In the junction box

To monitor and control a large network, servers must be placed in a wide range of places in the network infrastructure, be it between the office furniture, in the main distribution frame, or in a cross-connect box outside. A desktop server, with its large form factor, doesn't fit where it is necessary. This is where a small, simple and tough embedded system comes in.

Under the office floor

Offices that don't have a dedicated server room with filtered and cooled air put a big stress on conventional server hardware. Hot summer temperatures and dust shorten the life of mechanical parts.

These conditions call for a server design with low heat emissions, and free of moving parts like fan or HDD. Both the device itself and the power supply pack must be able to withstand these conditions.

The OpenBlockS can be used in rough hot and dusty environments like factory floors. It is well suited as embedded machine component for control and data logging.

Control access to your network and prevent unauthorized PCs like private laptops of employees from connecting to it.

Preload a dozen OpenBlockS with VPN software to create an appliance solution you can just plug into the remote network and instantly create a VPN.

OpenBlockS is an optimal solution where in the same equipment several server functions coexist with a router, which can be configured to a fine level that common routers on the market dose not support.

Complex routing tables and VPN connections to several locations can be set up in the onboard Linux OS for the network interfaces of the OpenBlockS. Drawing from the open source community, many server applications can coexist on the same machine.

OpenBlockS is also small and completely silent, making it ideal for small office and home application.

Wireless network access point

With a WLAN USB stick, you can turn the OpenBlockS into a compact, durable and reliable wireless LAN access point that you can place anywhere.

Router / firewall for copper line network

With its two Ethernet ports, you can use the OpenBlockS as highly customizable router hardware with all desired network functionality like DHCP server, firewall, and whatever advanced network services you wish to install.

Other suggested Open Source software

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Surveillance cameras - lately installed in increasing numbers - are good example for small appliance servers. These surveillance cameras also use the network to stream their images. But when the number of these cameras starts to increase, new needs arise, like routing their traffic through WANs or monitoring their operation.

The new generation is going to have to use some kind of device to monitor heat- smoke- and other sensors, and control the devices - that has to respond to the events that raised the alarm - in a unified system. Lately, you can often see vending machines connected to the internet in Japan.

In office environments monitoring the surrounding network devices, and in case of a malfunction, finding the source of the problem fast is essential to protect resources and avoid serious financial consequences.

In other word, there is an increasing need for a server specialized in network analysis and error resolve.

Even though the OpenBlockS is designed to work completely as a headless device, for some purposes it is helpful to have a keyboard and a display, such as for native development. With a USB graphics adapter, monitor, keyboard and mouse, you can turn the OpenBlockS into a desktop "PC".

Networks that are connected to the Internet can retrieve their time from many available time servers. But when a network is closed for security reasons, this is not an option. Instead, you can use a GPS or radio time module in combination with the OpenBlockS to create a small, reliable time server that runs ntpd reliably around the clock.

One of the basic network services that should never break down is user and device authentication. Whether as a gateway to your user database, or a full LDAP or radius server, the OpenBlockS won't let you down.

System monitoring device

A core job of every system administrator is to make sure all systems and services are up and running. Armed with a network and a live monitoring suite like Nagios, the OpenBlockS is your untiring watchdog that will bark as soon as any of your systems does not act like it should.
And since your watchdog should be the one system that never goes down, only trust a device that is engineered for reliability, like the OpenBlockS .

Alive monitoring of network segments by ping

Sometimes, the simple tools are best. With the right automatization tool, like Plat'Home's KANSHI, regular pings to all devices in your network are a quick and simple way to check for systems that don't respond. Together with customizable message notifications, you can concentrate on solving the problem while user information is handled by the system.

Networked devices have become ubiquitous. Be it security cameras, announcement displays or vending machines, more and more devices get connected to create an ever-growing network infrastructure around us. These vast networks need reliable data transmitters and monitoring devices. Placed at the local network node, the OpenBlockS can aggregate and transmit data, and check devices for problems and malfunctions.

IP network inspection and monitoring

To ensure maximum performance of IP networks, they must be constantly monitored for packet loss, delays, fluctuations, overlap, connection loss and other hazards.
For this application the OpenBlockS is the hardware of choice at several major telecommunications companies.

Packet inspection on Gigabit Ethernet

The OpenBlockS is ready for Gigabit Ethernet. It can handle the high transmission speeds, and protocol innovations like jumbo frames and tagged VLAN.
OpenMicroServer can handle MTU size up to 16110 bytes, which is in fact the maximum possible value of MTU itself.
The firmware is prepared for IPv6, and already serves reliably in IPv6 production networks.