Good morning all,
We have 4 clustered F840Cs in our environment. As a backup connection method, we're looking at some type of terminal server that we can connect the filers to that will present the filers serial ports as IP addresses that we can connect to , in order to view the bootup messages etc, with a modem hookup in case of complete network failure. Does anyone else out there have any recommendations on make/model of equipment?
Thanks as always, in advance.
Regards
Martin Enterprise Storage/Enterprise Server Group mailto:martin.hughes@halliburton.com cellphone: +1 713 303 9214 office: +1 281 871 4124 <<Martin JV Hughes (E-mail).vcf>>
On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, Martin Hughes wrote:
We have 4 clustered F840Cs in our environment. As a backup connection method, we're looking at some type of terminal server that we can connect the filers to that will present the filers serial ports as IP addresses that we can connect to , in order to view the bootup messages etc, with a modem hookup in case of complete network failure. Does anyone else out there have any recommendations on make/model of equipment?
We're using a Linux box with a Cyclades multiport serial card and a utility called 'conserver'. The Cyclades card will connect to up to 64 devices. Conserver allows multiple users access the console ports of the various devices over the network and logs every character that traverses the console connection to local disk.
The hardest part of the whole thing was figuring out the pin-outs for each device...
-Ronan
We use "conserver" on Solaris-2.6 (SPARC Classic :-) with a Central Data SCSI Terminal Server (now Digi Corporation). The hardware is described at:
http://www.digi.com/solutions/termsrv/scsitermsrv.shtml
The software and a bunch of similar software & hardware solutions are described at:
http://www.conserver.com/ http://www.certaintysolutions.com/consoles/
Regards,
"Martin.Hughes" == Martin Hughes Martin.Hughes@Halliburton.com writes:
Martin.Hughes> Good morning all, We have 4 clustered F840Cs in our Martin.Hughes> environment. As a backup connection method, we're Martin.Hughes> looking at some type of terminal server that we can Martin.Hughes> connect the filers to that will present the filers Martin.Hughes> serial ports as IP addresses that we can connect to , Martin.Hughes> in order to view the bootup messages etc, with a modem Martin.Hughes> hookup in case of complete network failure. Does anyone Martin.Hughes> else out there have any recommendations on make/model Martin.Hughes> of equipment?
Cisco AS2511-RJ works pretty well. I grew particularly fond of being able to do 'telnet toaster.console'.. the only thing that it lacks, imo, is scrollback.
K.
On Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 01:55:08PM -0400, the sushi biker wrote:
Martin.Hughes> else out there have any recommendations on make/model Martin.Hughes> of equipment?
< .. horrid quoting style deleted .. >
A newcomer to this list with a suggestion:
Western Telematic makes the CMS-16, which is (you guessed it) a 16 port serial console management switch. It features a 10bT ethernet port and the ability to host 6 telnet sessions in a menu-driven format.
I use it on my Sun & Tatung machines as it is the only box I've found so far that doesn't send a break when powered off/on. Our two F740's talk happily through it, as do most of my core switches/routers.
Only complaints so far are a few cosmetic glitches in the initial password dialog via telnet. Other than that, rock solid.
Zach Metzinger UNIX System Administrator White Rock Networks
I use, and am happy with, a Lightwave Console server 3200. It does have scrollback. See http://www.lightwavecom.com (yes, two coms)
On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, the sushi biker wrote:
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2001 13:55:08 -0400 (EDT) From: the sushi biker fubar@pir.net To: "'toasters@mathworks.com'" toasters@mathworks.com Subject: Filer Serial Connectivity
"Martin.Hughes" == Martin Hughes Martin.Hughes@Halliburton.com writes:
Martin.Hughes> Good morning all, We have 4 clustered F840Cs in our Martin.Hughes> environment. As a backup connection method, we're Martin.Hughes> looking at some type of terminal server that we can Martin.Hughes> connect the filers to that will present the filers Martin.Hughes> serial ports as IP addresses that we can connect to , Martin.Hughes> in order to view the bootup messages etc, with a modem Martin.Hughes> hookup in case of complete network failure. Does anyone Martin.Hughes> else out there have any recommendations on make/model Martin.Hughes> of equipment?
