I would like to deploy a terminal server in several of my POPs, however cost is a slight issue. Can anyone on the list recommend a fairly inexpensive terminal server (besides Cisco)? Obviously the terminal server should be reliable and work - it is the little things that count.
chas
We built our own using a cheap 1U linux box and a Cyclades multi-port
serial card. Cheap and supports ssh.
Ben
I would like to deploy a terminal server in several of my POPs, however cost
is a slight issue. Can anyone on the list recommend a fairly inexpensive
terminal server (besides Cisco)? Obviously the terminal server should be
reliable and work - it is the little things that count.
Mr. Smith,
I highly recommend you talk to iTouch. Terminal servers are their
flagship product, and they're incredibly responsive folks. Their
website is www.itouchcom.com.
--John
If you can find them, Livingston/Lucent PM-25s work pretty well too and are
cheap (since they are discontinued).
Aaron
Get a used PM2e30...30 serial ports, and I bet you can find them for less
than $200. There are probably better options, but none cheaper.
Andy
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Thus spake Aaron Dewell (acd@woods.net):
If you can find them, Livingston/Lucent PM-25s work pretty well too and are
cheap (since they are discontinued).
NOOOOOOOOOO! Octopus cables BAAAAD! PMs have no ssh, either.
--John
who once assisted in disposing of over twenty times his weight in PM-25s
chasmith9@hotmail.com ("Charles Smith") writes:
I would like to deploy a terminal server in several of my POPs, however cost
is a slight issue. Can anyone on the list recommend a fairly inexpensive
terminal server (besides Cisco)? Obviously the terminal server should be
reliable and work - it is the little things that count.
http://www.rocketport.com/sales/specs/rack16.htm, with pictures available at
http://www.rocketport.com/sales/specs/rack16_foto.htm, will connect to any
BSD or Linux machine -- which your POP already ought to have.
ftp://ftp.vix.com/pub/vixie/rtty-4.0.shar.gz, when mixed with the above (or,
indeed, with any serial port on any posix-like system) will give you console
service including multiple simultaneous operators, audit logs, and so on.
disclaimer: neither i nor my employer derives any input from giving away rtty.
I've been completely happy with our installation of PM25's. They are
getting harder to find/more expensive, though. Lucent really blew it
EOL'ing these.
We have ~100 in production and aside from an occasonal DOA they've
been frawless. BBNPlanet also used them exclusively for console access
when I was there.
matto
If you can find them, Livingston/Lucent PM-25s work pretty well too and are
cheap (since they are discontinued).
Aaron
The computone ras2000's have nice density, and they do ssh.
-Dan
http://www.computone.com/products/RAS2000/
thanx you.
i rmembered seeing an ad for these in some magazine, but couldn't remember
the brand.
i haven't used one, but it certainly seems to have decent features.
Thus spake Aaron Dewell (acd@woods.net):
> If you can find them, Livingston/Lucent PM-25s work pretty well too and are
> cheap (since they are discontinued).
NOOOOOOOOOO! Octopus cables BAAAAD! PMs have no ssh, either.
I don't see the drawback of an octopus cable. Especially if its just
getting converted to RJ45 and patched into a panel, anyway.
Everywhere I've seen real console access implemented, its been on a
private LAN with ssh access through a bastion host. There you can
implement whatever authentication you want.
--John
who once assisted in disposing of over twenty times his weight in PM-25s
Thats a shame. They're solid reliable boxes that are only getting
harder to find.
matto
--mghali@snark.net------------------------------------------<darwin><
Flowers on the razor wire/I know you're here/We are few/And far
between/I was thinking about her skin/Love is a many splintered
thing/Don't be afraid now/Just walk on in. #include <disclaim.h>
We are using - like many others - a cheap Linux PC with Cyclades card,
because we couldn't find anything on the market with:
- Ability to store console logs "forever" (using screen package for
attaching
and detaching of console sessions)
- Doing a 2nd role as netflow collector
- SSH
- Beeing able to do out of band access with either ISDN or analog modem
Wolfgang
Here are the average uptimes of the three types of terminal server we
had back in the day when I ran a small ISP.
Computone Powerrack: 2 weeks. (It will go considerably longer if you waste
one of the ports as a serial console, we had modems on all ports and that
caused it to fill it's buffer and crash periodically, Computone probably
sent us two dozen revisions of the firmware before they solved that problem.)
BSD/OS 2.0.1 on IBM PC Server: 1 month. (Would crash about every 7 or 8
weeks, so we rebooted it once a month whether it needed it or not.)
RedHat Linux 4.1 homebuilt: 6 months. (Would have been longer, but there
was a power outage that lasted longer than the UPS, and then about 5 months
later they took it out of service and replaced with a Computone.)
If price is really an object, build your own. If reliability is an object,
you get what you pay for.
You forget the most important feature:
- Something I didn't think of when I bought it, that we need immediately.