Uniboss Management Platform
Uniboss is the unified management platform on which most Lanboss products are based
Management Systems
All management systems share the need for a management console, database server, distribution mechanism, client configuration and agent data gathering. The only element that may differ between products is the actual client implementation and its functionality. The fact that the disparate management systems are unaware of each other's processing adds complications that the client workstation may inexplicably go to high utilisation as two processes both kick off!
Rationalising Systems
Having created a number of management systems, each with its own capabilities and features, Lanboss soon realised that the main capability of any management product is in the workstation agents, the rest of the components are peripheral to the agents functionality. It thus makes sense to build a core that will support a variety of client types and returned data and Lanboss has made this the pivot of its products:
- In v3 of the popular Workstation Manager, Lanboss began standardising the other components that make up the application core
- With v4, a single application framework supports a multitude of client functionalities
- In v5, the framework will be augmented with many new agent capabilities.
Uniboss
The final manifestation of Uniboss is a powerful management framework that provides massive scalability as well as incremental functionality. The real benefit of Uniboss is that it is a unified platform that can start off as a simple auditing system and subsequently grown into a full blown monitoring, management and security system, simply by upgrading the product license.
Proxy Server
The layout of a Uniboss system is centred around the Proxy Server which is the heart of the Uniboss system, with a number of distinct components to perform different roles. Within the diagram, the Server itself is represented by the greyed area (click for a larger view):
- DBServer - A high performance SQL Database Server, the main Data Repository
- Proxy - Communicates with Agents using client/server IP, send commands and configuration information and gathering task results
- Disty - The Distribution System actively monitors the network for added devices and can automatically deploy agents to new machines
- FServer - The File Server is used to deliver files for Uniboss related tasks and provides a web delivery interface for agent installation.
The Console program is a single interface that has been purpose designed to give you the most flexibility in finding information about your estate, organising your data and issuing tasks. It has an 'Office 2007' look and feel, supports desktop themes and includes a number of data analysis and reporting tools. The following screenshot shows the home page of the Console:
Following the Lanboss product strategy, the Console includes all of the tools necessary so that you don't need to purchase any additional reporting tools, nor do you need to spend hours exporting data to try to get the reports you need. The Console has an advanced Reporting Engine that allows you to query (standard ISO/IEC 9075 - SQL:2003), filter, group, select, chart, and export the information to suit your needs.
Through the Console, you can quickly:
Following the Lanboss product strategy, the Console includes all of the tools necessary so that you don't need to purchase any additional reporting tools, nor do you need to spend hours exporting data to try to get the reports you need. The Console has an advanced Reporting Engine that allows you to query (standard ISO/IEC 9075 - SQL:2003), filter, group, select, chart, and export the information to suit your needs.Through the Console, you can quickly:
- Obtain detailed reports of hardware and software
- Organise your software suites, take on license purchase information and report on your usage
- Analyse the network configuration and 'network relationship' of all workstations and users
- Gather UNC references and summarise these across all audited machines
- Evaluate the 'User Footprint' on their local machine, identifying the file types and capacity in use
- Manage the user and workstation relationship through UNC, Mapping and Printer redirection
- Perform a number of distinct workstation management functions
- Summarise and accumulate the totals and counts of virtually any information gathered
- Use the Advanced Reporting Engine to create or customise reports
- Gain deep insight into your estate with the inbuilt SQL query builder.
Client Agent
The Client Agent is the core of the workstation implementation. It communicates with the Proxy, manages the local data cache and organises the Child Modules. The block diagram shows the Client Agent structure:
It has the following characteristics:
- Implemented as a tiny (sub 650KB) single executable
- Unobtrusive from the user perspective as it runs at idle thread priority
- Low network overhead and bandwidth sensitivity features built in
- Cyclic communications and child module management process
- Can operate as Admin equivalent within a locked down desktop environment.
Child Modules
Using the modular approach to client architecture gives Uniboss a unique capability, effectively one Agent that is able to perform virtually any form of client processing imaginable under control of a central management system. Child module capabilities available with the v4.x releases of the Lanboss products include:
- Scheduled task processing - perform a task or series of tasks on a periodic basis. This is most frequently used in auditing and configuration management tasks
- Real time monitoring - watch something specific within the machine or user space and report back on changes. A good example of this is application metering
- Event driven - act on an event, for example when a user launches a specific application or inserts a USB memory stick
- User interactive - present users with dialogs for them to answer questions, fill in data or just acknowledge something. Often used as part of another process, for example if a reboot is necessary after installing a new application
- Whole application - give the user a whole application, like Data Cop, that is actually a child module in that it is under control and reports to the Uniboss Console.
Performance
The Proxy Server has been implemented as a 32bit Windows executable. This program orchestrates the use of all of the other 'Core Modules' like the File Server and Database Server, although these functions can be on separate machines, if required.
The Proxy Server module itself performs numerous functions including:
The Proxy Server module itself performs numerous functions including:
- Highly optimised Agent communications platform capable of managing thousands of agents simultaneously
- Schema driven data decoder
- Auto summary of all data for real time reporting
- Alert rules processor.
