Meet Hubble: ZipTie 2008.04

2008.04 brings additional, powerful functionality to ZipTie, including Reporting, Configuration Restore, IPv6 compatibility, and OS Push/Pull

New Features

• Intelligent Reporting Framework based on BIRT, allowing for scheduling and emailing of reports in multiple output formats. The following reports are provided out of the box.
• Inventory Report (hardware and software versions)
• Software Summary Report
• Protocol and Credential Usage Summary Report
• Config Failure Report
• Configuration Restore to allow users to revert a network device to a previous configuration version
• Extensible software retrieval and distribution framework, based on Tool Plug-ins. Cisco IOS distribution and retrieval are provided
• Job executions can now be based on search criteria rather than a flat device list
• IPv6 compatibility
• SNMPv3 compatibility
• Integration with ZipForge to allow users to easily deploy community provided content
• Users can schedule a master discovery job that will maintain their inventory
• New Adapters for the following device types
• Adtran NetVanta
• Alcatel Omniswitch
• APC SmartUPS
• Cisco ACNS
• Cisco VxWorks
• Cisco WAAS
• Enterasys SSR Switches
• Enterasys VerticalHorizon Switches
• Extreme XOS
• HP ProCurve M Series Switches
• Marconi ATM Switch
• Nortel Passport1600
• Nortel Tiara
• 3Com 4400 Switches
• 3Com 3300 Switches
• 3Com SuperStack II Switches
• Many Bug Fixes (View here)

A patch release of ZipTie, 2007.12b, has been released and is available for download.

This patch released fixed 62 bugs and enhancements. For a complete list go here.

The ZipForge is up and running!

We are very excited to announce the ZipForge, the content exchange for all things ZipTie. If you are looking for an adapter or a tool to accomplish a particular task, start on the ZipForge (forge.ziptie.org).

We have added the content created by the ZONA partner companies, as well as the adapters that come out of the box with ZipTie. Community members have already started posting their own adapters and tools. If you have something you would like to submit, don't be shy!

To learn more about how to get involved, click here.

To learn how to package your content to add it to the ZipForge, click here.

We are looking for feedback on how to improve the Forge. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, email us at forge@ziptie.org.

The ZipTie team announced the immediate availability of ZipTie 2007.12, the third major release of it's network configuration and change management software suite. ZipTie now supports more than 35 different device types, and can be easily extended to support newer device types.

What is new in ZipTie 2007.12

• Change Automation

ZipTie now supports execution of an arbitrary set of commands against a set
of devices. For example, this functionality allows network admins to quickly
address an attack or a vulnerability by deploying access lists to thousands
of devices within minutes. Users can also schedule command execution to take
advantage of maintenance windows (reduced risk) and they also have access to
the entire history of commands that were executed (for auditing).

• Tool Scheduling

Previously, ZipTie's script tools could only be executed impromptu, but from
2007.12 onwards they can be scheduled to run on a regular basis. This enables
users to easily monitor various characteristics of their devices (e.g. a CPU
utilization or Interface bandwith utilization tool that is run every 5 minutes).

• New Device Support

The following new device types are supported in the 2007.12 release.
- Alteon Load Balancers
- Aruba Switches
- Cisco CS500, Local Director, and 3005
- Dell PowerConnect
- HP ProCurve Switches
- Nortel Contivity and Passport

• Robust Database and Scriptable Client

ZipTie 2007.12 includes support for PostgreSQL, a highly scalable and advanced
open source database. The ZipTie server can also be managed via a Perl based
web-service client (CPAN link).

What does ZipTie offer ?

• Inventory Discovery

ZipTie uses a sophisticated inventory discovery mechanism to discover the nodes
in a network. It uses a combination of ICMP, TCP, and SNMP scans to discover
and identify devices and backup their configuration(s) via an extensible adapter
framework.

• Search Based Interface

ZipTie was written with scalability in mind and this is reflected in its intuitive
and easy to use search based interface. Users can manage 1000s of devices
without any problem by searching on "tags" and other attributes (Hostname,
Model, etc.) of a device.

