Re: Devices with only USB console port - Need a Console Server Solution

[Christopher Morrow <morrowc.lists () gmail com>]

The airconsole's are cute ... but not really practical.

I happened to get a chip computer (getchip.com ?) and turned it into a
console server I can get to over the net ... at least at home and
equinix. it's also 'cute' but not really practical... it is only 9 USD
though, so there's that.

I'm really unclear why USB for console is 'a thing' for large gear...
9600 is plenty fast for typing, 115200 is acceptable (in a pinch) for
code upgrades... (icky, yes, but...)

I wonder if you can x-modem over the usb... and at what rate. I also
do wonder about jared's problem of: "hey so I need to hit break to fix
this gear during reboot.... oops! driver not loaded yet!"

On Tue, Feb 2, 2016 at 3:27 PM, Peter Loron <peterl () standingwave org> wrote:
> A possible alternative, although probably not one you'd want to leave in
> place permanently:
>
> http://www.get-console.com/airconsole/
>
> -Pete
>
>
> On 2016-02-02 06:11, Jared Mauch wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 10:15:28PM +0000, Erik Sundberg wrote:
> > > We have one of these nice new and fancy Cisco ASR920-24SZ, just realized
> > > it doesn't have an RJ45 Console port only USB. When we deploy devices at our
> > > pop we wire the console port to a terminal\console server, well that doesn't
> > > work for a usb console device.
> > >
> > > So what is everyone doing for out of band management via the console when
> > > it's a usb only device?
> > > Is there something I am missing?
> >
> >
> >         Likely not.  I've seen most equipment makers start to ignore
> > serial console.
> > The default these appears to be moving to a uBoot/PXE style network setup
> > where you push an image and such via TFTP/DHCP into the device.
> >
> > > Is there a console server for USB?
> >
> >
> >         I've not seen one show up, but there are other devices like this
> > which the DIY industry has started to build:
> >
> >         http://freetserv.github.io/
> >
> >         I have a side business i'm tinkering with and these are open
> > source
> > hardware.  If there is interest, I'd be willing to build these in volume
> > and
> > drive the cost down.
> >
> >         It would not be difficult to do a giant USB hub that was similar.
> >
> > > Does cisco make an USB to RJ45 Jack adapter?
> >
> >
> >         Yes, but I'm always concerned about what boot messages are lost
> > or things you can't quite do properly (like send break, etc) to get into
> > the device as you're waiting for the USB to initalize, driver to present
> > to OS, etc..  Maybe they spent more time thinking about this than I
> > am aware, but it's something I've not had a proper solution explained to
> > me
> > for.
> >
> >         - Jared