Network Transfer
Regarding actual transfers over the network, the initial Agent delivery is under 700KB in size, which is either pulled or pushed onto a workstation using standard networking protocols (SMB for Microsoft, NCP for NetWare, SMB for Linux etc). Once installed the Agent then fetches the required child modules using the HTTP protocol. Child modules start at 300KB and go up in size from there, depending on complexity.
The actual amount of data transferred over the network is highly variable, depending on the number of tasks that the Agent has been asked to perform. For a rough guide, a standard Hardware and Software audit would result in approximately 15KB (80KB uncompressed) of transfer over the network. Monitoring tasks can yield large amounts of information, as can full file lists, so there are a number of techniques used to limit the amount of result data.
The actual amount of data transferred over the network is highly variable, depending on the number of tasks that the Agent has been asked to perform. For a rough guide, a standard Hardware and Software audit would result in approximately 15KB (80KB uncompressed) of transfer over the network. Monitoring tasks can yield large amounts of information, as can full file lists, so there are a number of techniques used to limit the amount of result data.
Agent Impact
Uniboss gives the opportunity for a highly divergent set of client processing capabilities. Without going into specific product capabilities or details, the agent and child modules are able to perform scheduled or monitoring type tasks, user interaction as well as responding to events as they occur.
All client capabilities have been written to consume as little processor power as possible, so that they will not hinder users unnecessarily. The Agent and Child Modules use CPU throttling and split scanning to minimise these impacts and, generally speaking, it is unlikely that the effects will be noticeable by the users. As the child modules generally run at idle thread priority, they will yield to all other processes in the machine.
All client capabilities have been written to consume as little processor power as possible, so that they will not hinder users unnecessarily. The Agent and Child Modules use CPU throttling and split scanning to minimise these impacts and, generally speaking, it is unlikely that the effects will be noticeable by the users. As the child modules generally run at idle thread priority, they will yield to all other processes in the machine.
Proxy Server
As the Proxy Server machine is the heart of the Lanboss system, correctly specifying it will make a difference in the overall system performance. The specifications below are a conservative guide for the Proxy Server machine for a variety of user audience sizes:
| Object Count Up To | 500 | 2,500 | 5,000 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Machine Type | Workstation | Server | Dedicated Server |
| Operating System | XP Pro | Server 2003 | Server 2003 |
| Minimum Memory (MB) | 1024 | 2048 | 4096 |
| Processor Type | Pentium IV | Core2Duo | Core2Quad |
| Processor Speed (GHz) | 2.4 | 2.2 | 2.5 |
| Disk Space (GB) | 5 | 10 | 20 |
| Network Interface (Mb/s) | 100 Half | 100 Full | 1000 Full |
Note:
- A minimum video resolution of 1024 x 768, 16bit colour is needed for the Proxy
- With the Workstation Manager, you don't need to buy any other database server or data analysis tools as these have been built into the product itself
- For the higher Object counts, you may wish to consider placing the File Server function onto a separate machine
- All communication parameters are tuneable, thus under specifying the Proxy Server hardware will not cause the system to fail, rather just perform slower
- Although it is possible to install the Proxy onto a machine alongside other processes, care should be taken in so doing, as the Proxy function can cause high CPU % utilisation for prolonged periods of time on the machine. This is normal operation and is expected during Proxy data reprocessing and summarisation. This can, however, disrupt the other processes and for this reason, Lanboss recommends that the server should be a dedicated machine
Console
The Console can operate in one of two modes, with data being accessed on a proxy or from a local copy of the database tables, known as Proxy or Local modes respectively. Local mode allows you to work with a backup of the Proxy's data in off-line manner so that you can draw off reports in the comfort of your own home, the train or wherever! This allows the products to be used as part of a consulting service. Needing to have the Proxy running to achieve this was cumbersome, so the Local mode was developed in v3.xx.
The specifications below are a guide for the Console machine operating either in Local or Proxy mode:
The specifications below are a guide for the Console machine operating either in Local or Proxy mode:
| Description | Value |
|---|---|
| Machine Type | Workstation |
| Operating System | XP Pro |
| Minimum Memory (MB) | 2048 |
| Processor Type | Core2Duo |
| Processor Speed (GHz) | 2.2 |
| Disk Space (GB) | 5 |
| Network Interface (Mb/s) | 100 Full |
| Video Resolution | 1280 x 1024 (True Color) |
Note:
- The above applies to datasets containing up to 1000 workstations and users
- The video resolution can be lower, however at 1024 x 768, it may be found that you need to use the scroll bars quite a lot during report generation
Agent
The Workstation Agent philosophy has always been to support all dialects of Windows that are actively supported by Microsoft.
The specification required to run the Agent is as follows:
| Description | Value |
|---|---|
| Machine Type | Workstation |
| Operating System | Windows NT Windows 2000 Windows XP |
| Minimum Memory (MB) | 256 |
| Processor Type | Pentium III |
| Processor Speed (MHz) | 500 |
| Disk Space (MB) | 50 |
| Network Interface (Mb/s) | 10 |
| Video Resolution | 1024 x 768 |
Note:
- The above may vary depending on which products are being used
- The video resolution is not relevant to all products, as they are often headless, without visible user dialogs.