I've seen this implementation before. At my last job, it was a two fold solution. A remote power boot device and a serial console. As for inexpensive, that's a whole other issue. What some people consider expensive doens't match others.
If you are looking for a virtual reset button, you should only need to look at the remote power boot devices. Something like this: http://www.avocent.com/web/en.nsf/Content/Cyclades_PM There are definately others out there. We picked this one because of the amp load per circuit and costs. Serial Consoles are a great thing depending on the application and need. If you are managing a set of servers that you can't drive to, or response times are imperative; this can create a suitable solution. This can also be used for remote monitoring during installs via tftpboot/kickstart/diskless image selection. The flipside: This creates additional security considerations. You've just created an additional access point to your machine/s, and aa access point to power remotely. A definate consideration to be applied to the deivce/s you implement. Mark On Sat, 2006-09-02 at 18:32 -0500, Alex wrote: > Sorry if this is a little OT, but I thought it might be an appropriate > question for this audience... > > Has anyone had much experience with RS232 (serial) <-> Ethernet adapters? > Or what do you use to remotely manage a Linux server? > > I'm looking for something inexpensive that will give me remote access to > the serial port and hopefully the capability to manually reboot the > machine (e.g. push the reset button). > > I've recently seen how GRUB and the Linux console can be directed to a > serial port, and I was quite impressed... > > Thanks > > -Alex -- [email protected] mailing list