• Flexible Tools Plugin Framework

Network administrators can use ZipTie's Perl based Tools framework to reuse
all the tools and scripts they might have developed and easily create new ones.

• Extensible Adapter Framework

ZipTie uses Perl based Adapters to communicate with devices while retrieving
their configuration data. ZipTie can manage devices via a variety of protocols
including Telnet, SSH, SNMP, etc. ZipTie's adapter framework has enabled out of
the box device support for more than 10 vendors (and 15 different models).

• Enterprise Grade Server

The ZipTie server is an OSGi based server that is capable of handling 100's of
users and 1000's of devices. The server boasts an extremely configurable "cron"
based scheduler, multi-user support, a powerful "Lucene" based configuration
search engine, ability to "tag" devices, Atom feeds, SSL support, and SOAP APIs.

• ZipTie Development Environment a.k.a AdapterTool

Have a device that ZipTie does not support? No worries. A network
admin can use the AdapterTool to create an adapter in a jiffy. The Adapter
Tool's command line interface allows creation, debugging, and deployment of
adapters in a transparent and easy to use manner.

• Installers

ZipTie can run on Windows, Linux, and MacOS X and it has installers for
each of the above platforms. The ZipTie Wiki has instructions on running
ZipTie on other platforms also.

A more detailed explanation of ZipTie's key features can be found in its data sheet.

What does the future hold for ZipTie ?

There are a lot of key features planned for ZipTie's future releases including support
for fault monitoring, availability monitoring, and traffic analysis. ZipTie already has a
comprehensive configuration model that will be the foundation of advanced reporting
and search functionality in the future. The ZipTie Roadmap specifies the roadmap in
more detail.

To get involved in ZipTie's future and to provide feedback, potential users, network
administrators, tools and software developers are strongly encouraged to join the ZipTie
Community and actively participate in the forums. ZipTie is a growing project and is
always looking forward to hear and incorporate feedback from its community.

ZipTie Resources

Have a question about ZipTie ? Cannot get a backup to work or have a cool idea for
a tool ? Post a question, idea, or start a discussion through any of the following
resources and one of our community members or developers will get you an answer.

ZipTie IRC Channel

ZipTie Forums

ZipTie Mailing Lists

For more information on how to use ZipTie's powerful capabilities or to just learn
more about ZipTie, please browse through the following resources.

ZipTie Wiki
Contains information about getting started with ZipTie, user's guide, and roadmap
documentation. Also contains a bunch of HOWTO's for software developers who want to
get involved with ZipTie.

ZipTie Website
Contains overall information about the ZipTie project with various links to docs,
forums, bug reports, and "breaking news" about ZipTie.

A release candidate of the Galileo project (2007.12) is available
for download at http://www.ziptie.org/builds/ZipTie-2007.12-RC2/

Please go ahead and download it and report any issues you might find
against our Bugzilla - http://bugs.ziptie.org/

The new features in ZipTie 2007.12 include:

• Command execution

Executing a batch of commands against a set of devices

• Scheduler updates

Scheduling of script tools and command execution whereas
previously you could only schedule backups.

• Archiving

History of script tools execution and command execution.

• New Device Support

- Alteon
- Aruba
- Cisco CS500, Local Director, and 3005
- Dell PowerConnect
- HP ProCurve
- Nortel Contivity and Passport

If you have any problems installing and using the release candidate,
please reach out to the ZipTie team via the usual channels :

IRC : http://www.ziptie.org/irc
Forums : ZipTie Forums
Mailing Lists : ZipTie Mailing Lists

A patch release of ZipTie, 2007.09b, has been released and is available for download.
This patch release addresses a few installer issues, and addresses an important
enhancement around sending traps whenever devices are deleted from or added to
ZipTie.

The following bugs have been fixed as part of this patch.

