INTRODUCTION
In the modern world of IT technologies, where new applications appear every day, and the amounts of data are growing exponentially, one of the main requirements for an IT infrastructure is accessibility. It is of crucial importance to be able to easily access and manage your environment from any point of the world, and Internet seems to be the most straightforward way to do this. Thus, web-based management functionality is literally a “must have” for any storage solution. Basically, all you need is just a device with an Internet connection, and you get the functionality for the IT infrastructure management on the palm of your hand.
PROBLEM
If IT infrastructure management capabilities are limited only to directly attached devices, there will be a few significant problems to deal with. Obviously, you won’t be able to operate your environment from a distant location, which is a real problem in case your system administrator is away and there’s no one else to do the job. Installing dedicated software is an option, but it makes the process complicated as administrators need to install it every time they use a different device. Furthermore, such software is not always available for mobile devices, putting additional restrictions on management flexibility. This may become a real challenge in such scenarios where there is no specialized IT staff in place to constantly administrate the infrastructure, for example, ROBO.
SOLUTION
In order to simplify the job of system administrators, we provide the functionality allowing you to manage your StarWind-based infrastructure from any web browser on any device, be it a PC or Android, iOS, or Windows smartphone. StarWind web-based management functionality completely eliminates any restrictions for distant infrastructure management, so you can operate your environment from any remote location.
Currently, there are two ways of managing a StarWind-based infrastructure from a web browser: by using StarWind Gateway VM or by deploying StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance. Both options are extremely simple, so you can just decide on the one that suits you best.
StarWind Gateway VM
By following this approach, you deploy a Linux-based virtual machine from a template, and the VM will accept incoming HTTP connections and transform them into RDP sessions. After configuring the VM and a target host, you will be automatically directed into the RDP session on the target StarWind host when entering a Gateway VM IP in a web browser. Thus, you get the control over storage-related operations, such as creating devices on the available target servers, etc.
StarWind VSA
This option allows deploying a StarWind Virtual Storage Appliance as a Linux-based virtual machine from a template and further using it as a full-fledged StarWind node, or for managing the existing StarWind infrastructure. The VM template comes with a built-in HTTP > RDP “proxy” functionality, so what you get is full control over your environment by simply entering StarWind VSA virtual machine IP in a web browser.
CONCLUSION
StarWind web-based management functionality completely eliminates all restrictions on remote IT infrastructure management and makes the daily routine of system administrators much easier. No more dependency on directly attached devices and no need to install dedicated software. You can choose the option which suits you best, be it a Gateway VM or StarWind VSA, and you get the ability to easily administrate your StarWind infrastructure from any web browser on PC or Android, iOS, or Windows mobile device.