Cisco AS2511-RJ works pretty well. I grew particularly fond of being able to do 'telnet toaster.console'.. the only thing that it lacks, imo, is scrollback.
K.
On Mon, 2 Apr 2001, Dan Brown wrote:
I use, and am happy with, a Lightwave Console server 3200. It does have scrollback. See http://www.lightwavecom.com (yes, two coms)
Picking up a thread for a few months ago... we are looking at the Lightwave now for all of our equipment (Sun Sparc servers, IBM/Compaq Intel servers, F5 load balancers, Cisco switches, Netapp filers, UPS's, environmental monitors, HVAC systems, etc.). Has anyone looked at the CS9000 from Perle? 1U rackmount, 24 RJ-45 ports, does not cause a break signal to be sent when power cycled.
http://www.perle.com/products/prod_family/console_server/cs9000.html
Brian Tao (taob@risc.org) said, on [010711 09:43]:
Picking up a thread for a few months ago... we are looking at theLightwave now for all of our equipment (Sun Sparc servers, IBM/Compaq Intel servers, F5 load balancers, Cisco switches, Netapp filers, UPS's, environmental monitors, HVAC systems, etc.). Has anyone looked
Hmmm. The lightwaves are not too bad- I had four of them at my last gig- but there are a couple of caveats:
The damn things are just not anywhere near dense enough. 4u for 32 devices kind of hurts.
Once in a while (maybe once every six weeks) they would stop accepting connections, including to the administration port, and we'd have to go down and power cycle them. And maybe it was just time distortion due to having to reboot a console server in a crisis situation, but these things take *forever* to boot.
But yeah, the scrollback buffer is *great*
-Pete
Brian Tao (taob@risc.org) said, on [010711 09:43]:
UPS's, environmental monitors, HVAC systems, etc.). Has anyone looked at the CS9000 from Perle? 1U rackmount, 24 RJ-45 ports, does not cause a break signal to be sent when power cycled.
D'oh, and:
http://www.rocketport.com/sales/specs/rack16.htm
Combine that with an inexpensive openBSD box and rtty, and you have yourself a hell of a little console server :)
But then, the whole questin of console server preference runs dangerously close to vi/emacs, so. YMMV.
-P.
I use, and am happy with, a Lightwave Console server 3200. It does have scrollback. See http://www.lightwavecom.com (yes, two coms)
I've used the lightwaves before and really liked them, esp the scrollback buffer on the per-port basis. They could be more dense though, or more easily rackmountable. I have to admit it's been years since I used them though.
Brian> Has anyone looked at the CS9000 from Perle? 1U rackmount, 24 Brian> RJ-45 ports, does not cause a break signal to be sent when Brian> power cycled.
Brian> http://www.perle.com/products/prod_family/console_server/cs9000.html
I just went and looked at it and I'm not that impressed with the security features, nor with the lack of any mentioned scrollback serial buffer. That's a key thing to me.
The other people who have mentioned getting a cyclades of Moxa serial port card have a good tack, esp if you get the conserver software package as well to manage ports, etc. More do it yourself, but I'm sure someone will start to sell some bundled setups in the future.
John John Stoffel - Senior Unix Systems Administrator - Lucent Technologies stoffel@lucent.com - http://www.lucent.com - 978-952-7548
On Thu, 12 Jul 2001, John Stoffel wrote:
I just went and looked at it and I'm not that impressed with the security features, nor with the lack of any mentioned scrollback serial buffer. That's a key thing to me.
