Cell-based OOB management devices

Mon Nov 7 06:14:29 UTC 2011

Hi all, I am looking at cellular-based devices as a higher
speed alternative to dial-up backup access methods for
out of band management during emergencies.  I was
wondering if anyone had experiences with such devices
they could share?

Devices I've found include Sierra Wireless AirLink Raven X,
Digi's ConnectWAN 3G or 4G and Opengear's ACM5004-G.  I
have no experience with any but they all appear to support
the Sprint network which I assume would be ideal due to
not having usage caps on data (currently).  The Opengear
device runs linux and has four serial ports, a usb port
for additional storage and ethernet, so it seems to have
some small advantages over the others since it could double
as an emergency self-contained management station you can
SSH into and run diagnostics from.  All appear to have
VPN/gateway support.

What none of them are clear on is how you would connect
to it over cellular since I assume you're just paying for
a typical data plan and it will randomly obtain IP 
addresses.  Maybe some type of dynamic dns service so you
can easily figure out your device's current IP?  How
stable is the access to the device?  Any idea if any of
them can do ipv6?

Thanks!

David