Group Configuration Service Overview

When you need to administer multiple units, one option is to use the Group Configuration Service (GCS) that is built into PacketWise. GCS is a software distribution utility built on top of the file transfer protocol (FTP). With GCS, you can easily distribute the PacketWise software image to all the units you are managing. In addition, you can synchronize your units so that they all have the same traffic classes, partitions, policies, events, host lists, and reports — saving you from having to manually recreate the traffic configuration on each unit.

Note: If you are managing more than ten units, Packeteer recommends you use PolicyCenter (Packeteer's central management software product) instead of GCS.

GCS uses an FTP server to distribute software and configurations. You can use a server that is already operating on your network as long as it meets the following requirements:

• All units that will be in a group can run FTP to the server. Be sure that firewalls do not interfere with FTP access. The Group Configuration Service uses passive mode FTP for data transfers. Passive FTP assigns both FTP ports at random.
• The server and intermediate network links are highly available.
• The server is secure.

Use the following diagram as a guide for setting up the server.

To set up GCS, you need to perform the following tasks:

1. Configure a GCS server.

2. Register each unit with the group server.

3. Subscribe each unit to a traffic group (for updating of traffic configurations) and/or an image group (for software updates).

4. Whenever you have a local configuration you want to distribute to other units, publish the configuration.

Once you have set up GCS, updates happen as soon as you publish a new configuration. PacketWise also polls units every hour and after each reboot, to make sure units have the currently published configuration. If you want to update a unit before the next polling cycle, PacketWise lets you synchronize a unit with the group configuration.