and software gear or creating appropriate directories at the moment of the initial system start. While these scripts can currently be defined only for the CentOS 6-8 and Debian 8-10 operating systems, there are also several new predefined installation addons introduced for CentOS 7 as well, that will be now launched at the moment of the first server boot after the OS installation. With them, you will be enabled to easily install any of the following software gear: cPanel, Plesk, DirectAdmin, CentOS WebPanel and Vesta Control Panel. Let us remain on that topic for a little while longer as there is still one more thing worth elaborating on, namely a set of new tools to manage the following three groups of installation addons: 1. Disk Layout - used to define the appropriate scripts to partition a newly installed disk before any file system is created. From the 1.6.5 version, four new predefined partitioning scripts for the CentOS 6-8 have been added, including RAID1 with 2 disks and RAID0 with 2, 4 or 8 disks. 2. Post Installation - started immediately after the operating system had been successfully installed. 3. First Boot - launched at the first start-up after the installation process. Most importantly, however, you will be from now on enabled to create and later on edit any additional installation addons as well as synchronize the predefined ones with your EasyDCIM platform. Other principal functionalities & tweaks How about we have a quick look at some of the other practical features boosting the toolkit of EasyDCIM? IP Address Management v1.7.0 – administrative actions connected with subnets creation, removal, edition, and assignment are now included in the “Activity Logs” section. Those orders which are currently undergoing the provisioning process will be marked with a new distinctive status. The search box available in the client area has been featured with two new fields based on which servers can be browsed through more accurately: “IP Address” and “Hostname”. Significant improvement of the polling statistics that have been relocated to the remote agents list. We could go further and further about other spicy secrets of EasyDCIM v1.6.5 but it would ruin the whole fun if we disclosed all of them right away, wouldn’t it? Learn more about this eagerly anticipated edition from the place you most likely know like the back of your hand by now – the changelog! View The Changelog!

Websites, web applications, and software in general have been progressively becoming more complex as the industry’s technologies and methodologies advance. Consequently, user-centered design is no longer just about creating a positive experience with the product – above all, it should now aim primarily at the speed, efficiency, and effortlessness of use. Captivated by the premise to keep things simple while still providing further supplementary functionalities, today we are taking another crucial step towards the reconciliation of the ever-expanding arsenal of server-related tools with the intuitiveness and swiftness of browsing through them. Ladies and gentlemen, let us present to you the comprehensively revised EasyDCIM v1.6.4! Rearranged menu layout It is not a rocket science that the main navigation menu is the most important bridge for the customer-software interaction. To be even more precise, the entire relation with the platform starts at this very point. Hence, in order for the administrator to gain immediate access to all the most crucial sections and instruments, we played a little with the already existing menu elements. Firstly, the entire menu layout was utterly redesigned and grouped afresh. Some of the key elements were pushed to the front to make sure that no vital detail contained in them slips your attention ever again, and these include the following: “Dashboard”, “Devices”, “Assets” and “Clients”. What is more, we understand that time is of the essence for every business owner, hence we allowed ourselves to help you save at least some part of it. How? The place where you can access the list of quick actions has been highlighted and can be now immediately noticed at the moment of taking just a single glance at the menu. In order not to overcrowd this quite limited area too excessively, we decided to connect the remaining elements into one, easily accessible "extended" menu. One mouseclick will be enough to display links bracketing the remaining sections together into appropriate groups and making the navigation through the system a plain sailing. No matter if you are a long-established user of EasyDCIM or you are at the very beginning of this exciting journey, the new layout should feel more intuitive and easy to click than ever before. Streamlined navigation through tables The second wave of practical modifications and optimizations ushered for your enhanced convenience, affected tables listing all crucial data about your clients and devices. To start with, it is the asynchronous filters that consist the first major transformation granting you faster access to the pivotal content of a given section. Speaking of which, filtered results are now loaded dynamically, adjusting displayed information to your current needs conveyed in the provided criteria. Other novel addition that we managed to push into motion is the power to decide in what way the tables should be displayed. Depending on your preferences, you will be enabled to choose between the more detailed standard layout and the new compact view. If you are of the restive type and wish to grasp all important details at one sitting, then this option without a doubt will match up to your expectations – in comparison to the standard view, it can display almost twice as many positions to go through. What will come particularly in handy is the ability to establish a given look for all tables in the system or, should you need to adjust the view only for some part of them, you may do so by choosing a specific section configuration for logged-in administrator - the choice is all yours. Let us stay on this subject for a little while longer as there is still one more exciting detail unquestionably worth mentioning. A slight touch of colorful refreshment has exerted influence on the majority of the item types listed in tables. In consequence, once you get acquainted with all the color-item connections, by simply taking a quick fleeting look you will be able to find whatever you need, without the necessity to trawl through the entire list from top to bottom. Greater freedom of item model adjustment There is still one further area of focus in EasyDCIM v1.6.4 and that is one of the entirely new fields implemented into the creation and edition forms of the item model. Just take a look at the handy list below and let us walk you through them: 1. Device Bays - it will be now possible to define not only how many bays a particular device model should have but to set their names as well. This option will prove most useful for the Blade type, hence as of now it is available for it exclusively. 