I have been known to do this as well. Works quite good, and supports wireguard and zerotier out of the box.
On Mon, Dec 22, 2025, 6:58 PM Levon Bragg via NANOG <[email protected]> wrote: > I may get laughed outta here, but I use Mikrotik routers that have a USB > port. Then hang a USB HUB off that with as many USB to serial consoles as > needed. > Setup strong firewalling on the unit, and VPN to it. > Then I have all the Serial consoles I need. > > And they are inexpensive > > > Thank You, > > > Levon Bragg > > Shift Computer Services > > Phone 714.369.8197 x1101 > > Email [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> > > Web h<https://shiftcs.com/>ttps://s<https://shiftcs.com/>hiftcs.com< > https://shiftcs.com/> > > 10349 Los Alamitos Bl. Los Alamitos, CA 90720 > <https://www.google.com/maps/search/10349+Los+Alamitos+Bl.+Los+Alamitos,+CA+90720?entry=gmail&source=g> > < > https://www.google.com/maps/place/10349+Los+Alamitos+Blvd,+Los+Alamitos,+CA+90720/@33.8122346,-118.0747438,17z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x80dd2e64afc42587:0xd021d280b7fa2983!8m2!3d33.8122346!4d-118.0725551 > > > > > ________________________________ > From: Dan Mahoney via NANOG <[email protected]> > Sent: Wednesday, December 17, 2025 4:51 PM > To: [email protected] <[email protected]> > Cc: Dan Mahoney <[email protected]> > Subject: What are folks using for serial consoles these days? > > Hey there folks. > > Dayjob has historically used USB TTY pods attached to real BSD machines to > talk to our cisco consoles, with the amazing benefit that with a program > like Vixie's rtty (or conserver) you can also capture the output of those > consoles in real-time, and perhaps use that data to identify a connected > device. > > As a bonus, because the rackmount devices have real DE-9's on them, it > means they work with any kind of cable you get (not just your standard rj45 > cisco rollover like you might get with a Cyclades thing -- and you don't > have to come up with the weird-ass mappings for rj45-serial like you might > need like our ME4012 NAS (the serial cable is a stereo plug), our smart > power strips (it's either a stereo plug, or an rj12), or something like an > older brocade switch (it's a DE9, but it's friggin ODD, and I think it may > also be the wrong gender). > > It also means, since you're running a real OS, you have patches as long as > the OS is supported (so you're not stuck with "gee it only speaks > rsa1024"), versus some EOL appliance. But it's also 2u, and since we're > recently buying a lot of Dell hardware, that's Super Overkill for a dell, > so I'm evaluating maybe just going "Appliance". > > If we stick with an existing unix box for this, I'd want something with > proper IPMI/OOB (so Rpi is out) but maybe the dumbest, shallowest-depth > atom64 supermicro you can find, in the event you need to do a reinstall or > catch a hung system. > > Are there things that other folks are using that are "easy" to work with > that you've found to have Long firmware lives, decent warranties and low > hassle? Does anything these days actually have DE9s on it? > > -Dan > > (You may have also seen my note earlier about the Cisco ASR920, which has > RS232 pins in a USB-A header. No, not via a PL2032 chip inside the host > that provides a virtual serial...direct txd/rxd/gnd/cts etc, on the USB > pins. I've seen things you people would't believe) > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > > https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=https%3a%2f%2flists.nanog.org%2farchives%2flist%2fnanog%40lists.nanog.org%2fmessage%2f5VV3B6CVSW3KVIFFU4GOF5V5FAI625IG%2f&c=E,1,cHuXzymG0lzuzwkVOFlgLT6nbZ6E1fQ5lihh56DeVca6NH2zU-pQg9sXyWkrSSdy7HsLz1EAnhNojYwDIOMxXozW51vGclHRBr3Vf9jNpLZG5-r2FQEeske9&typo=1 > _______________________________________________ > NANOG mailing list > > https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/E5XE6R7Y5CCQKWFIZTY6IPKGDNXRYRWR/ > _______________________________________________ NANOG mailing list https://lists.nanog.org/archives/list/[email protected]/message/QXBR5RX7Z6WHTBCBWJGDYEDU6XD7OPLQ/
