Networked physical security access control system and method
View Patent ↗A distributed networked physical security access control system for controlling a plurality of security access devices includes access server appliances in communication with a primary network. At least one access server appliance includes an appliance management module accessible through a web browser in communication with the primary network. The appliance management module configures the access server appliances to a user specified security configuration. The access server appliances are in peer-to-peer communication on the primary network to bridge the access server appliances for providing consistency in each of the access server appliances.
1. A networked physical security access control system for controlling a security access device comprising:
a primary network including a user interface;
a plurality of access server appliances in communication with the primary network, the access server appliances being in peer-to-peer communication on the primary network to bridge the access server appliances for providing consistency in each of the access server appliances;
an access server appliance of the plurality of access server appliances comprising an appliance management module that configures the access server appliance to a specified security configuration; and
the specified security configuration is replicated using the primary network in additional ones of the plurality of access server appliances.
2. The system of claim 1 , wherein each access server appliance includes a local credential directory for storing access control information and a local policy directory for storing security access policies.
3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the local credential directory and the local policy directory are lightweight directory access protocol directories.
4. The system of claim 2 , wherein each access server appliance includes a credential and policy module for synchronizing the local credential directory with local credential directories of others of the plurality of access server appliances
5. The system of claim 4 wherein policies include login permission and group enrollment/de-enrollment, wherein the appliance management module configures the access server appliance to manage the credential and policy module.
6. The system of claim 5 , wherein each access server appliance includes an information technology management module for configuring the access controller to control the security access device.
7. The system of claim 5 , wherein each access server appliance includes a situation management module for configuring a third party physical security situation management system to control the access controller.
8. The system of claim 1 including an access controller in communication with one of the access server appliances.
9. The system of claim 1 , wherein each access server appliance includes an information technology management module for monitoring the access server appliances and the system.
10. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a backup server appliance that backs up each of the access server appliances, the backup server appliance being a mirror of each of the primary server appliances for providing redundancy.
11. The system of claim 1 , further comprising a backup server appliance that backs up a subset of the access server appliances, the backup server appliance being a mirror of each of the access server appliances in the subset for providing redundancy.