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ManageEngine DeviceExpert - Introduction

Contents

 

Overview

Analysis by numerous IT experts have time and again revealed that the commonest cause for most Network outages is faulty configuration changes. In this age of the Internet, IT applications dominate almost all aspects of business enterprises. To cater to various business needs, network administrators carry out frequent configuration changes to network devices. Every single change to a network device configuration carries with it the risk of creating a network outage, security issues and even performance degradation. The problem becomes still more complex when there are multiple devices from multiple vendors and multiple administrators manage the network and carryout changes. Unplanned changes make the network vulnerable for unexpected outages.

 

Besides, the network administrator is fraught with the challenge of keeping track of all the happenings in the network devices - who did what and when. In mission critical environments, network downtime, even for a few minutes, might prove to be costly. When a configuration error occurs in the network, it becomes a cumbersome task to identify the exact cause and initiate corrective action. Network administrators indeed face a daunting task when it comes to effectively doing the Network Change and Configuration Management!

DeviceExpert - a simple and elegant solution

ManageEngine DeviceExpert offers a simple, comprehensive and elegant solution for easy Network Change and Configuration Management (NCCM). It offers multi-vendor network device configuration, continuous monitoring of configuration changes, notifications on respective changes, detailed operation audit and trails, easy and safe recovery to trusted configurations, automation of configuration tasks and insightful reporting.

 

DeviceExpert can manage network devices such as switches, routers, firewalls, wireless access points, integrated access devices etc., from multiple vendors. It discovers network devices, builds up an inventory database and allows IT administrators to take control of configuring the devices from a central console. The web-based administrator console provides the User Interface to perform all the configuration operations. Additionally, it can be accessed from anywhere using any standard web browser.

Features

Working with DeviceExpert

To work with DeviceExpert, you need to start the DeviceExpert server and connect to the Web Interface. To know how to start the server and connect the Web Interface, refer to the next topic.

Arrangement of DeviceExpert Web Interface

All operations of DeviceExpert can be performed through the web UI, which is arranged into various tabs:

Home  

Inventory

Configuration

Reports

Admin

Support

Documentation Structure

This document comprises the following sections structured based on the sequence of operations a user would perform using the DeviceExpert:

 

 
  • Installation & Getting Started provides information on how to install DeviceExpert, how to connect Web Interface and start working with the solution
     

  • Adding Devices provides information about the various ways to add devices to the inventory, how to provide credentials, how to share credentials across devices  

 

  • Device Configuration Details provides information on how to view the configuration information about specific devices

     

  • Operations on Device Configuration provides information about performing various operations such as adding a device to the inventory, backing up the configuration, removing devices from the inventory, disabling a device, labeling configuration versions, grouping devices et al from the inventory tab of web interface

 

  • Scheduling Operations explains how to schedule tasks for automatic execution at a specific point of time and how to manage schedules
     

  • Configuration Change Detection provides information on how to achieve real-time configuration change detection. It also explains about scheduled change detection

 

  • Searching Devices & Configuration provides information on how to search for devices in the inventory and how to search for specific terms from configuration files.

 

  • Result Handling provides information on how to initiate an action upon the success or failure of a configuration operation

 

 

  • Reports provides information on how to generate and view detailed reports on inventory and configuration changes and how to create custom reports

 

  • Audit explains how to view audit trails generated by DeviceExpert

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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