That's a good point... The primary problem is that our servers (or most of them, anyway) have video on-board, and only one serial port (the video port takes the place of the second one). I'm sure the motherboards have internal connections for an extra serial port (actually, I'm not quite "sure"), but we haven't looked very far into going that route.
Add all that to the fact that I've never set up a serial console on Linux, and I don't even remember how to make a null modem cable (of course, I still remember how to BUY one), and you can see why we haven't tried that yet.
I'm always willing to listen if someone can point me to a refresher course...
Jason
Jens Frank wrote:
On Mon, Apr 07, 2003 at 12:40:12AM -0700, Jason Richey wrote:
We have limited rack space in the colo. All of our current servers are either 1U or 2U rackmount servers. A standard tower-type server would be a bit of a squeeze in there...
we are almost out of IP addresses in our current block of allocated IPs, I don't recall how easy it is for us to have another block routed to our cage.
our remote power control unit is nearly full. This is currently our only means of rebooting a machin that has lost internet connectivity (aside from a 200 mile drive by your truly). Of course, this isn't necessarily a deal-breaker, just a thought. If anybody has a IP based KVM switch available... :)
Linux can be set up to use a serial console. The most PCs still have two serial ports. If you assign the console to port A, port B can be used to access the console of another server. Having two servers would allow us to set them up in this way. If the web server hangs with "Give root password for system maintenance mode" you can connect to the server using e.g. minicom and fix it.
High-End solution would be the use of a terminal server, but this is much more expensive, uses rack space and require an additional IP.
KVM's are for windows users ... :-)
Regards,
JeLuF
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