Remote access benefits Texans; electronic benefits transfer system assists 1.8 million citizens - Network Management

Communications News, March, 2002

The state of Texas operates one of the nation's largest electronic benefits transfer (EBT) systems, delivering assistance through the Department of Human Services (DHS) to more than 1.8 million recipients via a magnetic stripe debit card that can be used at more than 10,500 Texas retail outlets. The agency was finding, however, that the existing legacy system was in need of new and effective ways to monitor and manage networked equipment.

Existing tools included a Vax Cluster Console that was used to manage the Texas agencies' servers. This system was only friendly to Digital's family of VMS servers. Another tool was expensive to maintain and did not provide the degree of remote-management capabilities required. Making matters more difficult, the new EBT 2 system was harder to manage because it included diverse network services and servers located in Austin and San Angelo, TX.

After a lengthy review process, DHS selected Northrop Grumman Technical Services Inc. (NGTSI) to provide transaction processing and software maintenance services. Challenged to maximize system uptime, NGTSI looked to TECSys Development in Dallas to help determine requirements and strategy for improved systems management.

As the project unfolded, NGTSI had three requirements of the new system:

* With multiple sites and minimal staff, NGTSI required the ability to monitor, manage, program and reprogram network equipment from a central location.

* Some of NGTSI legacy equipment was still operating on a local area transport protocol, but migrating to standard TCP/IP required something that could bridge the two protocols.

* Though the EBT-2 systems are a dosed network, for security purposes, many state agency users have access. NGTSI needed something that granted access to only selected IP addresses or limited the total number of connections at any given time.

For the first step of the project, TECSys recommended implementing a console-management solution that would allow users to remotely manage servers and network infrastructure equipment. Console servers from Lantronix, Irvine, CA, (www.lantronix.com) were selected. The servers leverage the console or serial port built into most network and telecom equipment, to provide remote management using familiar tools like telnet, secure shell or a Web browser. When the network is not available, users can access attached equipment over a modem.

"Console servers hit the nail right on the head for what we needed," says Harris Graeber, NGTSI systems administrator for the project. "These products are the most flexible remote-management tools I've seen."

Today, from his desktop in the Austin office, Graeber has a virtual window into the entire network, consisting of dozens of devices; he can view output, print reports, set permissions, and make programming changes and upgrades. When a network device fails and needs to be reprogrammed, Graeber can perform all the necessary network-management functions from his desk, or any computer with a Web browser.

In the next step of the project, software will be added to the Lantronix console servers, so that NGTSI will improve its centralized management capabilities with tools that capture information and notify appropriate personnel of events that take place enterprisewide. NGTSI will also gain access to a compressive database for reporting.

In the future, Graeber expects to implement secure console servers because of additional features like user authentication, authorization and encryption. These security measures will enable Graeber and his team to monitor and make programming changes from any PC with an Internet connection.

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