Operations Sentinel automates system management by gathering operations related information from the console traffic on each system. This requires that the console traffic from the managed system or partition be available to the Operations Sentinel server. UNIX and Linux systems can have separate or integrated consoles.

Console Management Capabilities

Generally systems with either separate or integrated consoles can be managed and controlled by Operations Sentinel.

Separate Consoles

Systems with separate consoles usually have a serial port dedicated to console operations.

For systems with separate consoles, message traffic can be sent to an Operations Sentinel server instead of the local console. However, you can maintain local control of the system so that you can operate the system from either an Operations Sentinel workstation or the real console of the system. You can do this by physically switching or splitting the console traffic from the existing console.

Integrated Consoles

Integrated consoles connect directly to a graphics card in the processor cabinet. These are usually VGA displays.

For systems with integrated consoles, the console device file (/dev/console) is redirected to a serial port, which is then connected to the Operations Sentinel server. Alternatively, console traffic can be redirected to a TELNET or Secure Shell session managed and controlled by Operations Sentinel Console.

Console Connection Types

You can use the following types of connections on the managed system: