Switches from
Berkeley Networks, Fore Systems and Maconi
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Professional Enterprise and Backbone Switches
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For the enhanced functions with Layer 3 and 4 switching and routing, the ESX
Series needs a NSC, this is a
"Network Service Controller".
This are bigger NSC II for the 4800 Series.
This are NSC I for the 2400 Series.
Inside the NSC there runs a Web based software called "ForeThought" based on a Web-Server under a
very special (restricted version) of Microsoft NT 4.0 Server.
You need this anyway, not only to manage and control the extended functions and
capabilities of the switch.
The NSC I and NSC II servers are standard Intel based
servers (single or dual Pentium II or III PC´s) within a 19" rackmount
chassis with mirrored scsi harddisks.
The concept seems to be
foolproof. The NSCs have one physical NIC to the switch and another physical NIC
to the network and one virtual NIC for the local administration.
The Windows NT 4.0 SP5 or 6 is a special strictly limited edition
with the least components we have ever seen. The Fore engeneers did delete everything what
is nessecarry to hack or corrupt the operating system.
So it is really hard to add any hardware or
software onto the harddiscs. If you loose your supervisor password, you are beginning to
have a lot of stress. There is no CD drive nor a floppy or a IDE driver to connect
anything to that server.
When you get it running, you are happy and you
have a very nice tool to manage your units. It is better to step over to a more powerful
server, having the same components but a more powerful CPU. The Webserver with its java
engine "eats" a lot of speed.
The NSC = "Network Service Controller"
from Fore / Marconi :
Switches from 
