Cyclades AlterPath greets you as a Linux appliance, and you never forget that Linux is humming along just under the skin of this device. If you're comfortable with this OS, you'll find the ACS16 a remarkably configurable and flexible solution to the problem of accessing console ports. If you're not a Linux expert, many tasks can be accomplished with the Web-based GUI, but more advanced setup will mean climbing a difficult learning curve.
The ACS16 can be used as a relatively simple console server, but that misses the point of this appliance, which has the greatest number of options for security and configuration of the devices we tested. Rather than simply acting as a conduit for connections to console ports, the ACS16 can be a server that users log in to and from which logins are authenticated, wrapped in application code and passed to other devices. Whereas the other two products are focused on providing a way for users to choose among all connected ports, the ACS16 really hits its stride as a server that supports customized menus and options for each user, presenting named options that lead to login scripts to open appliance sessions with all security and configuration options set at session start.
We began setup by connecting to the console port, logging in to Linux and running a wizard to set basic network parameters. We then moved to the browser-based GUI for the remainder of basic setup. There are two modes to the GUI, wizard and expert; wizard mode guided us through the foundation issues, while expert let us tweak individual parameters.
Security customization began with user authentication. The ACS16 offers authentication against an internal database or against external RADIUS, Tacacs, Kerberos or LDAP databases. Building the list of users and privileges authenticated locally was a straightforward process in the Web interface. External authentication is tied to individual ports; we could built it either through the Web interface or by editing parameter files using vi or the CLI wizard.
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