Managing your network devices via console

Elmar K. Bins elmi at 4ever.de
Fri May 15 08:45:00 UTC 2009


jvargas at crypticstudios.com (Jake Vargas) wrote:

> > I stumbled across these, which look like decent alternatives to getting
> > a 2511 from eBay: http://www.perle.com/products/Terminal-Server.shtml
> > 
> > The 48-port 1U terminal server with redundant power looks particularily
> > nice.
> > 
> > I've no experience with Perle, though.  Anyone else?
> > 
> 
> I use them in my datacenter. SCS 32 with the IOLAN Modem card. I have some basic advice for using it as a dialup source. It also does IPSec via our DSL line which also happens to be our POTs line. All kinds of nice stuff but a bit of a pain to initially configure if you do not know what you are doing (slight learning curve). I'm happy with it. 

We are still using the "ancient" Cyclades/Avocent ACS'es with a matching
modem card (getting rare, them). They work fine, a bit slow on sshV2,
but no problems in all the remote locations. I had one (pretty old)
fail in the lab, but this might have been due to it being quite warm
there...

I am concerned about remote power control, though. If you know your
datacenter, you can get all kinds of remote-controlled power strips.

With us, we don't always know beforehand what kind of power the DCs
will have, and I'd like the exact same equipment everywhere (except
the cables, of course).

In order to achieve this, I used Cyclades (now Avocent) ATP3120-001
(20A at 100-240V input on IEC C320-20, 10A outputs on IEC C320-13).

They have three shortcomings:
  - sometimes they forget their configuration (not critical)
  - they can only be accessed by serial console (no SNMP etc.)
  - consequently there's no power meter remote readout

Is anyone here aware of such universally usable devices that can
be accessed over IP and give power readouts remotely?

Electrical specs are as above - 20 Amps input (for 120V countries),
usable anywhere from 100-240 Volts and IEC input and output plugs...

Any hints?
(No, APC fails in the 100-240V part)
(No, Perle fails in the 100-240V and the IEC part)
(No, even Avocent's other strips fail there...)

Yours,
	Elmi.

-- 

"Hinken ist kein Mangel eines Vergleichs, sondern sollte als wesentliche
 Eigenschaft von Vergleichen angesehen werden."       (Marius Fränzel in desd)

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