[rescue] Serial Output via Ethernet wire

[John Duksta]

At 09:31 AM 11/12/2001 -0800, Dunbar, Brian wrote:
>Serial Output via Ethernet wire
>
>I have a small collection of Sun machines in a closet.  I'd like to access
>their serial ports from my desk.  I have an unused Ethernet cable run
>between the two.
>
>What's the best way (Is there a way?) to pipe the output from the various
>serial ports on the sun computers via the Ethernet run to my desk?

Two words: terminal server...

Setup a terminal server in the closet (Xyplex Maxserver 1600
or Cisco 2509 or 2511) and hookup the serial consoles of the
Suns to the terminal server. Then configure the terminal servers
to allow you to telnet into them and gain access to the serial
consoles.

One word of caution, be sure to put your terminal server on
a UPS. If you lose power and the term server goes down, there's
a really good chance that it will send a BREAK to the Sun's
which would cause them to drop to the OpenBoot prompt.

-john