Deployment project strategy

Various methodologies exist for planning and deploying BMC Defender, either as a stand-alone system or as a large distributed system. For small deployments, the administrator can take an ad hoc approach (due to the easy nature of BMC Defender installation and configuration). However, for larger deployments, BMC Defender recommends a standard planning and deployment cycle, such as that found in IEEE/EIA 12207 (Standard for Information Technology–Software Life Cycle Processes). Irrespective of the actual methodology selected by a project manager, a BMC Defender deployment always consists of the following basic activities:

Requirement definition

Requirement definition establishes a baseline of what is to be accomplished and serves as a starting point to the deployment life-cycle. This activity requires knowledge of the types of devices and applications to be managed, knowledge of the network structure (including security functions such as access through firewalls and gateways) as well as analysis of required resources. In some cases, this deployment phase might be executed quickly, however many large deployments might require detailed requirement analysis.

Design and resource allocation

The Design and resource allocation project phase specifies the architecture of the deployment, including a selection of a Deployment Type (as discussed in the further sections). This phase also includes the selection of target devices, allocation of bandwidth and disk space, and determination of the physical personnel required to perform the deployment. This design phase determines physical aspects such as the IP addresses of BMC Defender Servers, and selection of locations for BMC Defender Tunneling processes (if needed). To resolve specific design issues, see Installing.

Physical deployment

The Physical deployment phase of the project consists of actually installing and configuring the system and might be the most time-consuming phase of the project. The level-of-effort associated with the physical deployment (based upon the type of deployment) can be estimated from the tables and formulas presented in the further sections. This project phase requires administrative access and oversight; including the ability to modify firewall configurations (if necessary) and the permissions required to install new software on managed platforms.

Operational test and training

The final project phase of the project consists of validation testing and might include formal training. This phase might include the creation of documentation specific to the enterprise. This phase typically consists of migrating the BMC Defender deployment into production, where further configuration and ongoing adaptation might be necessary by administrators and operators.