Remote Network Management (Part1)
Solutions to the Challenge of Remote Management (Part 1)
Remote management has it's challenges but here's a few options from SnapperNet's great vendors to help ease the support burden and also offer zero touch deployment (or at least very close to it!).
If you find something of interest get in touch and we can help you through the options! https://www.snappernet.co.nz/contact-us
Yealink Management
Yealink Cloud Service (device redirection)
This allows new phones to be sent to customer premises and upon boot assuming there is an active Internet connection the handset will reach out the Yealink and if the MAC address exists in the database will redirect the phone to your own private provisioning service (e.g. YeaStar or Vodia PBX). If provisioning has been done for that device it will then automatically pick up all of its pre-provisioned settings. Another great thing is if the customer is having trouble with a handset you can safely request they factory reset to pick up an original 'known working' configuration. Note that this simply sets a provisioning target and any authentication required to access the target. Individual provisioning files and configuration is provided with third party tools such as a supported PBX.
To apply for an account at no cost send a request to sales@snappernet.co.nz
Sophos
Remote Filewall Management
Management of XG Firewall via Sophos Central comes at no extra charge and you don't need any other Sophos products. Simply head to cloud.sophos.com and setup an account, enroll your firewall(s) and you have centralised access!
Documentation: https://www.sophos.com/en-us/support/documentation/sophos-central-firewall-manager.aspx#
Zero-Touch Deployment
Sometimes you need to setup a firewall at a remote location, and you may not have the expertise on-hand there to fully configure it. No problem, thanks to Zero-Touch Deployment. Now you can drop-ship the firewall directly to the remote location and configure it from Sophos Central without having to touch the appliance yourself. You only need someone there to unbox it, connect it, insert a USB stick with the provisioning configuration file you created, and get it started.
See more: Section 10.2.1 in the central guide https://docs.sophos.com/central/Customer/help/en-us/PDF/sc_customer_h.pdf
Sophos RED / SD-RED
Intended for home or SoHo offices and fast provisioned from your XG firewall. You only need the device serial number to provision a split or fully routed connection, there's also an option for bridged connections as well. WiFi / Cellular and PoE options thrown in for good measure as well! https://www.snappernet.co.nz/products/search?phrase=sophos%20red. Pre-configure on your Sophos XG an have the device delivered to the end customer. All they have to do is plug it in, wait for about 5 mins for firmware/config to apply and they're up and running.
Qnap
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QCenter |
QCenter is a powerful QNAP Turbo NAS management tool. You can view the status and system information of multiple Turbo NAS units at the same time from a single unit. This tool makes it easy to inspect system resource usage, monitor disk/volume health, and perform other management tasks. With these centralized management tools, Q’center can better assist IT administrators and Turbo NAS users in system resource allocation and future capacity planning.
How to use Q’center to Centrally Manage and Monitor Multiple QNAP NAS Units.
Draytek
Vigor ACS2
Centrally control all your customer Draytek routers with ACS2
Provisioning: Allow new devices to set themselves up and download the latest firmware.
Monitoring: Get notified when a device lost its WAN, VPN, or connection with the ACS server.
Statistics: Network insights about device, client, and traffic over a specified period.
VPN Wizard: Create an IPsec, L2TP, or SSL VPN between managed devices within a few clicks.
Scheduled Maintenance: Schedule a off-hour firmware update, configuration change, or device restart
Report: Generate network-based report about traffic, firmware version, device status and more.