2. Network Ports - you will be free to specify their following qualities: number, names, speed and type. 3. Power Ports - at last, the specification of the quantity and names of power ports will be now also enabled during the creation and edition of item models. After you define the details for all of the above-listed parts, they will be added automatically upon each creation of a new device with the selected model. Assorted tweaks and other adjustments It seems like our bag of novelties is bottomless as we still have a few cards up our sleeve! Just take a look at the series of other upgrades, including the following: The separation of the “Users” and “Administrators” sections, along with the addition of the User Card containing all essential information on a particular client, which will be now displayed in their summary view IPMI Integration For EasyDCIM v1.3.0 – introduced additional driver to manage the KVM console: ASRock Rack IPMI JAVA Console and ASRock Rack IPMI noVNC KVM Console Warranty Information – new field displaying the time left until the moment of warranty period’s expiration Possibility to adjust the level of access rights for the client managing particular, previously ordered, dedicated server As you carefully follow the foregoing record of all introduced enhancements, at some point you surely thought – that must be all for this update. Well, it is – but only for now! Feel cordially invited to visit the official changelog of EasyDCIM v1.6.4 just under the below link to snap the complete picture of this momentous release! Explore More!

When you think of data center monitoring it is certainly not possible to reach the point where the tools you employ for this purpose could not get any better or more efficient. The past few weeks have been really busy, with us focusing on making the official arrival of the freshly rolled out EasyDCIM 1.6.3 version maximally beneficial and minimally challenging in comprehension. Without dragging things out any more than necessary, let’s get started with a thorough overview of this revamping update, shall we? Ordering on a whole new level The very first wave of sweeping change has exerted influence on the “Orders Summary” section, which has undergone an in-depth rearrangement. Not only does it demonstrate itself as far more legible and user-friendly but what comes of even greater importance are numerous adjustments introduced to the ordering process and mechanism of proper server matching. To start with, two new criteria to define the ordered service have been added. Should one decide to purchase a dedicated server, it will be now possible to choose the “Any Model” value instead of providing a specific one. This way, after such order completion, any server fulfilling given requirements will be assigned to it, regardless of the model. On top of that, you will be enabled to specify the exact number of parts of a given type (e.g. RAM or CPU) according to your needs. With remarkable ease, in the "Activity Logs" tab you will immediately access the record of all sorts of modifications made within the order such as the change of its status, password, username as well as numerous other aspects. You will instantly notice both the current and the previous value, the user responsible for a given activity as well as the date when the change occurred. Another novel feature that we just could not help but push into motion is the capability to determine the sequence of actions performed at the moment of service activation. Not only will you be allowed to decide which one should be executed at first and which at the end, but even more importantly you will be enabled to specify the exact impact a particular action should have on the provisioning process - interruption or continuance. State-of-the-art OS templates For several versions already, EasyDCIM allows admins to install any of the supported operating systems on existing servers in a fully automated manner – from the moment of selecting an installation template up to running post-installation script. But let us place our focus on the first stage today since the range of supported OS templates has just welcomed two spicy additions to include the two most recent ones - CentOS 8 and Debian 10 “Buster”. CentOS 8 It has been a while since we last time enjoyed a major release of CentOS over five years ago. Therefore, its latest release with a bevy of new features and improvements comes as a fine point for all its users. It is another opportunity to enjoy the stability, efficiency, and reliability that is handsomely made available for you with CentOS 8 on the loose. Briefly speaking, major changes include the new versions of YUM package manager and GNOME Display Manager, Cockpit Web Console coming as an integral part of easy server management, plus the content is now distributed in two main repositories: BaseOS and AppStream. Debian 10 “Buster” It goes without saying that Debian over the years has built a well-deserved reputation as a rock-solid distro, valued for its stability, security, and dependency. The all-new “Buster” includes the headlining support for Secure Boot which makes it effortless to install the system on UEFI-enabled machines with no need to disable it in the firmware configuration in the first place. Upon that, AppArmor enabled by default, the ability to sandbox the Apt package manager, support for driverless printing and five years of ongoing support create only a smart part of the multiplicity of reasons making Debian 10 worth the update. Multiple other new features and enhancements Care to have a look at some of the other optimizations brought into EasyDCIM v1.6.3 as well? OS Installation For EasyDCIM v1.6.0 - support for new OS templates: Debian 10 “Buster” and CentOS 8 Ability to define new metadata, such as IP Address or Hostname, and specify their unique, one-off values Capability to start “Rescue Mode” for clients to let them preview their owned partitions automatically installed in the "/home/rescue/partitions" directory Added option to assign network ports to the colocation service Because the list of total changes introduced is of so considerable length that it would be near to impossible to squeeze them all in here, that is as many details as we can share for now. Use the below link and enjoy the first-hand exploration of the official EasyDCIM v1.6.3 changelog! Follow The Change!

