You and Your IAMT!

You and your what?

Yes, exactly! You and your Intel AMT or Active Management Technology. So what is it? Well, we have seen it advertized on Intel's website recently and today we had a short tutorial on its benefits and how to access it.


The What!

AMT is an extenstion of Intel's ASF (Alert Standard Format) and enables the remote control of resources on a client computer from a management computer. This means that if you enable AMT on a client computer, you will be able to access that computer through either an intranet or internet and both monitor and control the computer. You would be able to remotely monitor health parameters including temperature, power status and voltage. You would also be able to turn the client computer on and off and depending on the selected BIOS options, monitor all client computer events. Depending on the options you selected, you would even be able to install an OS or other software from the management computer onto the client computer. Prettty cool stuff huh!

The How!

To have remote access to your client computer, the client computer motherboard would have to have an Intel CPU with vPro™ technology, and a compatible chipset. Then you would first enable the AMT function in the BIOS and configure some AMT software on the client computer. When configuring the software an IP address is assigned or DHCP selected for the TCP/IP option. Finally, you would install a couple of software drivers on the client computer.

You would then turn on your management computer (with a Windows XP OS), access your web browser and type in the IP address of the client computer. A client computer management interface very similar to a website would give you basic management and control over the client computer.

Additional Control

Today we were also fortunate enough to see some Intel demo software that also enabled access to the client system BIOS and provided many other features that included complete control of all client computer devices and the ability to provide extended protection against Malaware. However this software is not available to the end user and these extended functions would need to be accessed through some third party software.

The Why!

According to Intel:

"A major barrier to greater IT efficiency has been removed by Intel® Active Management Technology (Intel® AMT), a feature on Intel® Centrino® with vPro™ technology and Intel® Core™2 processor with vPro™ technology. Using built-in platform capabilities and popular third-party management and security applications, Intel AMT allows IT to better discover, heal, and protect their networked computing assets."

So what did we think?

Most of our team thought this kind of simplified remote access to client computers was pretty cool. This would make a system administrators job in a large company a little easier when trying to keep track of the status of everyones computer. However, there are many other benefits that could be derived from having remote control as provided by the AMT.

In our industry of industrial computers, we generally make computers and systems that will be run in automated environments. Very often those environments are factory areas that are very hot or far from the actual point of control. In these instances having remote control ensures that resources can be effectively managed and would certainly reduce system downtime. There are many other applications I am sure.

So, if you get to play with Intel's AMT, have fun. We did!

(More: Intel® Active Management Technology)