Most organizations, in any sector, rely heavily on their server infrastructure to host applications, store essential data, and facilitate communication. Effective server management is essential for optimal IT performance. This can best be accomplished with a unified endpoint management and a security solution like ManageEngine Endpoint Central that enables Infrastructure and Operations (I&O) teams to efficiently oversee management responsibilities while ensuring optimal server infrastructure security and reliability.
Manage the server lifecycle
Proper setup of server devices is crucial for establishing a stable foundation for IT operations and enabling businesses to deliver reliable services. Endpoint Central enables sysadmins to provision new servers by installing necessary operating systems, configuring hardware and software components, and allocating resources such as CPU, memory, and storage. This process ensures that the servers are ready to handle various workloads efficiently.
Since different servers often run different operating systems, I&O teams generally maintain separate caches for each OS to ensure compatibility and proper management. This adds to the organizations' administrative burden and requires more resources and effort from their I&O teams. Endpoint Central simplifies this process and streamlines operations by providing a unified caching server that supports multiple operating systems, and centralizes the storage and distribution of OS updates, patches, and software packages.
Patch management tailored for servers
- Rigorous testing needs
Servers have unique configurations and dependencies that require the patches to undergo rigorous testing and validation to ensure compatibility with existing software, hardware, and configurations. Endpoint Central enables system admins to test the patches on test groups to eliminate the possibilities of compatibility issues before deploying them to the servers.
- Absolute flexibility and control
System admins have to deal with several constraints while managing server patches. Servers typically have designated maintenance windows for patching that are determined based on the organizations' non-business hours to minimize disruptions. Working within these limited windows can be challenging, especially for servers hosting critical business applications that require continuous uptime. Adding to the time issues, servers have unique patching needs that often require actions to be executed based on specific patching workflows and configuration schedules timed that must cater to operational needs. To efficiently manage IT infrastructure and business operational needs, server admins frequently request more control over the server patches and configuration schedules.
Endpoint Central provides a self-service portal that shifts the control of patch management to application owners rather than the I&O team thereby improving operational efficiency. The self-service portal empowers application owners with flexibility to patch server components on a schedule that minimizes disruptions to business operations. This approach alleviates the burden on the I&O team, allowing them to focus on other critical tasks.
- Simplified collaboration between I&O teams and application owners
Often, I&O teams face challenges while patching servers due to their dependency on the application owners, who will have to confirm the servers eligible for patching. While it is the I&O team's responsibility to ensure that the patching requirements are met in compliance with industry regulations, it is the application owners' responsibility to ensure that the new patches do not disrupt the functionality of their critical systems causing business downtime. To ensure both teams keep up their responsibilities, organizations follow processes involving multiple approvals and authorizations.
To enable smooth collaboration between these teams, Endpoint Central integrates with Zoho Creator. The integration simplifies multi-level approval workflows and enables the automated creation of a patch deployment draft based on the approvals received.
- Nuanced patch-version control
Different patch versions introduce changes that could impact the server stability, compatibility, or security posture. Server admins need granular control over the patch versions to tailor patching strategies specifically to their unique requirements and environments.
With Endpoint Central, system admins can:
- Decline patches if testing reveals incompatibility issues caused by new versions.
- Retain superseded patches for up to three months, in case a rollback is necessary.
- Revert to a known good state in case of unprecedented issues.
- Create workflows with pre- and post-deployment checks for assured stability.
- Meets patching needs for servers in closed networks
At times, enterprises are required to keep their internal servers isolated from the internet connection due to security requirements or compliance obligations. Endpoint Central enables server admins with the necessary tools for patch management, an internet-dependent task, without exposing the servers to the internet.
Remote monitoring and maintenance
Regularly monitoring the health of server infrastructure is crucial for early identification and remediation of potential issues, ensuring the availability of critical IT services. Server admins can respond promptly and perform diagnostic tasks, such as checking logs or restarting services. They can further use Endpoint Central's remote troubleshooting toolkit and execute remote remediation actions like modifying server configurations or applying patches to address the underlying issue.
IT automation
Automation is the key to improve IT efficiency and enable organizations to focus their resources where they are needed rather than on mundane, repetitive tasks. Server admins can choose from over 350 out-of-the-box script templates within Endpoint Central to automate everyday processes and workflows. For unique business-specific scenarios, server admins can customize scripts to meet their needs. For automating redundant tasks associated with patching servers, Endpoint Central enables I&O teams to define their deployment policies before and after the patch deployment with settings and scripts. For example, system admins can check if the backup server is ready before shutting down the primary server for patch deployment.
Cybersecurity
Securing servers against evolving cyberthreats is crucial to ensure business continuity and data protection. By implementing robust endpoint security measures, organizations can mitigate risks and safeguard their server infrastructure.
- Vulnerability detection and remediation
Endpoint Central provides panoramic visibility across apps, web servers, database servers, OSs, and browsers for comprehensive vulnerability detection. Going beyond the detection of missing patches, Endpoint Central also detects the presence of risky software (like peer-to-peer, end-of-life, and RDP-enabled software), the presence of unauthorized local admin rights, applications running with elevated privileges and the usage of unintended ports that may be activated by malware or unknown applications.
According to CVE details, only 11% of vulnerabilities detected in the last year were found to be critical. Endpoint Central enables system admins to wade through the sea of threats, identifying and prioritizing those requiring immediate attention. Endpoint Central also features an exclusive dashboard that highlights zero-day vulnerabilities (along with work-arounds until the vendor makes patches available) and possible ransomware threats, for which a quick response time is crucial to minimizing risks.
- Ensure continuous compliance
Security is not a one-time set-and-forget activity and requires ongoing efforts for maximum benefits. Frameworks and best-practices offered by compliance standards are tools that help simplify this process in a systematic manner.
The CIS Benchmarks is one such standard, developed by the Center for Internet Security, that provides prescriptive guidance for establishing a secure baseline configuration for assets including server OS and app servers. Manually assessing all the servers against these benchmarks is no easy feat. Endpoint Central simplifies the process of adhering to and maintaining compliance to CIS benchmarks through out-of-the-box compliance policies. These policies helps monitor the servers to identify applicable CIS benchmarks and detect violations along with detailed corrective actions for remediation.
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"(During WannaCry) we didn't leave the room for 36 hours. When we finally saw a complete green chart on the patch compliance widget by the end of two days, we had a moment of respite. That was the first time we patched our entire fleet using Endpoint Central, including production servers. It was a monumental achievement considering the scale and complexity of our operations. "
ITAM and security for a renowned global manufacturer,
Practice lead.