Handle network management and system maintenance without having to constantly be on-site, or spending time moving between multiple sites – no truck rolls required.
Auvik has four features that offer secure remote access to infrastructure devices in Auvik’s inventory: 1) Terminal, 2) Remote Browser, 3) Tunnel, and 4) the Remote Command widget.
Additional resources:
- 3 Reasons to Use Auvik’s Remote Management Features
- Can I see a history of remote connections?
- Remote access Knowledge Base
In-app Remote Terminal
Securely access any SSH or Telnet-enabled device through Auvik's web interface. With one simple click, Auvik pulls up a terminal window and logs you into the network infrastructure device of your choosing (instead of using a separate application like PuTTY over a VPN tunnel). The terminal emulates any other terminal you might be using except it’s accessed directly within Auvik so you don’t have to leave your Auvik dashboard to check or modify your devices.
Additional resources:
Remote Browser
Directly from your Auvik dashboard, log into the web interface of any web-enabled element on your network, such as a router, switch, or firewall, using HTTP or HTTPS as if you were local to the device. To launch a remote browser connection, you must have all pop-up blockers turned off. From a device dashboard, hover over Remote Management and click Remote Browser. Select a port to connect to. If you don’t see the port you’d like to connect to, update the HTTP or HTTPS service to include the port you want monitored.
Additional resources:
- How do I launch a remote browser connection?
- How do I use a non-standard HTTP/HTTPS port to connect to remote devices? (Remote Browser)
Remote Tunnel
Auvik’s remote tunnel feature allows you to initiate a VPN-like connection between the device you're using and the remote device you want to access on networks where Auvik has been deployed. The tunnel gives you flexibility – any network protocol can be piped through the tunnel – so you can remotely access any service using a specific network port directly from the device’s dashboard in Auvik.
Common use cases can include:
- Requiring access to a web GUI on a non-standard port on a device
- Requiring use of a protocol other than SSH / Telnet or HTTP / HTTPS to access a device (e.g., RDP, VNC, or FTP)
There are three main components to Auvik’s remote tunneling feature:
- A tunnel client you download and use on your local machine
- The Auvik cloud
- The Auvik collector you’ve downloaded and deployed on a client’s network
Just as a note, there's a maximum of 20 tunnel sessions allowed per client, and 5 personal tunnel connections for a single client – no new connections can be made once these limits have been reached.
Additional resources:
- Training course: Tunneling with Auvik
- How do I launch a tunnel connection?
- How do I check if there are any open remote tunnel connections?
- How do I troubleshoot a remote tunnel connection?
Remote Command widget
Launched just last year, Auvik’s Remote Command widget allows you to send single line commands to network devices through SSH enabled logins within the Auvik device dashboard. This means you can ask the device troubleshooting questions while never having to leave the device details page in Auvik or logging in to the device elsewhere. You can now send and receive the output from the device with export and audit functionalities. Since the Remote Command widget is not a terminal window (Auvik has a separate Remote Terminal feature for sending multiple commands), it allows you to send one command to the device with no holding of the session open for other users.
Auvik has over 10K users that utilize the Remote Command widget, with 62% of these users accessing this feature weekly. You can try it for yourself. Below are some sample commands you can run using the widget. Just locate the Remote Command widget on the device dashboard of any network with SSH capable devices.
- show running-config
- show ethernet-switching table
- request license info
- capwap client server name
- show run
- show interface status
- show system info
- sh run
- sh log
- show arp
Auvik user roles that have access to the Remote Command widget by default are: Super Admin, Admin, and Level 2 Tech (you can manage user access).
Just as a note, if your device does not use SSH to connect to devices and send commands, the Remote Command widget will not appear for this device.
Additional resources:
“I use Auvik every day for everything. I can remote-terminal in, meaning I can be anywhere and jump in from my phone and make any changes I need to on switches.” – Cody Petersen, Network Administrator, Kingman Unified School District
“All of the features are valuable, but the ability to remote into anything, whether it's a terminal or a browser, is really big for us. It makes things a lot easier day-to-day. It keeps track of all the firewall or switch configurations, so if anybody makes changes, we can roll back and have an alert on it. Discovery has been useful.” – Anthony Levin, CTO, Fraxion
“Most people will also use Auvik for one of my favorite functions that it provides, the remote terminal. That's pretty much the preferred way as far as management goes. We still have people logging in to a service locally using SSH and getting into networking equipment. But personally, in the last year, I have really shifted over to Auvik-first management for my tasks.” – Jayson Steelman, Sr. Support Engineer
“Among the most valuable features are the: remote browser, remote terminal, [and] remote tunneling. Those features ease getting into our customer sites, especially ones that are a little more locked down. Instead of having to go through a VPN, log in to a system and do this or that to the platform, we can get to everything right through Auvik. It gives us immediate access to different things.” – Jason Johnson, President, Johnson Business Technology Solutions, Inc.
“I like the ability to remotely access devices securely….The cloud-based platform gives us ready access to necessary information without the need to go through additional steps to remote into a client site. Otherwise, we would need to set up a secure tunnel through a site-to-site VPN. Auvik makes it more convenient….They added two-factor authentication to access some of these devices remotely. It was a significant step forward because someone with access to Auvik has a lot of power.” – Daniel Porton, Sr Systems Engineer
“Auvik allows us to get into devices through remote tunnels rather than going to the actual sites….From a technical perspective, we have seen time to value with Auvik, though it can be challenging to demonstrate that to the higher-ups with tech solutions. The network topology is an excellent way of showing that value, and so is the remote management backup. It can be impactful when people don't have such bells and whistles to see.” – Alex Smith, TAM and VCIO, Calculated Research & Technology
“Having a stronger inventory and the flexibility to more easily find particular aspects allows us to delegate certain low-level tasks to junior staff. Because we can pinpoint exactly where particular devices are easily and quickly, we are able to delegate more high-value tasks such as important firmware updates so that patches are done as quickly as possible. It makes it much simpler because we know exactly which clients need the update. We can use Auvik from the portal to remote directly into that device to apply the firmware that we need.” – Ryan Ash, Director of Managed Services, Custom Systems
“Another feature that worked really well for us was the remote access tool. If we needed to log into one of the network devices, we didn't have to jump on a server, workstation, or local device, or connect through a VPN. Auvik was able to give us direct UI access to any device on the network…If a client's server was offline, we didn't need to VPN in or go to the site to turn on the servers. Auvik gave us the ability to turn on the server remotely without having to go anywhere. It saved us time on that side of things. Over the four years that we were working with it, on average, it has saved us about 150 hours.” – Iain, Director of Technology
“Another benefit is the ability to use the connector as a "jump-box "and get into other devices. Previously, we would have to either VPN into a network or get into the network through some other remote means, to troubleshoot and configure. But with Auvik, you have the ability to do quick, one-off troubleshooting commands. A technician can do that. You can also get into all the network devices and computers through Auvik itself…And given the way it alerts, and how it shows the product, it does produce a lower mean time to resolution.” – Edward Tregunna, Network Engineer