A lot of improvements that make their way to our data center control panel come directly from the experience of running our own company. For example, there is this one thing we learned a while back. Mainly, that the better you organize your business management straight from the get-go, the easier it is later on for you to handle all your daily tasks. Hooked on this compelling idea, we are taking today another crucial step toward simplifying the interaction with our software. Ready to jump into our newly rolled out EasyDCIM 1.6.2 version and monitor your data center assets effortlessly like never before? Re-engineered logs and dashboard intelligence Initiated in the previous version, the process of remastering the entire system interface continues on. One of the most visible alterations you will spot right on is the whole new "Activity Logs" tab. Created from the combination of two previous sections - "Revision History" and "Notifications", it will archive all sorts of modifications within a device such as its rack assignment, power status, or change of metadata items including IP Address, Hostname and HDD Size. No matter what type of action was performed on your data center devices, you will momentarily view both the current and the previous value, the user responsible for a particular activity as well as the date when the change happened. With equal ease you will now also access the record of unsuccessfully carried out actions, reported back by such protocols like SNMP, IPMI and others. All you need to do is move on to the newly available "Error Logs" section and get up to speed with each matter that requires your attention. Next practical addition planted in the Dashboard is a dynamic widget with a history of most recent activities. What is more, you can freely filter the results by the exact notification type (Info, Error, Success, Warning) plus the priority level (Normal, Important, Urgent). Having problems with tracking various tasks that are being performed on your devices or items? With this ever up-to-date widget aiding you daily, you can devote to the monitoring of your data center as little time as possible, and yet stay perfectly aware of every single change taking place. Why do everything on your own while you can automate your work to perfection, right? And finally, when talking about user-oriented modernizations, we played a little with the already existing menu elements. We rearranged a few sections to push those most frequently used ones to the front and make sure no key detail slips your attention ever again. Whether you are a long-established user of EasyDCIM or just start your adventure with our system, you should have no problems with finding your way to the appropriate areas whatsoever. Quite the contrary, the new layout should feel even more intuitive and easy to click through than ever before. Streamlined performance of remote agents Another small victory of our 1.6.2 update was the improved communication between remote agents and the main application. The pooling process is basically carried out on the remote agents servers and the data is being sent to the master application for proper storage. What we did was to significantly reduce the number of queries sent to and retrieved from the main application, which in result allows you to collect the data now faster and from even more devices at the same time. Numerous system tweaks and adjustments Interested in some other possibilities the brand-new EasyDCIM v1.6.2 equips you with? Be sure to look over this convenient features list: DNS Management For EasyDCIM v1.3.0 - automated set up of DNS zones and rDNS records during order activation OS Installation For EasyDCIM v1.5.1 - added provisioning tasks history and means to define the "ComputerName" value based on the "Hostname" field Enhanced security of most vital password types (Access Control List) Added option to upload files straight from the device summary view More flexible management of remote agents As your company expands, you need to think of ever more efficient ways to keep all your assets in a firm grasp. Luckily, with EasyDCIM v1.6.2 on the loose you may take the bother of routine data center check-ups entirely, and do something more exciting in the meantime. Like, for example, exploring the full depths of our newly released update and dropping us a comment on how you feel about all the changes we have made! View The Changelog! Updating from EasyDCIM version prior to 1.6.0? Since EasyDCIM 1.6.0 was the first version ever to fully support the Debian 9 “Stretch” operating system only, the direct upgrades to 1.6.2 from any version prior to 1.6.0 may be a little bit tricky. Therefore, we would strongly encourage you to contact our Support Team and let us assist you with the whole process. No need to worry, this should take just a moment. To make sure everything goes as smooth as possible, please take the below steps: Open a new support ticket with "EasyDCIM v1.6.0 update" as its title. Provide access data to the SSH server on which your current EasyDCIM version is installed (account with root privileges required). Provide access data to the SSH server you want to migrate to (account with root privileges and Debian 9 system required). Please kindly stand by as we perform a back-up of your EasyDCIM and migrate the data. Switch the application to live after verifying the correctness of the 1.6.2 version. We are at full readiness to lend you a helpful hand in updating your EasyDCIM any time!

