[ale] Remote access

Michael H. Warfield mhw at WittsEnd.com
Fri Aug 16 17:30:59 EDT 2013


Hey,

On Fri, 2013-08-16 at 16:30 -0400, Chuck Payne wrote: 
> Jonathan, 
> 
> 
> I use with my three systems daily, not going work for this. Maybe this
> will help, my KVM has remote access, so that I can see in Roswell, hit
> it crappy little web app, work on them.  From any way.   Like was
> there in the Data Center standing in front of my KVM.  See Sun T2000
> Boxes, you can 
> 
> 
> Thanks for the idea, but most of those work only if the box is up.
> 
> 
> I think I have a couple things I am wanting to do. 
> 
> 
> http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial-Console-HOWTO/configure-kernel.html

> https://help.ubuntu.com/community/SerialConsoleHowto

If a serial console will work for you, great.  These are really pretty
simple, and cheap, to set up.  About the only thing you don't get is a
GUI (I haven't tried setting up PPP over that).  I have a fairly complex
setup that includes power control (X-10) and multiple controlling
servers (USB Sharing Device) and multiple servers (Multiport serial to
USB), but you don't have to go anywhere near that far.

If the host you are trying to control supports it (many server class
machines do) you can enable serial console in the BIOS and even be able
to manage the machine at the BIOS level.  If you can, definitely enable
that.  Throw a forensic boot CD in the CD drive and you can do a lot
even if you don't have a serial console BIOS (even read and write the
BIOS nvram area if you're really brave).

If you only have one machine to manage at a site, the setup is simple
and you just cross connect serial ports, using a cross-over cable,
between it and a second machine.  I use minicom on the machine that I
use for the remote console to connect to the serial console of the
machine being managed.  Then you enable it in grub and, possibly,
inittab.  A Raspberry Pi is more than up to the task of acting as the
remote console machine.  All you need is a serial to USB adapter in
addition to the cross-over cable.  Both can be had on Amazon reasonably
cheap.

If you need to control more than one server at a given location, you can
feed them all into a remote console box using additional cables and
serial to USB ports.  If the numbers justify, you can use multiport
serial to USB adapters (I'm using an 8 port adapter for my setup).

Cheap power control - X-10 controllers and a serial adapter for it.

Additional recommendation: Forensic boot CDs and set the BIOS to boot
from CD first.  Let that CD chainload to the main harddrive if it isn't
interrupted in 10 seconds.  I use custom NST run live CD's for that.

Serial console recommendation:  Go with your highest baud rate.  Most
serial BIOS default to 56K or maybe only 9600 but I run all my serial at
115200 without a glitch.  You may want to add RTS/CTS flow control if
you expect to move much data.

You can NOT use a USB serial port on the device that is configured for a
serial console.  The serial console in the kernel only works with a real
serial port.  I'd recommend using ttyS0 for the serial console port and
some other serial port (ttyS1, ttyUSB{n}, ttyACM{n}, etc) on your remote
console server. 

Another option for server class machines is IPMI, if the machine has a
remote management module in it. 
> On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 4:19 PM, Jonathan Meek
> <jonathan.l.meek at gmail.com> wrote:
>         Chuck, 
>         
>         You might want to look into synergy (http://synergy-foss.org/)
>         because if I understand what you were looking for correctly
>         then this fits the bill. I remember reading an article on it
>         on Lifehacker but never tried it. The good news is that it is
>         open-source and free. 
>         
>         
>         Regards,
>         
>         
>         Jonathan
>         
>         
>         
>         On Fri, Aug 16, 2013 at 4:01 PM, Chris Ricker
>         <chris.ricker at gmail.com> wrote: 
>                 On 8/16/13 3:47 PM, Chuck Payne wrote:
>                         Ron,
>                         
>                         I am looking for something to act as KVM
>                         ( Keyboard Video and Mouse, not the Kervel
>                         Virtual Machine), see the person they hire to
>                         do linux dev, doesn't know linux. Keeps
>                         killing the box, so if I had Drac on these I
>                         would be happy, I have BMC, I really should
>                         look to see they can do remote access like the
>                         Drac. All the stuff would be great while the
>                         box is running. If I had remove access like
>                         KVM  I could kick start the boxes, which is
>                         happen from my office. Instead driving an hour
>                         to Roswell.
>                         
>                         Ed, these are old 2950, still go for dev
>                         boxes.
>                         
>                 
>                 
>                 I thought 2950s had DRAC?
>                 
>                 At any rate, Lantronix Spiders are kinda pricey but
>                 generally work well for one-off boxes that need a KVM
>                 
>                 http://www.lantronix.com/it-management/kvm-over-ip/spider.html
>                 
>                 Doesn't give you power control but as long as you have
>                 managed PDUs, between the two you can get about the
>                 same as an integrated DRAC / iLO / etc type
>                 management 
>                 
>                 
>                 
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> 
> 
> 
> -- 
> Terror PUP a.k.a
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>  
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-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
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