[ale] Cyclades Console Server

[Daniel Kahn Gillmor]

On Mon 2007-10-08 13:06:29 -0400, Robert L. Harris wrote:

> Is anyone using a Cyclades console server or similar?

I have no experiences with the Cyclades, but i do with something
similar: i recommend ditching video terminals entirely, and running
your servers via the serial console.

Because serial consoles are text-based, you not only get remote
access, but you can do easy, timestamped logging (on an external
machine) of all kernel output, which is handy for forensics and
review.  That boot spew that just flew by with the term "Fatal" which
caught your eye, but you couldn't read fast enough?  You can not only
go back and re-read them; you can grep through them, copy/paste, diff,
etc.  It's the way to go.

With an Octopus-550 [0] and a handful of null modem adapters [1], you
can make just about any old machine with a spare PCI slot into a
serial console controller for 8 other machines.  Two spare PCI slots
(and two Octopus-550's) means you can control 16 computers from one.
If you're going to control 16 consoles, you'll probably need an RS-232
extender cable for the more distant machines.

The Octopus-550 has good support under Linux [2], and is relatively
straightforward to set up.

No connection with either vendor, just a happy user of stable, simple
hardware.  The only hitch is that some BIOSes don't yet support using
the serial line for I/O, so you won't be able to manipulate the BIOS
for those machines with this setup.  All serious server hardware that
i've seen recently is capable of directing BIOS I/O to onboard serial,
though.

hth,

      --dkg

[0] http://www.lavalink.com/index.php?id=232  ($150)
[1] http://www.stayonline.com/detail.aspx?ID=5155 ($3)
[2] http://www.lavalink.com/index.php?id=471
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