I figure that having a dedicated UNIX box (FreeBSD, Solaris, Linux, whatever we happen to have lying around) on a private link to the serial port box will solve the security issues (access limited to sysadmin types, ssh access to protect against network sniffers, single point of access into server console ports). Run "screen" on the server so people can resume console sessions, look at scrollback, have disk-based logs for everything, share multiple-write sessions, etc.
I'm pretty fond of our Console Server 3200 by Lightwave Communications. It allows for telnet access and/or serial access. Multiple people can view at the same time and it has scrollback. It has a number of other very nice features... I use it with our filers, Suns, and various PC based UNIX systems.
~mitch
/* the sushi biker [fubar@pir.net] writes: */
"Martin.Hughes" == Martin Hughes Martin.Hughes@Halliburton.com writes:
Martin.Hughes> Good morning all, We have 4 clustered F840Cs in our Martin.Hughes> environment. As a backup connection method, we're Martin.Hughes> looking at some type of terminal server that we can Martin.Hughes> connect the filers to that will present the filers Martin.Hughes> serial ports as IP addresses that we can connect to , Martin.Hughes> in order to view the bootup messages etc, with a modem Martin.Hughes> hookup in case of complete network failure. Does anyone Martin.Hughes> else out there have any recommendations on make/model Martin.Hughes> of equipment?
Cisco AS2511-RJ works pretty well. I grew particularly fond of being able to do 'telnet toaster.console'.. the only thing that it lacks, imo, is scrollback.
K.
Cisco AS2511-RJ works pretty well. I grew particularly fond of being able to do 'telnet toaster.console'.. the only thing that it lacks, imo, is scrollback.
Surely you mean "telnet toaster.console 20XX" where XX is the line number of the async port. I would live to be able to do VIPs for each port but AFAIK there isn't a way unless you know different. ATM we have to put a motd on the 2621 which lists which port is which. So a typical session is: telnet serial.london [read motd to find which port number you're after] exit telnet serial.london 20XX
"chris" == Chris Good chris@webtop.com writes:
chris> Surely you mean "telnet toaster.console 20XX" where XX is the
Surely I don't.
chris> line number of the async port. I would live to be able to do chris> VIPs for each port but AFAIK there isn't a way unless you know chris> different. ATM we have to put a motd on the 2621 which lists chris> which port is which. So a typical session is: telnet chris> serial.london [read motd to find which port number you're chris> after] exit telnet serial.london 20XX
RTFM, re: "ip alias". :-)
K.
I use the livingston portmasters (now lucent portmasters). I have them authenticate out of radius to get port info. I also set up an access list, so only certain hosts can get to them. I keep that network in a non-routable ip space, such as 192.68.x.x, and all is pretty secure. I combine that with a dns entry for machinename.dm.whatever.com (dm is doormat), and I am in business with telnet machinename.dm, login with the name of the machine, and then enter a password. I know it sounds like a lot to keep up with, but I set it up so that I just create a symlink in the radius configuration area, and a script goes through checks for changes, creates dns entries automatically, and updates radius automatically.
Collin
On Mon, Apr 02, 2001 at 10:34:59AM -0500, Martin Hughes wrote:
Good morning all,
We have 4 clustered F840Cs in our environment. As a backup connection method, we're looking at some type of terminal server that we can connect the filers to that will present the filers serial ports as IP addresses that we can connect to , in order to view the bootup messages etc, with a modem hookup in case of complete network failure. Does anyone else out there have any recommendations on make/model of equipment?
Thanks as always, in advance.
Regards
Martin Enterprise Storage/Enterprise Server Group mailto:martin.hughes@halliburton.com cellphone: +1 713 303 9214 office: +1 281 871 4124 <<Martin JV Hughes (E-mail).vcf>>
-
Brian Tao -
chris＠webtop.com -
Collin LeGault -
Dan Brown -
fubar＠pir.net -
John Stoffel -
Marion Hakanson -
Martin Hughes -
Metzinger Zach -
mitch＠netline.com -
Pete Ehlke -
Ronan Mullally