Hi again & sorry for the late summary,
Loads of replies (Hopefully I haven't missed anyone). Thanks to: Derk
Tegeler, Paul LaMadeleine, Richard Westlake, Cy Dewhurst, Dan Goetzman, Alan
Davis, Randall Cable, Warren Liang, John Seel, Selden E Ball Jr, Udo de Boer
for their replies.
I did check the archives on this, and though there seemed to be a few
queries posted I didn't see any useful summaries. This isn't the sort of
question that has only one answer, so I have taken the liberty of including
all the replies in full below. It would be interesting to hear from anyone
else who goes down this road in the future.
For my own part I am looking at getting a terminal server of some sort for
the console & controllers; this will probably then go into one of the Cisco
Catalyst 2820s that sit at both ends for the FDDI ring that links the sites.
This includes 2 x DEChub ONE-MX with dual DECconcentrator 900FHs. I thought
maybe I could get a 900TM terminal server to slot in also, but it looks like
this DEChub takes full-length modules only. I need to look into this. I will
post again as and when I get there.
ORIGINAL POSTING:
Hi,
I would like to be able to manage consoles at our backup site from this
site. We have an FDDI ring linking the sites.
There are 6 Alphas, 2 Vaxes and a few Intel boxes (Two 4.0D Alpha 4100
clusters (2-node), one OpenVMS Alpha 1200 cluser (2-node) One VAX cluster,
plus a few NT servers).
Does anyone have experience of (or can anyone point me at any documentation
on)...
1. A "cheap and cheerful" solution? i.e. Just hardware - terminal server &
cabling.
2. An enterprise solution? e.g. Tivoli.
I'm not really interested in the system management aspect as we already have
BMC Patrol running on most boxes. Cost is of interest, though I realise that
his will be dependent on time, location etc.
Thanks in advance,
Tony.
-----------------------------------------
RESPONSES (more or less in chronological order).
===========================================================
1.
You will find a number of hardware solutions: decserver, cisco 26xx series
with 'octopus cable' and so forth; Black Box has solutions as well.
A cheap alternative is to place a linux box running on a old pc with a
null modem cable.
Software is not really the issue as software like BMC and Tivoli still
need a physical connection to the serial port of the servers.
Rgds,
Derk
2.
The linux solution is the same as the others except that you telnet into
it and open a connection with a serial port. You will obviously need one
port per console wich means using a port multiplexer like the Digiboard or
similar (supported by Linux kernel). I'm thinking of writting a terminal
server daemon myself that would be launched by inetd but haven't found the
time to do it yet. This would enable me to use diskless pc's (very very
cheap).
The ideal solution for me is the decserver 900TM wich has 16 ports and a
simple setup, although it needs a bootp server (again very simple on
tru64). It's not extremely expensive but probably difficult to find as
it's end-of-life.
Next in line is the Cisco 2621 router with 1 or 2 octopus cards. This is
an active product, full support available. I do find this very expensive
if all you need are the serial connections. If you need a router anyway
and the router is near the consoles, great, go for it.
The BlackBox solution is expensive and had some drawbacks although I
don't remember which.
There are other solutions if you search long enough for "port server" or
"terminal server" on the internet. If you do find something cheap and
easy, please let me know.
That's about the depth of my wisdom.
Regards,
Derk
--------------------------------------------------
1.
We use a product from lightwave communications
(www.lightwavecom.com) called a Console Server 3200. One of these boxes
allows for serial control of upto 32 consoles with direct dumb terminals,
network telnets and even a modem. All methods of connection require a
username and password. The unix fully configured is around 10k*****. We
are
running around 15 of these in 6 data centers around the country. Now for
the NT servers, we mostly use pc/anywhere, but we do have cybex KVMs with a
cybex keyview in each data center. the keyview allows us to pc/anywhere
into it and then attach through the KVM to the nt servers - in a "Oh my
G*D" situation only - it's not really usable otherwise. However, there is
a newer product that allows you to connect 8 nt servers to a kvm that you
can telnet(?) to. I don't know much about it, but have gotten some docs on
it recently, but have not read them yet.
I can give you the name and number of the person who sold me my
setup if you'd like (both the lightwaves and the cybex).
Hope this helps,
Paul
2.
***** That's USD. The wiring is all cat 5. The cost is just for the
units and some of their connectors (db9 to rj45 or db25 to rj45 or mmj to
db25, etc). Installation was a breeze. Mount it in a standard 19 inch
rack (3u), run your cat 5 from the unix to the server console. Login to
the admin port, do a little config work (creating users, config the device
port and network ports) and your just about done. Not including wiring, I
can hook up a new unit and attach 32 servers to it in about 2 hours.