Which data center company doesn’t dream of expanding its operations to the new markets? It is only natural that once you settle in comfortably with your venture, the vision of making even bigger of a profit soon pops in. The first foothold that needs to be established for the future growth is choosing the DCIM software that you will rely on to manage, organize and monitor the components of your data center. And, as our most recent case study of a certain British company proves, the sooner you find the right solution for yourself, the sooner you can start branching out safely. Feel welcome to follow us on this insightful talk with Chris Murrell, the Chief Technology Officer at Netcetera! The struggle was real Today Netcetera is one of Europe's leading web hosting service providers, supplying customers worldwide with top-notch colocation, dedicated servers and managed infrastructure services scaled perfectly to their needs. Chris admits that with such an extensive offer come great demands. Being active on the market since 1996, the company had to find a viable way to centralize all their daily activities from device assignment and supervision to client management. Curious about how Netcetera was able to keep all those aspects under control, we asked Chris what kind of software they used before moving to EasyDCIM: "We relied on our own, in-built DCIM solution to manage PDUs, switches and other devices, but all of that on a very basic level. Nothing as advanced as EasyDCIM which is an all-in-one control panel for everything you need – adding switches or PDU devices to a server, handling clients and so on." As a matter of fact, Netcetera is not the first company that we interviewed which developed their own, in-house software. But just like in other cases, instead of sinking money into the current tool and expanding it with further features, they opted for an external, fully-fledged solution. The choice which, as Chris remarks, was simply a much more rational and easier alternative for them at the time: "We were looking for a solution to let clients manage their dedicated servers as well as reboot and reinstall them whenever needed." While the proprietary software they developed was fairly practical for the internal use, it simply allowed for very little freedom when it comes to remote server management from the client’s side. All pieces of data center inventory finally in place DCIM software guarantees that all tasks within data center are done exactly the same way each time they are performed. Chris reveals that using EasyDCIM, they were able to reduce IT costs and by freeing up those extra resources - increase service quality: "We have been running our data center for over 28 years and have grown a substantial customer base that is constantly growing every day, in large extent thanks to EasyDCIM." During our interview, Chris pointed out multiple ways in which EasyDCIM streamlined the internal, day-to-date tasks flow in Netcetera: "We use EasyDCIM not only for clients but also ourselves. We have added all our PDUs and switches in it so it’s now easy for us to discover why, for example, a certain device didn’t turn on or off as wanted. EasyDCIM is great for managing all sorts of devices and controlling our infrastructure in overall." Imagine a day of work without having to carry out any of the menial tasks ever again. This is how Chris and his fellow staff members felt after delegating the control over their devices fully to EasyDCIM. Before, they had to first find the correct server, then the rack, and lastly, go through all the switches to see what port they were connected to. "With EasyDCIM we are able to look up the server and view all the relates switches, ports and PDUs right away" – Chris comments. Fostering the culture of environment-friendly data center Optimizing the daily work is just one of the benefits Netcetera discovered after centralizing their infrastructure management into EasyDCIM. Another perk was the ability to further reduce the carbon footprint of their data center facility by increasing power efficiency. The policy of green hosting that the company has been guided by since its formation is being executed through multiple means, including the routine monitoring of data center devices usage. "Every month we are doing a special report detailing how much power usage our PDUs generate so before EasyDCIM we had to implement an external network monitoring software for this purpose. EasyDCIM provides us by default with all the statistics we are concerned about the most and allows us to access them via intelligent graphs. As a matter of fact, we used all different kinds of software for traffic monitoring but only with EasyDCIM it’s all there in one place." But EasyDCIM is not only about empowering data center owners. We wanted to give end clients the same amount of freedom when it comes to the supervision of their servers and real-time power usage straight within the confines of a dedicated customer panel. Did we accomplish that? Chris’s final words seem to be speaking in favor of this fact: "Our audience can easily see how much traffic they’re using and we can bill them every month which is just the perfect solution for us. Also, having remote access to all basic server commands is a huge convenience for