AmpCon™AmpCon-DC simplifies the management of PicOS software switches, including configuration management, switch inventory, software updates, and more.
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Configuration Management
AmpCon-DC includes native configuration management capabilities, which you can use to push an update to a single switch or to an entire group of switches. By using AmpCon-DC, you don’t need to edit and push switch configurations one by one. In this way, the likelihood of errors can be reduced, the switch configuration process can be simplified, and you don’t need to deal with the added expense or headache of a third-party tool.
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 (perhaps 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-DC UI, you can push the update to appropriate switches.
AmpCon-DC 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.
Configuration
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Backup,
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Compliance, and
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Rollback
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-DC makes configuration backup simple easy by automating and scheduling configuration backup on a specifed 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. The You can also use the Golden Config can also be used as the basis to run an automated compliance check to verify that whether the network is operating as designed.
Switch
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Inventory
AmpCon-DC also supports switch inventory features. Though third-party tools also support this capability, but 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-DC can be deployed in minutes on a virtual machine.
AmpCon-DC provides detailed inventory of all switches, including switch hardware details, software versionversions, configurations, and more.
License
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Updates
AmpCon-DC automates the process of checking and updating the switch licenses new 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).
The License Action task automatically updates the license keys on all switches whose support is due to expire in the next 30 days , and logs the result to a report that can be examined or downloaded, which you can examine or download.
RMA
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Replacements
AmpCon-DC 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.
Simplified
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Software and Switch Upgrades
The nature of PicOS® PicOS itself makes it simpler to manage vs. any legacy switch/router switches compared to other legacy network operating system (NOS) of switches or routers. Because it’s PicOS is Linux-based , PicOS® is and compartmentalized, which means you can update or change one component or aspect without affecting the other components. For example, if you’re pushing out a security patch, that it affects only the security component of the NOS; you don’t have need to replace the entire software /or firmware image.If you’re familiar with legacy NOSs such as Cisco IOS, you know that’s not the case. Any update requires a wholesale software/firmware change, with all the attendant disruption that comes with it: putting the change through a qualification cycle, lab testing, the works.
By contrast, if you’re making a change to PicOS that has nothing to do with the movement of data, such as a security change, you don’t need to go through all of those steps.
AmpCon-DC makes it easy and error-free to upgrade your switches to the latest PicOS® version. When you are ready to go, you simply schedule a job identifying the group of switches, the new software image, and the time window when you want the upgrades to be executed. The task executes automatically in the background and captures the results in a logfile that can be checked for the details and updates the task status on completion.
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Additional Features
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
AmpCon-DC 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 authenticate user logins through a TACACS+ server, which also determines their access permissions based on their
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roles. If the TACACS+ server can’t be reached from AmpCon-DC, you can log in to the AmpCon-DC UI with local users that are defined in AmpCon-DC.
Parking lot
You can use parking lot to manage switches that have been shown in the network and registered with the AmpCon-DC
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server but haven’t been configured by the
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administrator.
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Setting up a group of switches
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To perform switch lifecycle operations more conveniently, you can organize switches in groups by region, location, building
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, and more.
Importing switches
For those switches that were not originally deployed through AmpCon-DC
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, you can import them directly to AmpCon-DC to manage them.
Decommission workflow
To shut a switch down temporarily and then
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redeploy it in another location
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• Operational Logs
Track all activity in AmpCon-DC, and can be used for troubleshooting to drill down and analyze issues
• Monitoring
Allows drilling down into a switch to look at its current status, port statistics, etc.
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, you can decommission the switch in the AmpCon-DC 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 check its status and metrics such as port stats.