[BLU] Remote console options?

[derek at cerberus.ne.mediaone.net (Derek Martin)]

Yesterday, Randall Hofland gleaned this insight:

> David has brought up an idea that sounds a little like the MaxSpeed consoles.
> They use Cat5 cabling to carry what is claimed to be a full PCI speed signal
> (132 Mbs?) from a server to a remote console (MaxStation). Each PCI card
> allows 4 users to run individual and independent sessions. I don't know if a
> similar application exists for remote KVM but it seems a reasonably good idea
> IF you had a stable and secure connection. Get to work, David!!!

This is just my opinion, but this actually sounds like a BAD idea to me...
In general, the only good reason to be working at the console of a server
is if the machine won't come up (or you happen to be standing next to it
when you need to do something)... otherwise everything you need to do can
be done from your desk via telnet/ssh session.

Given that, I would not want 4 sysadmins working on the same machine while
it isn't coming up... too many cooks scenario.  All too easy to screw up
what someone else did to fix a problem.

I like the Cyclades PR3000... they provide network access from your
favorite terminal window program (XTERM!) to serially connected consoles
ranging in number from 16 to 64 IIRC, and allow only one console session.  
Having more is, IMO, just asking for trouble.

-- 
---------------------------------------------------------------
Derek D. Martin              |  Unix/Linux Geek
ddm at MissionCriticalLinux.com |  derek at cerberus.ne.mediaone.net
---------------------------------------------------------------

-
Subcription/unsubscription/info requests: send e-mail with
"subscribe", "unsubscribe", or "info" on the first line of the
message body to discuss-request at blu.org (Subject line is ignored).