them on an everyday basis." Summing up All good things come to an end and so did our wonderful chat with Chris Murrell. But before parting ways, we could not help ourselves but to humbly ask Chris if he would recommend our software to other entrepreneurs. He was more than generous with his response: "Oh, I would recommend EasyDCIM hands down. It has everything in one place, it’s easy to manage and the support is great as well. Whenever I have an issue or get stuck on something, I message the team and they get back to me with further instructions or working solutions." We are ever so grateful to Netcetera for this huge vote of confidence. Being able to do what we are passionate about and helping other businessmen at the same time is for us the best kind of a reward we could ever wish for. Not a part of the EasyDCIM family yet? Feel invited to power our ranks! See our system in action and join now to make your data center management a labor of love!

Running a data center business is a tough challenge as it is. Why complicate it even more by designing a control panel that is overflowing with features, but features arranged so poorly that you do not know where to start? During the creation and ongoing development of EasyDCIM we were always guided by three golden rules: intuitiveness, simplicity and purposefulness. Today we are both excited and proud to announce that we pushed this idea much further ahead with our freshly released 1.6.1 version! Buckle up, we are going for a ride through all the most important attractions of this game-changing new update! Modernized design of main dashboard Are you the kind of person who likes to grasp all the details of a situation with just a single glance? You will definitely enjoy the whole new look and feel of our control panel then. Especially noticeable in the two most vital areas – main dashboard and server summary, this massive interface redesign is meant to guarantee even smoother interaction with the application. Thanks to the more comprehensive information about your locations and devices gathered in one place, you no longer need to switch between the tabs to keep your data center under control 24/7. Let us have a quick overview of the new dashboard layout: 1. Locations - here you can see the list of your locations along with such specifics as traffic from last hour, rack cabinets occupancy, power usage from last hour as well as the number of currently active and inactive servers. Moreover, using the handy widget to the right you can easily view the traffic and usage statistics from a chosen time period, for each location individually. 2. Recent Activity - no operations on your devices will slip your attention ever again since all system notifications will be nicely archived and organized in this section. 3. Top Servers - this widget was designed to let you instantly see your top six servers, additionally sorting them out according to used transfer for the last day as well as uptime. 4. Selected Reports - would you like to keep a sharp eye on the specific statistics at all times? In this area of the dashboard you can gain quick insight into the reports that interest you the most. Network ports traffic from the past five minutes? There it is, right at your fingertips! 5. EasyDCIM License - the last piece of information that you may want to have always at hand. It will inform you on such details of your license as, for example, type of the chosen pricing model and billing status, number of owned devices or current system version. Overhauled server summary view The second section of the system which was rebuilt for enhanced convenience is the summary view of a server. 1. Device Details - the most basic information about the server presented in a compact form. One click on the neighboring, built-in tab and you can preview some more specific parameters or even initiate the installation of a new operating system. This section also contains fully editable notes and comments on the servers. 2. Connections - from here you can check really quick your server’s connection with IPMI, switches and PDU devices. 3. Traffic Aggregation - a practical graph illustrating traffic aggregation from the selected time frame. 4. Assigned Metadata - considering the importance of this particular widget to users, we rearranged it a little bit and grouped metadata into categories. This should make the information even more easily accessible than before. 5. Important Notifications - just like in the dashboard, all notifications on servers appearing in the system will be logged here as well. ACL – extended set of user permissions ACL (Access Control List) has become an integral part of EasyDCIM as with the release of 1.5.2 version. It allows you to greatly increase the security of your infrastructure by creating custom user groups and defining their access to various parts of the system. The scope of available permissions has been further widened up with plenty of new options revolving around: 1. Devices Management: Device Bays, Monitors, Power Usage, VLANs Notifications Graphs 2. Orders Management: Activate, Suspend, Unsuspend, Terminate Service Delete, Create, Edit, Accept, Reject Order 3. API: Devices, Racks, Floors Users Inventory Of course this is just a snapshot of the areas that you will have full