Managing The Console Manager

Console managers have become essential to information technology experts and MIS departments worldwide. Most console managers provide system administrators and advanced, approved users with an easily applied interface that provides a method for configuring and monitoring the computer system. It is a valuable part of a computer expert's toolbox when it comes to troubleshooting, strategizing and managing the day to day operations of any networking system and its user capabilities.

Any good console manager will host a collection of essential components known as snap-ins. Most of any computer program's tools for system administration will be implemented and evaluated as snap-ins. Most networks will publish and monitor an application program that interfaces well enough to allow approved third parties to include their own snap-ins in the overall system.

Check for common snap-ins in the Control Panel, under the Administrative Tools folder. This will allow a user to collect and manage the items that are most useful to him or her. Examples include Shared Folders, Local Users, Disk Defragmentation, Device Manager, Event Viewer, Groups, and Active Directory. They are easy to find, simple to organize in any way that best suits the person or people accessing them, and allows for frequent maintenance and updating.

Several console management programs exist on the market today for consumers who feel they need this sort of support for a large number of console devices, complex requirements, or simultaneous users. Most management systems will support local serial devices, remote terminal servers, external processes, Unix domain sockets, and IPMI Serial-Over-Lan. A good console manager will also feature the ability to broadcast client output to multiple consoles, the ability to let clients share or steal console write privileges, logging console devices with or without a timestamp to file, and the ability to connect to consoles in either a monitor or an interactive mode. These are the non-negotiables that consumers should ask about when shopping around for the best console management system.

Information Management professionals will want to pay attention to console manager security. Creating and saving customized consoles has been a great development for the field, and making those consoles available to a number of administrators when it is appropriate to delegate specific management tasks is an excellent feature. However, it is important to limit the access of many administrators and advanced users just to what is necessary. Adjust the security levels of any software management system before allowing widespread usage.

With all of the components of systems administration changing on a daily basis, finding a reliable, secure and beneficial console manager is exactly what most computer experts need for their professional lives. Research the best options, talk to users, and decide what works best for any specific needs and priorities.



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