Overview of Lighthouse hardware and software central management appliances

Lighthouse 4 has reached End of Life. This information is for archival purposes only.

What common functions are provided by both software and the hardware appliances?

Lighthouse appliances provide a centralized management portal through which network engineers and system administrators can monitor, access and manage their distributed managed console servers appliances and attached managed devices.

Note: In this FAQ the Lighthouse VM,software appliance and the Lighthouse Enterprise and Standard hardware appliances (and the earlier VCMS and CMS6100 models) are referred to as "CMS" appliances.

So CMS provides central management of your network of sites:

1. CMS has an embedded Nagios core that monitors all the local and remote Managed Console Servers and their Managed Devices.
2. CMS provides a single pane of glass view from which you can connect to any of your distributed Managed Console Servers or their Managed Devices. With a simple "point-n-click" you can run a proxy browser on the CMS, or initiate scheduled commands from the CMS
3. Using Call-Home remote console servers without public accessible IP addresses to establish SSH tunnels to the CMS - so they can be monitored by, and accessed through, the CMS (even when behind firewalls or on private or cellar networks)
4. CMS auto detects and auto uploads the profiles from each Managed Console Servers so the management solution can be set up in minutes,
5. CMS maintains authenticated SSH tunnels to each of the Managed Console Servers ensuring secure communications

 

What is the difference between the Lighthouse VM software and Lighthouse Enterprise/Standard hardware solutions?

Lighthouse Enterprise and Standard are built on Dell rack mount servers and both deliver an integrated hardware appliance solution. The CMS software runs on the server and configuration is performed by browsing to the server's IP address. The Lighthouse Enterprise can manage up to 5000 distributed Managed Console Servers, whereas the lighter weight Lighthouse Standard can mange 100.

 

Lighthouse VM is a software virtual appliance than can be run as a guest under Linux KVM or VMware. The host may be a physical machine that you administer, or a managed server or a cloud hosting service from a hosting provider. The Lighthouse VM also can manage up up to 5000 distributed Managed Console Servers.  At a minimum, the Lighthouse VM requires reserved resources of 500MHz CPU core with 256MB RAM and 4GB disk space. However the appropriate level of reserved virtual server resources will depend on the number of appliances being managed by the Lighthouse VM. For installations supporting 1000 or more appliances the recommended resource would be:2 GHz CPU core with 16GB RAM . In addition, a disk device SATA (VMware) or IDE (Linux KVM) and E1000 compatible Ethernet NIC, bridged is required.

 

Once a Lighthouse has been deployed and the CMS software is running, the ongoing configuration and operation is identical for hardware appliance and software appliance .... which is to be expected as they run exactly the same code :)

Lighthouse licensing  

In essence when you purchase a Lighthouse, you are provided with a license to use the Lighthouse software to manage up to a designated number of appliances and your software will be actively maintained for a defined period. For example:

• Ordering a Lighthouse software appliance part # OGLH-VM-100-3Y entitles you to use your Lighthouse software appliance to manage a distributed network with up to 100 Opengear appliances.  With this license you will be provided with support and feature upgrades for 3 years. At the expiry of this period you must renew your License Key annually (by ordering OGLH-LREN-100) in order to receive ongoing support and upgrades.  Opengear reserves the right to terminate product support and product updates if the active license term has expired. However this term expiration does not affect the EULA validity. The terms for using Lighthouse are explained in more detail in this faq.  
• Ordering a Lighthouse Enterprise Server with 3 yr, 1000 appliance license (part # OGLH-5000-1000-3Y) entitles you to use your Lighthouse hardware appliance to manage a distributed network with up to 1000 Opengear appliances, and you will be provided with support and feature upgrades for 3 years. Again at the expiry of this period you must renew your License annually (by ordering OGLH-LREN-1000) to receive ongoing support and upgrades. The terms for using Lighthouse The terms for using Lighthouse are explained in more detail in this faq.  

Note: Earlier CMS6100 and VCMS software licenses. When you purchase your CMS6100 appliance or VCMS virtual appliance activation key you are provided with a commercial license to use the embedded CMS software in perpetuity (subject to the terms of the End User License Agreement (EULA) or VCMS EULA). You also are entitled to 12 months free software upgrades and technical support. For ongoing support and upgrades you will need to purchase extended support.