Re: Managing your network devices via console

[Michael Smiley <smiley () zo com>]

I am yet another that uses and loves Cyclades in my data center. The new ACS
6000 series is what I have now, which is quite nice due to the software pin
switching they have on that unit, this means no more special cisco dongles.
Also part of the reason for my use of the ACS is for the integration of the
Cyclades power strips, very seemless very nice. I have also used the Cisco
terminal server mods in the past and they worked just fine as well, though I
have no modern experience there.

-smiley

On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 11:04 AM, Dylan Ebner <dylan.ebner () crlmed com>wrote:

> We use Cyclades (avocent) devices in our data center. They have worked
> great for us. Very reliable. Modem dial-in gives us great remote
> capabilities if we have a major outage. We had troubles initially
> getting them to work because the cable adapters were never pinned
> correctly for Cisco. We ended up making our own rolled rj45-rj45 cables.
> IIRC, this was a ton of work as you need to do some funky 2 wires in one
> position stuff.
>
> We also use Cisco 2500's with modem on the aux and an octo-cable for the
> devices. This works well too, but not as nice of an interface as the
> Cyclades. No special cables needed though.
>
> For power we have been using APC Managed PDU's. These have been
> fantastic. No compaints.
>
>
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Mehmet Akcin [mailto:mehmet () akcin net]
> Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 9:30 PM
> To: nanog () nanog org
> Subject: Managing your network devices via console
>
> Hello,
>
> It's always cool to have console access to routers/switches and nowadays
> they are going from RS-232 to RJ-45 as a standart. I have got Avocent
> DSR 2035 which is a KVM+Serial console (all in one).. but while I was
> able to have it work against servers via KVM or/and Serial , I was
> unable to make it work properly against any network device. I am
> wondering if anyone had experience on DSR or similar boxes to configure
> them against network devices console ports.
>
> Making suggestions for alternative ways of centralizing network device
> console management is also more than welcome, I guess the old fashioned
> server attached usb-serial console is one of the most preferred way, but
> feel free to provide if  you have good ideas
>
> cheers
>
> --
> Mehmet