PULSE 2

RMLL / LSM

Bordeaux, 07/08/10

Who are we?

● French Editor of Open Source software

● 12 years of know-how

● Headquarters in Paris

● Sales in 150 countries all over the world with a 25 partners network Such as Russia, Poland, Middle East, Korea...

● Unique European Linux Editor

Activities

● Our main activities

• End users distribution (2010, Flash, One, PowerPack)

• Research projects (Nepomuk, Mancoosi, XtreemOS, Admin Proxy...)

• OEM (Mini, Instant-On)

• Enterprises solutions

Enterprise Solutions

● Desktop solution : MED

● Server solution : MES 5

● Directory solution : MDS

● IT asset management solution : Pulse 2

● Devices solution : Mini/ Instant-On

● Project assistance

● Support

PULSE 2Main features

• Multi OS

• Multi-sites

• Scalable

• Inventory, Deployment

• Imaging (Cloning)

• Secure thanks to SSH/SSL

• Secure remote desktop control

• Network bandwidth management

Pulse 2Managing heterogeneous computer environments

Pulse 2 Interface

Pulse 2

Functionalities :

● Software, updates and security patches deployment

● Software and hardware inventory

● Secure remote control

● Remote diagnostic

● Imaging / Cloning

Genesis

Born from Linbox Rescue Server and Mandriva Pulse experience.

Pulse 2 is an Open Source software (GPL) designed from the beginning to enable services modularity, separation between the web interface and the agents. => the product architecture is scalable and flexible.

Software Architecture

Server Side● MMC web interface● MMC interface service

● authentication, retrieval of various entities, injection of application deployment queries into the database,

● Scheduler● dispatches the deployments to the various launchers

according to the load, availability, and performance objectives. It also collects the results of deployments in progress and injects the result into the database

● Launcher● in charge of setting up the actual connections to client

workstations: carrying out deployment orders and retrieving the software deployment statuses.

● Package server● sends out the list of available packages and serves these

packages.● Inventory server

● records inventory feedback from client workstations.

Client's side

● An SSH agent must be installed on the client computers.Pulse 2 uses the secure SSH protocol for deployments

● An inventory agent (OCS Inventory) uploads the software and hardware inventory to the inventory server.

● A VNC server (optional)

Managed clients : Windows, GNU/Linux (all distributions), Mac OSX, Solaris, HP-UX, Aix, ...

Genesis 2

Pulse2 has been developed taking into account numerous characteristics such as :

● The safety

● The action's control

● Deployment monitoring

● The openness

Safety

Uses secure connection (TLS/SSL), Encrypted passwords, Services runs with user rights (no root process).

Entity management : each user can see the computers in his area.

Delegation of administrative rights on modules and their functions : more than 130 ACLs allows fine-grained rights management on users and groups.

Action's control

Target's designation : one computer, static group or dynamic group based on inventory criteria

Target's verification (checking MAC address from the connection, the computer availability, and other criteria),

Bandwidth optimization :Bandwidth regulation, direct send (push mode) or use of mirrors (push/pull mode) or use of proxy created on the fly.

Deployment scheduling, wake up targets (WOL), and blackout time-slots

Actions Monitoring

Logs (with time-stamped stderr/stdout and exit status), and display of current or past actions

Reports can be exported

Openness

● Based on MMC framework common to MDS and a documented API

● Code under GPL : ● Php, Ajax for the Web side● Python for services● C for imaging client

● Connect on his own inventory database or others such as GLPI

Some items on the RoadmapIntegration with supervision systems

HFS+ support

Integration of Pulse1 former technology for Linux OS deployment (RPM & Debian based)

Integration with configuration management systems (puppet or another one) Pull mode

Network devices management

Some references

Services du Premier ministre - Assets management : 2500 computers

Ministère de l'Intérieur - Assets management : 3500 computers

CEA - Assets management : 1000 computers

Airbus - Essais en vol de l'A380

Caisse Nationale d'Assurance Maladie : Pulse 2 for ~90 000 computers

Leisure company under State control : Pulse 2 for 18 000 computers

More informations

Community web site : http://pulse2.mandriva.org

Get a ready to run vmware image : https://pulse2.mandriva.org/wiki/Download#VMwareImage

Open. Simple. Innovative.