[rescue] analog routers...

[Skeezics Boondoggle]

On Sun, 24 Aug 2003, Phil Stracchino wrote:

> So just in case I'm missing anything here, *does* anyone make an SBUS
> card with some decent serial ports on it?  I assume from the trend of
> the discussion that the answer is no.....

I've had good luck with the 4-port cards from Aurora.  We used one in an
SS5 (later a U1) to manage some leased-line modems (56k Telerate feed); I
recently put together a nice U2 as a Jumpstart/cfengine/console server for
a client (serial connections to three 420Rs and a Cisco); and I picked one
up on Ebay absurdly cheap (one of those rare and unexpected deals that
just make you say "Yes!!  Yesssss!!" and behave like an idiot :-) to build
myself a new console server out of a Classic here on the home network (I'm
just too lazy to keep dragging the 20' cable from the VT320 to the
particular box I need to talk to at the moment. :-)

(Woo!  Longest run-on sentence of the week!)

The only problem is that the less expensive models will send BREAKs at
power-on/reboot, so that's a drag unless you consult the Scrolls and do
the appropriate cable hack and/or disable the BREAK processing (assuming
you hang some Solaris boxes off those ports).  Your application may not be 
sensitive to BREAKs, though, so that might not be a problem.

(Okay, so I'm still a little zonked from a wedding this afternoon where a
friend and fellow sysadmin/programmer was getting hitched.  I have this
extra SC2000 that I promised/threatened to give him ("Symmetric
multiprocessing is the gift that keeps on giving!") but I guess there are
"concerns" that the heat & noise may be a bit much.  Well, not one to
disrupt someone's wedded bliss, I guess I'll have to keep it and head over
to Pottery Barn or something.  Is it entirely too dorky to give someone
matching shell accounts as a wedding gift? :-)

Feelin' no pain...

-- Chris