Levanta appliance aims to ease Linux management

* Intrepid X eases management of large Linux-based networks

Levanta recently released a new server management appliance aimed at administrators who manage large Linux-based networks.

The box, called the Intrepid X, is a hardware-based management product that can be used to monitor, manage and control multiple Linux servers over Ethernet LAN and Fibre Channel SAN networks. Among the improvements in the new device over Levanta's previous Intrepid M appliance is the ability to connect Linux machines with SAN, with support for Fibre Channel and iSCSI-over-Ethernet.

Levanta - formerly known as the open source support company LinuxCare - says the Intrepid X device can be used to perform an array of server administrative and monitoring tasks. The box allows administrators to view Linux server performance - such as memory and processor utilization - as well as physical monitoring of server hardware, including temperature and humidity (if the hardware supports these internal metrics). The device can be used to centralize and manage RPM software packages and updates for Linux servers. The box can also be used to migrate data among Linux machines, and to back up configuration states of servers.

The Intrepid X now allows users to store Linux OS images on a SAN, and push these images down to LAN-based Linux hardware via a built-in SAN/NAS gateway inside the appliance. Levanta claims this allows administrators to centralize Linux OS files and data, and provision new servers more quickly by loading up machines via CD, or over a NAS box.

The Intrepid X supports Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Novell SLES, CentOS, Fedora Core, and Asianux. The appliance is priced on a per-server basis, starting at $295 for each Linux system managed.
