DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers

Deliver consistent monitoring, autonomous management and continuous compliance enforcement across on-premise and cloud servers

MontyCloud DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers is a fully managed SaaS service that helps cloud administrators deliver consistent monitoring, autonomous management and continuous compliance enforcement across their fleet of on-premise and cloud servers. Unlike traditional server management tools that require a management server, and/or agents on each instance, DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers is built on AWS Systems Manager and does not require third party agents or management hosts. Cloud administrators can now monitor, manage and operate their Windows and Linux server workloads cost effectively and efficiently.

How Customers Use It

Automate Routine Server Management Actions

Instantly discover servers across AWS accounts and regions. Schedule up/down time of servers, create snapshots, monitor metrics, scan and patch Windows & Linux operating systems, all without a custom agent.

Automatically enforce server compliance policies

Centrally enforce desired state policies to detect and report server compliance issues. Automate remediation with custom scripts, or AWS Systems Manager RunCommand & Automation documents.

Auditable & Secure Remote Access In Just One-Click

Eliminate cost and security challenges of managing bastion hosts and SSH Keys. Gain one-click, secure & fully auditable remote shell access to Windows and Linux Servers.

Our ability to launch a remote session right out of the MontyCloud application is very impressive and gives agility to IT admins who need to quickly connect to multiple hosts under the same pane of glass without having to work with keys/credentials. We typically set up multiple Dev, QA systems with specific software versions, patch levels which requires validation where this comes handy. This is further protected by the predefined cloud roles and logged with remote access history, making it secure.

– Venkatesh Deshpande, Head of IT Operations, AFourTech

Frequently Asked Questions

What is DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers?

DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers is a fully managed SaaS service that helps cloud administrators automate day 2 operations for Windows and Linux servers across on-premise and multiple AWS cloud accounts and regions. With DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers you can:

continuously discover and view all your servers on a single pane in your user, department or applications context.
automate routine server management tasks such as up/down times, snapshot creation, tagging etc., in few clicks
centrally scan, patch and report on compliance across thousands of servers
autonomously enforce server compliance through desired state policies
gain remote sessions access to any DAY2™ managed server without having to install bastion hosts or manage SSH keys.

DAY2™ enables you to deliver consistent monitoring, management, compliance and governance at scale across on-premise and cloud servers.

Why should I use DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers?

You should use DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers because unlike traditional cloud management products that require you to install management servers and third-party agents DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers is agentless. DAY2™ is cloud native and is built on AWS System Manager and does not require any third-party agents. With DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers you can securely and efficiently manage your servers on-premise and in the cloud.

How can I get started with DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers?

You can easily get started by creating a MontyCloud account at https://app.montycloud.com/signup with your work email address. Next select DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers from the DAY2™ console. Once you onboard your AWS account, all your servers will be automatically discovered. You can now select the servers to be managed by DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers from the DAY2™ console.

To discover servers and VM on-premises and in other clouds, next download the self-service installation kit from the DAY2™ console and deploy the AWS SSM agent onto your on-premises physical and virtual machines to begin managing them with DAY2™.

How does DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers work?

DAY2™ Well-Managed Server is delivered through the MontyCloud DAY2™ (DAY2™) SaaS platform. When you connect your cloud account(s) to DAY2™, all your servers are automatically discovered. In the DAY2™ console, all you have to do is select the servers and make them managed by DAY2™. This activates AWS System Manager on your server. DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers communicates with AWS System Manager and the server is now managed by DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers.

What server operation systems does DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers support?

DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers supports popular distributions of Linux Operating Systems such as Amazon Linux, RHEL, Ubuntu Server, CentOS, SUSE Linux, Oracle Linux, and Debian. Customers can also manage all versions of Windows Server starting Windows Server 2008.

How do I buy DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers?

You can buy DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers from the DAY2™ management console. DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers is licensed per managed server.

How do I create desired server state policies?

You can create a desired server state policy in just a few clicks on the DAY2™ management console. All you have to do is select the server and apply the policy. You can use one of your existing policies or add a new policy.

Can I use my own desired state policy with DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers?

Yes, you can use your own desired state policies with DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers. DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers supports PowerShell, Shell script, Ansible playbooks, Chef recipes, or AWS Systems Manager Run command and Automation documents. You can learn more on the AWS Systems Management blog.

How does one-click remote server access work?

To access your server remotely with one-click all you have to do is make the server a DAY2™ Well-Managed Server. The activation process results in DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers enabling AWS System Manager (SSM) on the server and routes all communications securely through SSM endpoints. You no longer have to install bastion hosts or manage SSM keys. You can learn more on the AWS Systems Management blog and through the OpsTalk™ Podcast.

How do you secure my account credentials in DAY2™?

DAY2™ secures your account credentials by accessing your account through a system-generated restricted IAM role. When you onboard your AWS Account, DAY2™ creates a restricted role, only with permissions required to perform DAY2™ operations.

This restricted role is created using secure AWS Well-Architected standards for cross-account access. This restricted role is not accessible by anyone including MontyCloud employees. DAY2™ does not need your AWS Credentials. Your AWS account is secure even with DAY2™ access.

Does MontyCloud provide customer support?

Yes. For DAY2™ Well-Managed Servers you can submit your support requests via email: support@montycloud.com or create a ticket directly at https://support.montycloud.com. We will make our best effort to respond to you initially within 24 hours.

What Identity providers DAY2 supports for Single Sign-On?

DAY2 supports Azure Active Directory on SAML 2.0 authentication protocol in this release.

When my identity provider is down or have sign-in issues, how can I login to DAY2?

DAY2 support team will help disabling the SSO configuration for your organization. Existing DAY2 local authentication will automatically resume for continued access to the platform.

What hypervisors/clouds are supported by DAY2™ Hybrid Server Management?

The AWS SSM agent is hypervisor agnostic, meaning that if the physical or virtual machine’s operating system is supported, then the target machine can be managed by DAY2™.

Do I have to install any other product/script other than DAY2™ to support non-AWS servers?

For servers outside of AWS, you must deploy the SSM agent on each target server you want to manage with DAY2™. You can deploy the agent yourself using the self-service install kit, or MontyCloud’s customer success team can help you deploy as well.

How do you handle security for communications with servers on-premises and on other clouds?

DAY2™ management actions are executed on the servers through the SSM Agent. All communications between the SSM Agent and DAY2™ are through secure outbound HTTPS connections making hybrid server management on DAY2™ inherently secure. The self-service installation kit scripts are not obfuscated to provide enterprise SecOps teams easy access for review, prior to use, and only official AWS repositories are referenced when retrieving the SSM agent for installation.