IBM CSM to IBM Systems Director Transformation Guide

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Chapter 4. Functional comparison

This chapter provides the Cluster Systems Management administrator with details on

comparing major features and functions between their existing environment and one using

IBM Systems Director.

We discuss the following high-level topics:

򐂰 The monitoring infrastructure and high-level design between CSM and IBM Systems

Director. Examples of how to implement some basic monitoring tasks in both

environments are provided.

򐂰 One of the key capabilities in Cluster Systems Management is the management of the

state of the logical partitions and physical servers and the ability to execute remote

commands on the target nodes. In this chapter we discuss the features in IBM Systems

Director that provide these capabilities, as well as managing system firmware.

򐂰 Security is a topic on every IT practitioner’s mind in today’s world. The security and

authentication models in CSM and IBM Systems Director are compared in addition to

some information on managing a firewalled environment.

򐂰 The integration of Cluster Systems Management and AIX’s Network Installation Manager

was a key component in operating system deployments under CSM. IBM Systems

Director with VMControl Standard Edition provides similar functions with the differences

and some details discussed.

򐂰 Lastly a comparison of the various Agent components in IBM Systems Director versus

Cluster Systems Management on AIX.

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