Communication channels allow you to create logical groupings of your ExtremeControl engine groups in order to segment data and limit network traffic between geographical or customer sensitive locations.
This is an advanced feature and is only appropriate in certain network scenarios. Here are two scenarios where using communication channels could be beneficial.
- A large enterprise with remote offices.
Sending unnecessary traffic over WAN resources can cause strain on the ExtremeCloud IQ Site Engine server and possibly increase data transmission costs. Communication channels allow you to limit network communications to each geographic location reducing the amount of data that is broadcast over the slower and more expensive WAN lines. - A Service Provider with multiple customers, clients, or organizations that do not share ExtremeControl engines.
In this scenario, each service provider customer has their own ExtremeControl engine groups, and the data from one customer's engine groups must not cross to another customer's engine groups. The engines may be located on the customer site or in the service provider’s cloud. Communication channels can be created for each customer, to restrict data shared between customers and protect sensitive information.
Communication channels are not appropriate in scenarios where a service provider has multiple customer data located on the same engine. In this type of scenario the ExtremeControl engine needs to be hosted in the cloud and physical access to the engine is never be granted to the customer.
Communication channels are also not appropriate for large university networks where students and faculty move between different portions of the network, and thus move between ExtremeControl engines in different engine groups. Because mobility is a requirement in this scenario, communication channels should not be implemented.
| NOTES: |
In order to enable this feature, both the ExtremeCloud IQ Site Engine server and all the ExtremeControl engines must be running ExtremeCloud IQ Site Engine version 4.4 or higher. This feature is not supported if there are any engines on the network running older versions. When enabling communication channels on a network that also uses ExtremeAnalytics, the communication channels must also be configured in ExtremeAnalytics. For more information, please see the Enabling ExtremeControl integration section of the ExtremeAnalytics Application Data Collection help topic. |
Configuring Communication Channels
Use the following steps in ExtremeCloud IQ Site Engine to configure communication channels for the engine groups in your network. An engine group can only have one communication channel, but multiple engine groups can use the same communication channel.
- Open the ExtremeControl Options window (Administration > Options).
- In the ExtremeControl Advanced options panel, select the Enable Communication Channels for Appliance Groups option.
- Open the Control > Access Control tab.
- Select an engine group you want to configure as a communication channel in the ExtremeControl Appliance Groups left-panel tree.
- Open the Details tab in the right-panel. A communication channel configuration setting is displayed on the engine group's right-panel Configuration tab. You can add new channels using the configuration menu button to the right of the field. Any channels you create are available for all engine groups.
- After you have created your communication channels, use the drop-down list to select the appropriate communication channel for the engine group. When you first enable communication channels, engine groups are members of the Default channel until you change the selection.
- Repeat steps 3 and 4 to configure communication channels for all your engine groups.
- Select the Enforce button at the bottom of the left-panel to enforce the new settings to your engine groups. The communication channels are not active until you perform the enforce.
- If you have enabled the Distributed End-Systems Cache option (Administration > Options > Identity and Access > Advanced), a new cache configuration must be reloaded on the ExtremeCloud IQ Site Engine server by pressing the Reload button in the options panel. This redistributes the end-system information to the new channels. The Reload operation may take some time and network communication may be temporarily disrupted.
The traffic for each engine group is now restricted to its assigned communication channel. Disabling the Communication Channel option in the ExtremeControl Options resets all channels for each engine group back to Default.
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