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“Through the use of Asentria’s SNMP-Link, we can now remotely survey our entire network, including our security, power and alarm equipment. Their products are seamlessly integrated into our network, and help us avoid expensive labor and installation costs.”

Jim Wemette, Manager of Systems Engineer at Burlington Telecom

Asentria Product Security – Part I

This begins a three-part series concerning the security of Asentria products. In January we will look at fundamental physical security and safety – in other words, how do you insure that your Asentria product is secure and safe in its physical location so that it can deliver reliable service 24x7. In Febuary, we’ll review the many basic security features available in Asentria products to “keep the bad guys out”! Then in March we’ll explore in detail how to configure the more advanced security features in some Asentria products that you may want to consider using. Of course, you don’t have to wait to get any of this information – just contact Asentria Tech Support at 206-344-8800 or support@asentria.com and we’ll be glad to explain anything you need to know!

Fundamental Physical Security and Safety

Keeping your Asentria unit secure and functioning is essential to the success of your, or your customer’s, department or organization. Here are nine suggestions for ensuring that you are providing the best security and safest operating environment:

1) Limit access – you can greatly decrease the possibility that someone with bad intent will be able to physically do any damage by keeping your Asentria unit and other equipment in a secured location with limited access. Keep server room doors locked, limit access to only a few people at most, and keep a log of who goes into the room and how long they are there.

2) Keep it cool – excessive heat is deadly to electronic equipment, so monitor the temperature in your server room, telecom closet, or wherever your Asentria unit is being used. Keep the air flowing and the temperature low.

3) Protect the power source – an Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) and surge protection system can keep the power flowing smoothly to all your electronic equipment. Everyone should follow these power supply precautions, but this is especially important in areas where weather related power spikes and outages can hit without warning.

4) Ground it – most Asentria units have metal cases and are shipped with a grounding wire to electrically ground the unit. Attach one end to the thumbscrew on the back panel of your Asentria product, and the other to a ground point such as a metal rack or pipe.

5) Mount it – although Asentria products are designed for “tabletop” use, it’s always a good idea to install them in such a way that they are secure and won’t get knocked over or have cables accidentally disconnected. The larger size Asentria units have optional rack mount ears so they can be mounted in a standard 19” equipment rack. But even if your unit is not rack-mountable, you should secure it so that it’s not easily disturbed.

6) Copy the Setting Keys file – most Asentria units have an internal Setting Keys file that is a flat text file listing of all the configurations in the unit. This file should be copied and saved after the unit is installed and functioning, so that if it ever loses its configurations for any reason – or the unit is replaced by another one – that same configuration can be quickly and easily reloaded. See the User Manual for your unit for information on Setting Keys, or contact Asentria Technical Support.

7) Poll buffer boxes regularly – if you store data in your Asentria buffer product for a period of time before polling it, you may want to make that period of time as short as possible. That way your data loss will be minimal if something catastrophic happens to the buffer.

8) Monitor the unit daily – consider making it a part of your regular routine to connect to the command processor of the unit to check that everything is working normally. Keep the window of opportunity for bad things to go unnoticed as small as possible. Another step you can take is to configure your Asentria unit to let you know on its own that it is still “alive”, or to alert you when something is wrong. We’ll go in to more detail about how to do that next month.

9) Use a firewall – if your Asentria unit is on a network, make sure to use a firewall or other network security strategy to keep out unwanted “visitors”. There are other restrictive measures that can be configured with the unit, and again, we’ll explore those in more detail in next months Tips and Tricks section!

Follow the security and safety prevention steps as described above, and your Asentria unit should give you many years of dependable service.