The x80 series Sun Fire servers have built in RSC's (Remote System Controller). These are well documented in the Sun docs for the server and searchable on docs.sun.com. The RSC's are in a PCI slot on the rear of the servers and are capable of connecting via (1) 10Mb Ethernet, (2) USB serial or (3) modem. I prefer the Ethernet connection as I can support up to 48 servers with a single Cisco 2950G-48 switch. Just hooking up to the RSC will not get you console access, you'll need to redirect the console from the tty in the eeprom (this is documented in the RSC 2.X documentation for the redirects. The RSC (and ALOM on x40 series) also provide the ability to power down and power up the server remotely (via ethernet, or modem) and also provides some monitoring functionality that may be sent via SNMP or email. Server reboots may be monitored in this manner since the RSC has a backup battery that when the server reboots or resets, a reset message is sent. Temperature and other basic environmentals may also be monitored. Sun also has a utility which may be installed on a workstation that will provide a graphical connection to the RSC.
I like the ethernet best for console access. Run ALL our servers headless and have a couple of Sun Blade 150's on the data center floor for those rare times in which you need to touch the server and have a console close by. Using the serial port will require a terminal server of some sort and most centers I work in will not allow us to connect a phone line to the modem... So ethernet is the way. The disadvantage is that the RSC's are only capable of telnet... So if you're trying to secure the plain text protocols you may find that putting the console devices into a "Control Network" behind a firewall or IP filter is the right way to go. Hope this helps. Mike Hall [EMAIL PROTECTED] On 3/3/05 2:02 PM, "Grindell, Joan M." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Ok, we mostly have newer machines 280R's, V880's. Thanks I'll check it out. > What would you attached the console port to? > > Thanks > Joan > _______________________________________________ Solaris-Users mailing list [email protected] http://www.filibeto.org/mailman/listinfo/solaris-users
