OOB core router connectivity wish list

Warren Bailey wbailey at satelliteintelligencegroup.com
Thu Jan 10 17:16:27 UTC 2013


Why is Satellite not a good OOB option?


>From my Galaxy Note II, please excuse any mistakes.


-------- Original message --------
From: William Herrin <bill at herrin.us>
Date: 01/10/2013 8:20 AM (GMT-08:00)
To: Randy Carpenter <rcarpen at network1.net>
Cc: nanog at nanog.org
Subject: Re: OOB core router connectivity wish list


On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Randy Carpenter <rcarpen at network1.net> wrote:
>> On Wed, 9 Jan 2013, Randy Carpenter wrote:
>> > My main requirements would be:
>> >
>> > 1. Something that is *not* network (ethernet or otherwise) (isn't
>> > that the point of OOB?)
>>
>> I don't understand this at all. Why can't an OOB network be ethernet
>> based towards the equipment needing management?
>
> How do I connect to it from many miles away when the network is
> down? I have connected to a misbehaving border device at a
> remote network via dial-up before, and was able to get it back
> up and running. I would not have been able to do that if the
> only options were ethernet or ethernet.

Dial up with PPP and then cross the ethernet? Drop off a cellular
modem with IP service instead of a dialup modem? Perhaps you haven't
noticed but IP over circuit-switched voice lines is giving way to
voice over IP packet switched systems. That POTS line the dialup modem
needs doesn't have a lot of future left.


> But having a console->serial is significantly less complex than
> console->IP_Stack->ethernet. So many more things to go
> wrong. I've never had a device that had a faulty serial port. I
> have seen numerous faulty or misbehaving network ports.

I've had faulty serial consoles more than once but that's beside the
point. Yes, ethernet-based OOB is more complex than a simple serial
console. It's also a lot more effective. At this point the server
vendors have gotten it down to a science where it's just as reliable
and not especially expensive. Time I'd say for the big iron router
vendors to follow suit.

Regards,
Bill Herrin



--
William D. Herrin ................ herrin at dirtside.com  bill at herrin.us
3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/>
Falls Church, VA 22042-3004





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