Cross-platform Unified Login — Users are provided with a single login and password for all UNIX, Linux and Windows machines, eliminating the need to establish separate access credentials for varying systems. This increases efficiency and boosts productivity for end users while reducing calls to the help desk related to misplaced passwords.

Simple Installation Process — Administrators can deploy PowerADvantage in a matter of minutes and without making any irreversible changes to the Active Directory schema. PowerADvantage’s simple agent installation process joins the host to the Active Directory and implements the unified login function, eliminating any complex, time consuming configuration changes. PowerADvantage does not create its own “classes” but instead re-uses existing Active Directory classes. All PowerADvantage data is stored in one Active Directory container. Additionally, PowerADvantage’s intelligent import wizard streamlines and simplifies the importing and mapping of your current UNIX/Linux user information directly into Active Directory.

Integration with PowerBroker — PowerADvantage integrates directly with PowerBroker—the industry’s most comprehensive solution for authorization and access control within heterogeneous UNIX/Linux IT environments. The combination of PowerADvantage and PowerBroker enhances security and compliance efforts by facilitating efficient management of both end-user and administrator account access from Active Directory while controlling access and tasks performed using the root account.

Automated Deployment of Configuration Settings — Using Group Policy, IT administrators can leverage Active Directory to establish secure, centrally-managed configuration services to UNIX and Linux hosts (as well as to the applications running on them). Using either custom-created administrative templates or those provided by PowerADvantage, administrators create configuration settings that are automatically stored in Active Directory. This facilitates the rapid automatic deployment and maintenance of configuration settings across a large number of hosts, greatly reducing administrative time and cost. Because these policies are reapplied to each host based on a pre-determined interval, any unapproved changes to the configuration items maintained by PowerADvantage will be reset back to the approved settings at the next policy refresh interval.

Flexible Administration - PowerADvantage is designed so that the product can be administered from either the GUI interface or the command line interface (CLI). For those UNIX/Linux administrators that are more comfortable working with the CLI, the product can be administered just as one would if working via the console.

Targeted Configuration Management — PowerADvantage’s configuration management capabilities leverage Active Directory’s organizational unit structure to deliver targeted configuration services to any number of individual hosts within the IT environment. This enables administrators to apply the configuration settings to selected hosts or applications. For example, the Web servers running an organization’s public Web site should be configured differently than the servers running the internal intranet. PowerADvantage facilitates the configuration of each group of servers differently. Additionally, customers can leverage Active Directory to establish a hierarchy of organizational units (with a specific host placed in the appropriate unit). The host will then inherit all the policies in the hierarchy above and PowerADvantage will resolve any conflicting items in the policy and determine the proper group of settings to apply to the individual host.

Leverages the Group Policy features of Active Directory — to provide secure, centrally-managed configuration services to UNIX and Linux hosts, and to the applications running on those hosts. Using either the Administrative Templates provided with PowerADvantage, or customer-created Administrative Templates, Administrators use the Active Directory Group Policy Object Editor to create configuration settings, which are stored in Active Directory. PowerADvantage compiles applicable policies into a Resultant Set of Policy (RSoP) result. The PowerADvantage RSoP Applicator scripts determine which settings should be applied to the host, and apply the correct set of configuration settings to the host or its applications.

Detailed Compliance Reports — PowerADvantage helps ensure that all activities performed on UNIX and Linux systems are written to the proper Active Directory logs. It produces audit reports required by Sarbanes-Oxley, PCI DSS and HIPAA, providing a comprehensive trail for auditors. This simplifies the compliance process and reduces overall audit costs, and it allows for the more rapid discovery of anomalies as part of a sound security posture.