control over. For the rest of them, feel free to see the official changelog. Assorted improvements and other features Optimizing the transparency of the interface was our primary, but not the only focus in the 1.6.1 release. We have compiled a series of other upgrades as well, including the following: Quick Search Tool - look up with a single click the desired IP address or subnet whenever you need it and no matter in which section of EasyDCIM you currently are Location Power Consumption report - display power consumption from one of four available time intervals Location Usage (GB) report – trace the changes in your transfer usage from any available time frame Possibility to filter servers based on the IP address and subnet address in CIDR notation Added means to create a graph with traffic statistics generated from all devices assigned to a specific user From overhauled UI interface giving your control panel a modern and fresh look to almost doubled set of ACL permissions now at your disposal. These are still just the highlights of features that make the new EasyDCIM v1.6.1. Which ones are your personal saviors? Be sure to see the complete record of changes available in the changelog right below! Reveal More! Using EasyDCIM version prior to 1.6.0? EasyDCIM 1.6.0 is the first version that officially supports the newest Debian 9 "Stretch" only. All new installations of EasyDCIM as well as updates from the 1.6.0 version will be fully automated thanks to the dedicated installer and application updater. No worries there. As for the older systems (from v1.6.0 down), it is advised to contact our Support Team so as to carry out the update in the most safe and comprehensive manner. Lots of our clients have already got in touch with us and switched to the 1.6.0 version. If you do not want any of the new opportunities pass you by, be sure to follow their footsteps and perform each system update easily on your own after that. Open a new support ticket with "EasyDCIM v1.6.0 update" as its title. Provide access data to the SSH server on which your current EasyDCIM version is installed (account with root privileges required). Provide access data to the SSH server you want to migrate to (account with root privileges and Debian 9 system required). Please kindly stand by as we perform a back-up of your EasyDCIM and migrate the data. Switch the application to live after verifying the correctness of the 1.6.1 version. We look forward to lending you a helpful hand in updating your EasyDCIM!

While today’s exciting release of EasyDCIM v1.6.0 may not come entirely as a surprise, its scope and significance certainly will. In our previous Blog article we shed a bit of light on the upcoming, performance-oriented improvements already, but why not delve into some further details? This way, you will have all the background needed to find your way around this milestone EasyDCIM update real quick. Let’s get started! Dispersed architecture model It goes without saying that the construction of modern network devices monitoring systems poses a lot of challenges to the administrators. One of them is round-the-clock accumulation of large amounts of data such as transfer and power consumption, or current device load. In EasyDCIM the speed with which this data is fetched depends mainly on the total number of devices managed. That is why it is crucial for the information gathering system to be maximally scalable. In the 1.5.5 version, this task was assigned to a single server - the very same one on which EasyDCIM was installed. The single-threaded architecture had certain limitations however as it allowed to send only one request at a time, which might have caused tangible delays while handling large numbers of devices. EasyDCIM v1.6.0 approaches the data collection process in a slightly different way, empowering the administrator to share out this task between many external servers via remote agents. The biggest advantage of dispersed architecture model is that it allows to effectively distribute the load, which ultimately leads to much reduced response time of the system. Being able to switch from one server to a more powerful one whenever needed and without interfering with the main server on which EasyDCIM is installed ensures greater scalability of the application as well. Data collecting agents based on a multi-threaded architecture and closer to end devices are much faster in fetching the information, and more optimal with more devices. Summing up, the newly introduced solution allows you to run many threads at a given time, thanks to which the number of completed tasks increases even a few times, successfully resolving the problem of network latency. NETCONF protocol support The basic network protocol EasyDCIM relies on is SNMP. It allows you to remotely disable and enable network ports for most of network devices such as switches or routers. But some devices, like those provided by Juniper and Cisco brands, are not supported by SNMP. To let administrators remotely manage the devices of those manufacturers in the same manner, we then implemented the integration with NETCONF. NETCONF management protocol is an XML-based protocol used by client applications to request and change configuration information about network devices. The way it works is