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In practice, the configuration management feature can greatly simplify the job of updating switches to deal with a new class of devices, such as security devices to protect Internet of Things (IoT) sensors. Your network administrators can detail how the network needs to treat the security devices (such as putting them on your own VLAN), and detail where traffic from devices is allowed to go. By adding only one configuration in the AmpCon-Campus UI, you can push the update to appropriate switches.
AmpCon-Campus greatly simplifies the job of detailing network access level and priority each class of devices should need to get and then pushing the update at once to all relevant switches.
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Once the desired configurations are set and the network is stable, you might want to make sure that accidental changes don’t disrupt operations. When you make a configuration change such as adding devices or a VLAN, it is important to back up your configuration.
AmpCon-Campus makes configuration backup easy by automating and scheduling configuration backup on a specified date and time and saving the last n N backups as you need. You can use the backup configuration to recover quickly from a crash or corruption of a switch. In addition, you can mark a specific backup instance as the Golden Config. The Golden Config will never be deleted and is used by default as the configuration to roll back a switch to a stable configuration when the switch operation is compromised. You can also use the Golden Config as the basis to run an automated compliance check to verify whether the network is operating as designed.
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AmpCon-Campus also supports switch inventory features. Though third-party tools also support this capability, they these tools add expense to your company. In addition, such tools typically run on a Windows Server Enterprise Edition machine, which also adds additional server licensing costs. In contrast, AmpCon-Campus can be deployed in minutes on a virtual machine.
AmpCon-Campus provides detailed inventory of all switches, including switch hardware details, software versionversions, configurations, and more.
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AmpCon-Campus automates the process of checking and updating the switch licenses with the latest support entitlements. A License Audit task checks whether a group of specified switches has valid licenses and creates a report of the license status (including the support expiration date and other details).
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AmpCon-Campus incorporates a unique workflow to enable return merchandise authorization (RMA) replacements. When hardware of a switch fails and is replaced with new switch hardware, the RMA module feature takes the configurations from the failed switch hardware, updates the serial number of the new switch, and pushes the configurations to the new switch to bring it up seamlessly in the network.
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Finally, the nature of PicOS® itself makes it simpler to manage switches compared to any legacy network operating system (NOS) of switches or routers. Because PicOS® is Linux-based, and thus it’s compartmentalized, which means that you can update or change one component or aspect without affecting the other components. For example, if you’re pushing a security patch, it affects only the security component of the NOS; you don’t have need to replace the entire software or firmware image.
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AmpCon-Campus adopts role-based access control, which is used to permit individual users to perform specific actions and get visibility to an access scope. You can assign each user a specific role with associated permissions.
In addition, you can also authenticate user logins through a TACACS+ server, which also determines their access permissions based on their roles. If the TACACS+ server can’t be reached from AmpCon-Campus, you can log in to the AmpCon-Campus UI with the users that are defined in AmpCon-Campus.
Parking lot
You can use parking lot to manage switches that have been shown in the network and registered with the AmpCon-Campus server but not yet haven’t been configured by the administrator.Setting up a group of switchesswitche
To perform lifecycle operations more conveniently, you can organize switches in groups by region, location, building, and more.Importing Switches
For those switches that were not originally deployed through AmpCon-Campus, you can import them directly in the to AmpCon-Campus UI to manage them.
Decommission workflow
To take shut a switch down temporarily and then redeploy it in another location, you can decommission the switch in the AmpCon-Campus UI.Operational logs
You can use operational logs to track all activities and troubleshoot issues by drilling down and analyzing issues.Monitoring
You can get an overview of all switches or drill down to a switch to look at check its status and metrics such as port stats.
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