I understand that cost is an issue. Good luck in your search.
Paul
-----------------------------------------------
Unfortunately, Compaq discontinued their remote console product.
We use two different home-brewed solutions.
These work for VMS, Linux and Unix systems: they all include serial
console support. Neither works for Windows system management.
For that you need something like "Proxy" to remote the graphics console.
One consists of DECserver 100 terminal servers using reverse LAT and two
AlphaStations running VMS as the consoles. Scripts use
"set host" to connect the consoles to windows on the local display
or on the display screens of other systems when necessary.
I.e. this is an "in band" solution: console communications travel over
the network. This solution is cheap, using obsolete hardware but has
intermittant software related problems.
The other uses Cyclades serial port interfaces on a PC running linux.
Scripts use "minicom" to connect the consoles to windows on the local
display or on the display screens of other systems when necessary.
I.e. this is an "out of band" solution: console communications travel
over dedicated serial port cables unless a "remote" display system is
used. This solution is relatively expensive, using modern hardware.
Each of these supports slightly more than 64 serial console terminal
connections per console display system.
I hope these suggestions help a little.
Please do post a summary of others' solutions.
Selden E. Ball, Jr.
------------------------------------------------------
Hi
We plan to use conserver but haven't implemented it yet.
If you want user comments & stories you could try the conserver mailing
list (see
http://www.conserver.com for information)
for general questions you could also try the LogAnalysis mailing list at
securityfocus.com
Richard Westlake
-------------------------------------------------------
You could try VNC if it's all graphical level. Otherwise you're probably
looking at hooking up the RMC via a terminal server (which from what I
remember, nobody recommends). For NT, you'll probably need lots of video
splitters and relays. For VAX I have no idea.
VNC:
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html
<
http://www.uk.research.att.com/vnc/download.html>
You should get VNC anyway, it's nothing short of brilliant and it's free.
If you find no other use for it than freaking out NT users, then it's
justified.
Cy
--------------------------------------------------------
I use a simple device from Western Telematics (WTI) on my Compaq TruCluster.
I use it with RMC to have full remote access even at the ">>>" prompt. I can
hard reset my cluster nodes from home if I have to. This is just a simple
terminal server made just for the purpose of remote consoles.
Have a look...
<
http://www.wti.com/cms8.htm>
Dan Goetzman
--------------------------------------------------------
As a contractor I worked on many sites where they used a terminal server
(console server) to attach to the serial lines of the machines and the
storage cabinets. This worked very good. There are many boxes for doing
this but make sure you get one with at least password protecting. The
old dec/digital/compaq terminal services didn't allowes this for this
kind of service. You can do everything on the machines you want to do.
For NT I don't know. I know there are cards you can put into the cases
which allow you to takeover the screen and keyboard/mouse. So then you
could even boot and don't need software.
regards
Udo de Boer
------------------------------------------------------
Check out Rose KVM switches. They not only provide a KVM, but will soon be
releasing remote access addon to the switch that will allow access to the
graphics through the switch ( like a PC ANYWHERE but throught the switch so
no software need to be run on the servers.) It is supposed to allow for
security including encryption. I have not tried it yet but a customer of
mine has one on order.
John Seel
-------------------------------------------------------
You can try Computer Associates' Automation Point. It provides the similar
function as the original Digital PolyCenter Console Manager. CA Automation
Point consists of a NT server(s) and Port Server (terminal server). Serial
communication is established from Alpha, VAX , and NT's console ports,
serial interface only, to the terminal server. You can access any console
port from remote.
DEC's PolyCenter Console Manager is obsolete, we are implementing CA's AP.
Thanks.
Warren
--------------------------------------------
I'd check out a CISCO 26xx solution. Believe it comes in a variety of
configurations 16-32 ports for console. Believe it comes with Ethernet
standard, but you can probably order one with FDDI interfaces as well. Good
luck! Approximatge cost, depending on yoyur relationship with Cisco and the
config you choose, USD 2-3K...
Randall Cable
-------------------------------------------------------
I'm having good luck with a DECserver 90M and Cisco 2511's. The adapters for
the console port is different, but I have part numbers and pinouts for both.
I use TecSYS Consoleworks for the front-end, this is the package that Compaq
distributes with the GS series systems as their consoles. Consoleworks adds
web-based access, console monitoring and alerting which I've found
invaluable. They now have a java based client that runs on IPaq's and
(maybe) palmpilots to allow really remote access.
It's a bit pricy, 35 licenses is about 30KUSD. There are several other
similar solutions, but they are all about the same price.
Alan Davis
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Received on Thu Sep 20 2001 - 10:26:16 NZST