that a NETCONF server sends a request to the appropriate software modules of the device, encrypts the response and returns it to the client application. Briefly speaking, NETCONF provides a robust API for interacting with network nodes and can be easily used to insert or download structured data from the device, thus facilitating the automation of everyday device management. A solid package of new gear Let us also have a quick overview of some other utilities that may capture your interest: IP Address Management For EasyDCIM v1.6.0 – streamlined management of VLANs, subnets, IP addresses, and orders OS Installation For EasyDCIM v1.5.0 - added post installation scripts for Debian "Jessie" and Debbie "Stretch" plus new VMware ESXi 6.5 U1 OS installation template More advanced support for remote agents Means to export QR codes for devices and items Possibility to easily create and update device types through API Since the list of total changes is too long to squeeze them in here, make sure to visit the official changelog of EasyDCIM v1.6.0 just under the below link! Explore More! The final major change - Debian 9 support In its previous versions, EasyDCIM offered support for two operating systems: Debian 8 "Jessie" and Ubuntu 16.04.6 LTS (Xenial Xerus). Since both have grown slightly out of date, soon the support for their most important service updates as well as security improvements will be ceased. In light of this fact, the only operating system that EasyDCIM v1.6.0 can be installed on is Debian 9 "Stretch". Why Debian? First off, it is one of the oldest Linux distributions prized for its stability, security as well as excellent package management system that automatically solves dependency issues. Another fact that acts in favor of this operating system are regular releases of new stable versions and full 3-year client support for every following release plus 2-year support for previous versions as part of the Long Term Support project. Further steps Specially for the release of 1.6.0 version we have created a dedicated installer and application updater that will automatically detect the current operating system at the time of EasyDCIM set-up. New installations will require then no extra effort on your part. However, if you want to update your application from the previous versions (regardless of the OS EasyDCIM was installed on), we strongly encourage you to follow the below instructions in order to perform the update in the most secure manner. Open a new support ticket with "EasyDCIM v1.6.0 update" as its title. Provide access data to the SSH server on which your current EasyDCIM version is installed (account with root privileges required) Provide access data to the SSH server you want to migrate to (account with root privileges and Debian 9 system required) Please kindly stand by as we perform a back-up of your EasyDCIM and migrate the data. Switch the application to live after verifying the correctness of the 1.6.0 version. As you can see, you are only a few steps away from delving into all ingenious tools this revolutionized EasyDCIM edition has to offer. Ready to make the first one? Get In Touch!

For the past few weeks we have been really busy, with our focus set on the soon-to-be-released EasyDCIM v1.6.0. But before it is ready for the official arrival, would you like to hear some spicy details about the variety of novel tools we prepared for you guys? If so, be sure to read on! Along with the increase in number of devices added to EasyDCIM, the amount of resources needed to collect all information about these devices significantly rises as well. As you can easily figure out, this in turn may lead to network latency and unwelcome delays in data fetching. To counteract this problem, EasyDCIM v1.6.0 will rely on the dispersed architecture model where the data collection process will be distributed to external servers via multiple remote agents, capable of performing many more queries in a given time interval. Speaking of remote agents, if you ever installed OS in several separate data center locations via EasyDCIM, you might be quite familiar with this term already. Given their sheer practicality, we extended support for remote agents in the 1.6.0 version even further, securing their integration with the IP Address Management For EasyDCIM module, enabling Post Installation Scripts for Debian 8 and Debian 9, and adding an extra OS installation template: VMware ESXi 6.5 U1. Next on our list of scheduled implementations is support for a completely new protocol type – NETCONF. Its main purpose will be the remote management of those network devices that the current SNMP protocol does not support. This includes mainly switches of Juniper and Cisco brands. Summing up this brief features overview, we can safely say that the 1.6.0 release of EasyDCIM will have much to offer in terms of improved performance across virtually every section of the application. But, so as not to lose the element of surprise and spoil the fun of first-hand exploration for you, that is about as much early details as we can share for now. As soon as the EasyDCIM update becomes officially available, we will release a follow-up article so keep your eyes peeled! Stay Tuned! See also our latest Case Study articles on LibyanSpider and Blazing SEO.