Remote control servers was:(Re: Personal Co-location Registry)

Mon Mar 22 11:59:37 UTC 2004

>Weasel, like the sun implementation, allows remote reboot of wedged
>machines.  This is key, particularly when running on an Intel platform
><cough>.  If there are any PC serial console implementations that
>allow one to do this, I'd like to hear about it, since I'm not aware
>of such.  Buying a serial console server *plus* a power cycler fills
>my heart with hatred.

Given the fact that the guts of a server leave enough room
in a 1U case for an additional computer, it's only a matter
of time before someone puts together 1U Intel-based systems
that include a serial console server and power cycler running
on the separate control computer.

And given that we now have devices like the Gumstix on the
market http://www.gumstix.com/ it's only a matter of time
before this capability gets built into even smaller boxen.

We really do need to have a chat with some of the folks
doing embedded systems work because if they knew that there
was a need for these types of server control systems,
it wouldn't take them very long to produce usable products.
All the pieces needed are available off the shelf today.
The only problem remaining is the integration and this is
something that embedded systems people do very well.

--Michael Dillon