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IBM® Systems Director Network Control V1.1 software, a priced IBM Systems Director plug-in that provides network management integrated into the server and storage management capabilities of IBM Systems Director, is designed to help reduce the cost of managing physical and virtualized environments by using a single integrated management product.

The main features are:

• Converged Ethernet network device support (FCoCEE) via native support and vendor tools
• Integrated single sign-on launch of vendor-based device management tools
• Basic life cycle management of network switches

Overview

IBM Systems Director Network Control V1.1 can discover, monitor, manage, and troubleshoot network hardware devices in the computing environment. By enabling network management capabilities along with existing server and storage management capabilities, you can effectively manage your computing environment with a single integrated management tool that can improve your cost of computing. IBM Systems Director Network Control is positioned as a key component of IBM's integrated data center management technologies and services, which are part of the dynamic infrastructure and cloud computing strategy and is delivered as part of IBM Systems Director. IBM Systems Director Network Control is a priced plug-in that will manage, monitor, and configure vendor-based network devices, leveraging existing IBM Systems Director functionality and integration of vendor applications.

IBM Systems Director Network Control V1.1 builds on IBM Systems Director V6.1.1 base network management capabilities by adding single sign-on launch of vendor-based device management tools, topology views of network connectivity, and subnet-based views of servers and network devices. IBM Systems Director Network Control V1.1 also includes:

• Web-based user interface for easy user access to the IBM Systems Director Network Control functions, as well as pointers to existing network-related functions in IBM Systems Director.
• Ability to view high-level status of supported devices, as well as lower-level "drill-down" component status and errors for individual devices.
• Discovery and inventory support of Ethernet switches and server network interface cards (NICs) with ability to view properties and current configuration of supported devices, including switch virtual LAN (VLAN) configuration.
  1. IBM BladeCenter® Ethernet switches and blade NICs supported.
  2. Non-BladeCenter switches will be supported via standard SNMP interfaces.
• Single sign-on and launch of IBM System Storage™ Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) application for switch configuration of Brocade Converged Ethernet network switches and Brocade Fibre Channel switches.
• Additional support for FCoCEE switches and Converged Network Adapters (CNAs) by partners BNT, Brocade, and QLogic.
• Default management groups of network resources to allow users to view status of a group of related devices or perform tasks across a set of devices: Ethernet switches and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) switches; for example, one of the default groups is a group that will allow you to see network systems organized by the subnets they belong to.
• Advanced topology and visualization of network connectivity, showing how IBM Systems Director discovered Ethernet switches are connected to each other and other network endpoints such as server NICs. This complements IBM Systems Director Topology Perspective views in which it can show physical and virtual resource relationships.

Key prerequisites

IBM Systems Director Network Control V1.1 requires IBM Systems Director V6.1 and required updates. IBM Systems Director Network Control will be available for AIX®, Linux® on Power®, Windows®, Linux on IBM x86, and Linux on System z® operating environments.

For more details, refer to the Hardware requirements and Software requirements sections.

Source:   Announcement Letter IBM Systems Director Network Control v1.1