[SunHELP] Terminal Server / SC Management recommendations?

[Bill Bradford]

On Mon, Jan 09, 2006 at 12:14:11PM -0700, Micah DesJardins wrote:
> What's the consensus if any on unifying devices? I know there are
> serial expanders, but my understanding is that there can be problems
> if the expander loses power (sends a halt to all servers) I know there
> are some console servers endorsed by Sun (Avocent, Cyclades,
> Lantronix) the cheapest I can find is around 800ish.
> How are you dealing with console management for small installations?

I'm using an 8-port Secure Console Server from Logical Solutions:

http://www.thinklogical.com/products/scs.php

I had their 32-port redundant version, but it was way more ports than I
needed.  I donated it to Wikipedia about a year and a half ago, and LS
was kind enough to set them up with all the cables and RJ45-to-serial
adapters that they needed at the time, and send me the 8-port unit.

I did a review of it on SunHELP:

http://www.sunhelp.org/review-hardware-sentinel32

I'm really happy with their products - the SCS and SCS-R products are
basically embedded Linux boxes, booting off flash, with multiple serial
ports (and special drivers for buffering, etc).  They've released all
their modifications under the GPL, and software on the units can be
upgraded via RPM.

[root at scs80 root]# uname -a
Linux scs80.mrbill.net 2.4.20-30.8.legacy #1 Thu Mar 11 13:58:25 EST 2004 i486 i486 i386 GNU/Linux
[root at scs80 root]# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 4
model           : 15
model name      : Am5x86-WB
stepping        : 4
fdiv_bug        : no
hlt_bug         : no
f00f_bug        : no
coma_bug        : no
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu
bogomips        : 66.56

[root at scs80 root]# uptime
  2:08pm  up 337 days, 16:03,  1 user,  load average: 0.60, 0.56, 0.34

I had a stupid password on the unit once, and someone got into it via
SSH.. they'd modified the password file, but not known that they needed
to do a "save" to make the changes permanent.. so I just rebooted the 
box, connected back to it with the old password, and gave it a decent one. 8-)

Bill

-- 
Bill Bradford 
Houston, Texas