OOB core router connectivity wish list

Thu Jan 10 07:30:50 UTC 2013

On Thu, 10 Jan 2013, Randy Carpenter wrote:

> 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.

You have the same kind of "console router", but instead of having lots of 
serial ports, you have ethernet ports on it. Or you use your DWDM system 
OOB channel (if available). There are a lot of options.

> agreed. Although, I generally don't care if it is slow, as the only need 
> is to get the real network connected features back up and running.

With modern routers the software is a big image so if you need to 
re-install, serial is dysfunctional (if it even works, on XR devices it 
doesn't).

> I completely disagree. The ability for serial to go over POTS makes it 
> ridiculously cheap compared to building a reliable ethernet connection 
> over hundreds or thousands of miles.

RS232 doesn't go hundreds of thousands of miles. A modem connected to a 
POTS port does this though.

> The separate part is what makes it useful. The only reason you should 
> need to access the serial port is because the network is not 
> functioning. If you move the last resort access to be network, how do 
> you access it when you have network issues?

You seem to be totally misreading everything I'm saying. Did you even read 
my initial email? This proposed port is OOB, it's completely separate, 
it's like having a built in serial console router into the chassis with 
connections to line cards and other devices within the chassis.

> I like the current trend of vendors like Juniper. Dedicated management 
> ethernet, *and* serial console port. Best of both worlds.

No it isn't, because if you want to be able to cut power to the device to 
power cycle it, you need yet another device to do that that sits inline 
with the power feed and if it's DC then I would imagine there aren't that 
many options (=expensive).

-- 
Mikael Abrahamsson    email: swmike at swm.pp.se