‘Tis the season for joy, cheer, and… hard work? For many Network Admins and IT Directors, the holidays often mean network service windows while the rest of the company is off making merry.  If your holiday plan includes device upgrades and running cable or just being the IT Person on Call, consider gifting yourself the Lantronix LM-Series. With built-in functionality for reliable network automation and config management that makes roll-out of new gear faster, easier, and more secure. It’s like having a little elf magic in the rack.

Why Every Network Admin Needs a Little Magic This Holiday Season

You might know the tradition of the Elf on the Shelf—that eagle-eyed scout sent by Santa to monitor the household and report back on who’s behaving. But what if you had an equivalent magical helper living inside your network infrastructure rack?

A Lantronix LM-Series Console Server isn’t magic, but with direct monitoring of network devices over the console port, it is eagle-eyed. While you’re busy decking the halls, issues can be spotted within seconds and run book-based automated responses can solve problems ranging from clearing an interface to ROMmon recovery ensuring your holidays are spent unwrapping gifts, not triaging problems.

Elf lore states that the Elf flies back to the North Pole nightly to report to Santa. While the LM-Series stays securely mounted in the rack, it is in constant communication with both managed infrastructure and the Lantronix Control Center.

Like Rudolf’s nose reliably guiding Santa’s sleigh, automated tests ensure that out-of-band links, like cellular modems, are working so they are there when you need them. Configurations and OS versions are saved both locally on the LM and backed up in the Control Center.

Over the River and Through the Woods

We know the drill: You’re supposed to head to Grandma’s house, but you’re on call in case of network issues. Go ahead and hook up that sleigh and jingle bells… but bring along your laptop. The LM-Series provides a resilient, out-of-band connection via a cellular modem, POTS line, or even an Iridium satellite (fun fact – signal at the North Pole is the strongest because it’s where all the satellites cross) that is completely independent of your production network. Even if the primary ISP line is cut by The Bumble, you can securely connect to your gear remotely as if you were at the rack with a crash cart, a blue console cable in hand.

Checking the List Twice: The “Naughty or Nice” Protocol

Security doesn’t take a holiday. In fact, hackers love the holidays. Knowing exactly who is accessing your network and whether they belong on the “Nice” list or the “Naughty” list is critical.

The LM-Series enforces strict AAA (Authentication, Authorization, and Accounting) by integrating with your centralized management tools to ensure no unauthorized Grinches can touch the gear. Furthermore, it logs everything. Every keystroke, command, and device response are recorded locally and centrally. If someone makes an errant change over the holidays, you’ll have a forensic audit trail to see exactly who was being naughty.

The Ghost of Configurations Past: Automated Rollback

Finally, let’s talk about the nightmare before Christmas: the “fat-finger” error. We’ve all been there: you’re in a hurry to get to the Nakatomi holiday party and make a quick update to an Access Control List (ACL). Just after hitting enable, you realize that you’ve locked yourself out of the device. Before calling yourself a cotton-headed ninny muggings, take a deep breath. The LM-Series automates configuration rollback to save you from this very scenario. Here is how it works:

1. When you log in to a device, the LM-Series automatically saves the current running configuration locally.
2. You make your changes. Then the LM-Series asks you to confirm. If you made a change that breaks your access and can’t answer, don’t worry. The rollback countdown has already begun, just like Ryan Seacrest at Times Square.
3. The LM-Series’ inactivity timer is running. Once that timer expires (how long it runs is configurable), the LM-Series automatically initiates a rollback procedure. It backs out only the specific changes you made, restoring the device to its previous working state without a reboot. Not quite a holiday miracle, but darn handy!

This holiday season, give yourself the gift of uptime. Let the Lantronix LM-Series be the Elf in your Rack, so you can focus on the important things—like arguing over which holiday movie is the best (it’s Die Hard, obviously).