• Fixed installer issues on Linux and Windows (bug 290, bug 353, and bug 361)
• Support "empty tag" search which will return devices that have not been tagged (bug 337)
• Added a backup status editor that gives more visibility into the state of a backup (bug 366)
• Modified discovery to support discovery of all out-of-the-box device types (bug 373)
• Provided support for saving a configuration to a file (bug 412)

In addition to the above bugs, ZipTie also now supports sending of traps whenever a
device is deleted from or added to the ZipTie server. This allows easy integration
between ZipTie and other network management systems. The description of these
traps can be found in the ZipTie MIB.

Have a question about ZipTie ? Cannot get a backup to work or have a cool idea for
a tool ? Post a question, idea, or start a discussion through any of the following
resources and one of our community members or developers will get you an answer.

ZipTie Forums

ZipTie Mailing Lists

ZipTie IRC Channel

For more information on how to use ZipTie's powerful capabilities or to just learn
more about ZipTie, please browse through the following resources.

ZipTie Wiki
Contains information about getting started with ZipTie, user's guide, and roadmap
documentation. Also contains a bunch of HOWTO's for software developers who want to
get involved with ZipTie.

ZipTie Website
Contains overall information about the ZipTie project with various links to docs,
forums, bug reports, and "breaking news" about ZipTie.

Can you imagine a world without zippers ? The Wikipedia entry about Zipper describes it
as a "slider that brings together two sides". We took that concept and brought together
our network configuration management product (ZipTie) and a security audit tool (Nipper)
to bring you Zipper - providing end users with security audits of their configurations!

Nipper stands for "Network Infrastructure Parser", an open source tool that performs
security audits of network configuration files. The report produced by Nipper includes
detailed security-related issues with recommendations and a configuration report.

The ZipTie-Nipper integration - a.k.a Zipper - enables users to run Nipper against
device configurations that ZipTie has backed up. All the user has to do is "right-click"
on the device, select the "Nipper" option, and voila : A Nipper Report is generated for
the device's configuration. Now the user can inspect Nipper's security audit and make
appropriate changes to the device using ZipTie to remediate any issues that Nipper might
have reported (see screenshot).

Now, how can you get your hands on the Zipper ;-) ?

Detailed instructions on downloading and installing Zipper can be found in our Documentation
Wiki under the NipperIntegration topic.

Nipper supports the following devices : IOS routers and switches, CatOS switches, Cisco
content switches (CSS/ArrowPoint), Cisco security appliances (PIX, ASA, and FWSM) and
Juniper's ScreenOS (formerly NetScreen), all of which are supported by ZipTie. More
information about Nipper can also be found at Titania and Sourceforge.

And finally, from now onwards, if your boss gives you a tough time about vulnerabilities
in your network, ask him or her to zip it !!

Cheers,
Kartick Suriamoorthy
ZipTie Community/Product Manager

A patch release of ZipTie, 2007.09c, has been released and is available for download.

This patch release addresses a bunch of bugs and adapter backup issues.

The following bugs have been fixed as part of this patch.

• Add/delete of device(s) is not raising SNMP traps (bug 457)
• Device adapter backup failures (bugs 393, 411, 456, 447, 448)
• Setting default values for tool inputs is broken (bug 459)
• Device returned from config search are not actionable (bug 460)
• Backup status editor does not provide any information (bug 464)
• Send SNMP Traps as v2 instead of v1 (bug 458)

In addition to the above bugs, a host of other issues were also fixed.
The complete list of bugs that were fixed in this patch release can be
found here.

Have a question about ZipTie ? Cannot get a backup to work or have a cool idea for
a tool ? Post a question, idea, or start a discussion through any of the following
resources and one of our community members or developers will get you an answer.

ZipTie Forums

ZipTie Mailing Lists

ZipTie IRC Channel

For more information on how to use ZipTie's powerful capabilities or to just learn
more about ZipTie, please browse through the following resources.

ZipTie Wiki
Contains information about getting started with ZipTie, user's guide, and roadmap
documentation. Also contains a bunch of HOWTO's for software developers who want to
get involved with ZipTie.

ZipTie Website
Contains overall information about the ZipTie project with various links to docs,
forums, bug reports, and "breaking news" about ZipTie.