Messaging and Directory Server software used around the world in the Government, Military, Aviation and Commercial sectors.
Products
M-Vault Operational Management
M-Vault
Server Management tools can be split into four categories:
- Directory Configuration Management
- Directory Operational Management
- Directory Data Access & Management
- Directory Synchronization
You can find information on Configuration Management (Enterprise Directory Management), Data Access & Management (Sodium and the web-based Directory Services Interface) and Directory Synchronization (Sodium-Sync) by following the links.
This page covers Operational Management for M-Vault (both LDAP and X.500), looking at:
- Isode Directory Console (DConsole), used to monitor directories and shadowing agreements.
- Event Handling & Audit Logging, using a client/server protocol, supporting event, audit, PDU and Debug log viewing, monitoring and searching.
- Monitoring using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and the MADMAN (Mail and Directory Management) MIBs (Management Information Base).
For those that require off-site backup options all Isode server products support an 'off-site hot standby' approach. This approach allows for an off-site system that will take over from the primary system without any service interruption in the event of a total failure at the primary site. Our off-site hot standby architecture is described in detail here.
You can find information on M-Vault Configuration Management and Data Access and Management by following the links here.
Directory Console (DConsole)
In order to achieve performance and robustness against component failure, data can be replicated between directory servers. This is achieved by "shadowing" agreements, which must be configured in both of the directory servers participating in the agreement. Isode's Enterprise Directory Management tool (EDM) is used to set up replication and shadowing agreements. Directory Console (Dconsole) is used to monitor directories and shadowing agreements.
DConsole: Click for larger image
DConsole is an operator tool that can monitor the status of multiple copies of M-Vault. It can also monitor replication agreements, either from consumer end, supplier end or both.
DConsole is particularly useful in situations where there are multiple shadowing agreements. Without DConsole, checking the status of shadowing agreements would involve examining the log files for relevant events.
DConsole reports on three areas of DSA operation:
- Status: Checking if the DSA is up or down and well as statistical information on the operation of the DSA and error counts.
- Shadowing agreement status: Such as last update time, last error time, error details, etc.
- Alerts: A unified view of the first two areas of DSA operation plus any other DConsole detected errors. (i.e. shadowing agreement error, authentication errors, DSA down, etc.)
Event Handling & Audit Logging
Isode server products and associated management tools use an event system. Events are defined in an XML repository, providing documentation of events and operator actions. Events are numbered in a structured manner to indicate severity and error type. The event system deals with events that need operator action, and informative events to give indication of progress and to help with diagnosis of problem situations.
Details on the Audit, Event, PDU and Debug logging capabilities can be found here.
SNMP Monitoring
M-Vault can be monitored directly DConsole. Monitoring may also be done using SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) from an SNMP Console. SNMP is an excellent approach to monitor Isode products with third party tools. Isode servers use a sub-agent model for support of SNMP and M-Vault supports the latest SNMP MADMAN (Mail and Directory Management) MIBs (Management Information Base), specified in RFCs 2788 and 2605.
You can read more about Isode's SNMP architecture and the benefits of using SNMP monitoring here.
