Xcalibur Global Management Software
- Standard MMC snap-in administration tool
- Combines logical (Active Directory based) and physical (Xcalibur Farm based) management models
- Uses existing Active Directory Tree structure to perform management tasks.
- Assign management policies to devices in any Active Directory level.
- Scalable by adding Xcalibur Front End-Servers to the Xcalibur Farm as needed.
- Fault tolerant through Redundancy & Load Balancing
- Centralized remote deployment of software to devices
- Centralized configuration, upgrade and troubleshooting of devices
- Uses existing Active Directory permission delegation and inheritance model to assign management permissions.
- Uses an Independent Management Protocol that has built-in support for: SSL Encryption, Compression, Port Number Control, Bandwidth Control and more.
- optimised for network-infrastructure by using Xcalibur Sites and Proxies for bandwidth optimization
Although the Xcalibur Directory Manager Snap-in integrates Xcalibur and Active Directory objects together under the same view, Xcalibur objects are not part of the Active Directory schema.
In fact Xcalibur installation does not modify the Active Directory schema in any way.
The Xcalibur database is set to constantly synchronize with the domain controllers hosting the Active Directory database. Directory service updates sent out during the standard Active Directory synchronization process are intercepted by the Xcalibur service allowing constant real-time synchronization between the Xcalibur database and the Active Directory database.
Database and Active Directory Synchronization
- Xcalibur links to the Active Directory using LDAP.
- Active Directory objects are viewable using the Xcalibur Directory Manager MMC snap-in.
- Thin client objects and policies are added to the Xcalibur database through the Xcalibur Directory Manager MMC snap-in.
Xcalibur complies with the Active Directory permission scheme and therefore supports permission delegation at all levels
Management Module
The Xcalibur Global is capable of mapping both the logical organizational structure, represented by the Active Directory as well as the physical company infrastructure layout, represented by the Xcalibur Farm.
This combination allows applying company wide management rules while considering network infrastructure limitations
The Logical Management Model
Xcalibur management is based on a policy model. An Xcalibur policy is a set of rules defining client device settings based on the device's location in the Active Directory tree and the location of the account of the user who is logged on at the device.
Although Xcalibur never modifies the Active Directory schema in any way, Xcalibur can be thought of as an Active Directory extension providing a way to create thin client policies using the same guidelines and rules as those used to create and manage Group Policies in the Windows environment. Anyone who is familiar with Active Directory, Group Policy and the Microsoft applications that manage it will very quickly become familiar with the Xcalibur management snap-ins.
Xcalibur Policies for thin client management can be linked to any Active Directory level.
The Physical Management Model
Through the Xcalibur Farm Manager snap-in administrators can control the physical aspects of thin client management in the organization.
The Xcalibur Farm allows mapping the organization's physical network layout by creating Sites that stand for branches and IP Scopes that stand for the IP Address ranges, used in every branch. Based on the farm structure administrators can configure software deployment rules while considering network limitations, such as bandwidth
Domain Authenticator
The Domain Authenticator Extends the user log-on process to Chip PC's thin client devices.
Upon boot, the device will require users to log-in using their domain credentials identifying themselves to Xcalibur Global.
Administrators will be able to define and deploy Xcalibur policies based on the users not only devices, meaning each user will receive its settings regardless of the device he is using.
