OOB core router connectivity wish list

Wed Jan 9 16:20:39 UTC 2013

On Wed, 9 Jan 2013, Mikael Abrahamsson wrote:

> I would like to post it here to solicit feedback on it. Feel free to use it 
> to tell your vendor account teams you want this if you feel it useful. I've 
> already sent it to one vendor.

Ethernet/Serial/USB management is useful, but I would not be in favor of 
eliminating the serial port entirely, because having an OOB serial console 
connection has saved me more than a few times.  Plus, having working 
connectivity from something like a terminal server or a headless Linux box 
has proven its value countless times in the past.

I would also add the following to your list:

If $vendor's device provides an IP-based management interface over an 
ethernet port, it should provide both a web-based interface and a CLI. 
The web interface should be as platform-agnostic as possible (not restrict 
people to specific platforms and browsers), and be as gentle as possible 
in requiring things like Java.  Being forced to deal with Java runtime 
version dependency hell in a critical situation would not fill my heart 
with joy.

jms