Speaking of PDUs with serial console concentration and power toggling, I did the firmware for one of those while working at Linux Networx. We used Linux, but I'm sure a BSD would have been fine. We never did get to current monitoring, but we did have probes for temperature monitoring and a line for toggling the reset switch on motherboards.
The national labs loved them, but our sales guys and bean counters didn't believe in their value and thought that IPMI was going to take over. Probably could have made a more successful business just selling the power/serial boxes than trying to do supercomputers. :P Anyway, another attractive thing about FreeBSD is that it's way less chaotic in its development than Linux is. The BSDs tend to have stable internal APIs so you don't have to completely rewrite your device drivers every few months if you want to keep up with the latest kernels. Plus, the core userland stuff is developed and maintained in concert with the kernel, so it's a bit more of a cohesive system. That said, I don't use it because I don't really have any need for the places where it's superior, and it's easier and functionally-equivalent (for me) to use other platforms. I do admire it, though, and I chuckle at the knee-jerk 'This must be wrong! How could anything be better at something than Linux?!' responses. On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 4:57 PM, Henry Paul <[email protected]> wrote: > One of the most impressive embedded implementations I have had the > privilege to work with is an integrated PDU with serial console > redirection and power toggling. The company currently manufacturing them > is Exatrol located in Orem. The newest version offers circuit current > monitoring as well. > > http://exatrol.com/ > > > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
