Specifications

Matrix Switching
[e-mail] • www.blackbox.nl
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Solution Profile
Listen up
One of the country’s leading radio broadcasters needed to find a way for their disk jockeys to be
able to access their individual show schedules and play list. Each user required individual access to
particular servers but the studios used, could change on a daily basis.
Utilising the existing CATx cabling infrastructure, the Black Box Octet was installed and provided
the solution. Each user could come into any studio and log on to the Octet system using a username
and password. Once logged in, they could only see the servers they had authorisation to use. The
Octet system, as well as providing security through the existing LDAP infrastructure, would report
to the SNMP management platform with all changes and updates. It also provided the SNMP
manager with the option of remotely connecting users to servers, increasing security further still.
management!
Solution Profile
Intensive farming
A data centre that had 32 users spread across campus, required access to just over 600 servers in a
large server farm. The users were members of different management groups and some type of
security was required to ensure tht users only had access to the servers they required. The
customer’s infrastructure already supported LDAP and it was requested that the Octet should be
able to be integrated into this if possible. Some of the servers were mission critical, and in case of
any errors or failures, would automatically send messages to the SNMP management platform. The
customer also requested to know if it was possbile for the Octet to respond to these urgent
messages.
The Black Box Octet was chosen over other solutions because it solved all of the requirements.
Supporting up to 32 users, and an almost unlimited number of servers and serial devices, the Octet
allowed up to 300m in distance between the servers and the users, over CATx cabling. By providing
individual access rights on a per user basis and supporting LDAP, the Octet fully integrated into the
existing security infrastructure and provided the security that the customer required. In the unlikely
case that the LDAP server failed, then the Octet could continue to support the users through its
own proprietary security settings, configurable through the on-screen menu system. Finally, by
integrating the Octet into the SNMP management platform, the Octet could be controlled via
SNMP. In the case of the SNMP management station receiving an urgent error message, it could
then automatically connect one of the users to the server that had sent the error. By automatically
connecting a user straight to the offending server, all escalation paths and alerting systems could be
removed. This improved the response time to critical errors and ensured that problems could be
solved as fast as possible.
Solution Profile
Factory fitted
A large manufacturing plant required a solution for its server access problems. Servers were being
moved around to control different manufacturing machines and access was becoming difficult.
Users were moving around the building and working in different areas, depending upon the tasks
they were working on. The customer required a method for accessing and controlling the different
servers from various points in the building, but also required a way to keep track of those servers
within in the building.
The Black Box Octet was selected for its flexibile access and its ability to effortlessly move servers
about the network. All server names or tags are stored on the individual Server Access Modules
(SAMs), so whenever a server was moved, the SAM stayed with the server. For the customer, this
ensured that when a server was removed, it was automatically removed from the server access list
for each user. Once the server was re-installed, even to a different location, as soon as it was
switched on, it would be straight back in the user’s individual access lists. This made it easy for the
customer to maintain and move servers as required, whilst always knowing where that server was.
Users could log into the Octet system from any of the user stations, no matter which area they were
working in, and always had the ability to control any of the servers from any of the servers from
any user station location.