AmpCon-Campus simplifies the management of switches, including configuration management, switch inventory, software updates, and more.
Configuration Management
AmpCon-Campus 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-Campus, 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 (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 need to get and pushing the update to all relevant switches.
Configuration Backup, Compliance, and 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-Campus makes configuration backup easy by automating and scheduling configuration backup on a specified date and time and saving the last 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.
Switch Inventory
AmpCon-Campus also supports switch inventory features. Though third-party tools also support this capability, 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 versions, configurations, and more.
License Updates
AmpCon-Campus automates the process of checking and updating 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.
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, which you can examine or download.
RMA Replacements
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 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 Software and Switch Upgrades
The nature of PicOS itself makes it simpler to manage switches compared to other legacy network operating system (NOS) of switches or routers. Because PicOS is Linux-based and compartmentalized, you can update or change one component or aspect without affecting other components. For example, if you’re pushing a security patch, it affects only the security component of the NOS; you don’t need to replace the entire software or firmware image.
Additional Features
Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)
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 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 local 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 haven’t been configured by the administrator.Setting up a group of switches
To perform switch 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 to AmpCon-Campus to manage them.
Decommission workflow
To 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 check its status and metrics such as port stats.