If we're going to play about with consoles, then there are a +
If we are going to play about with consoles, then there are a couple of other things that would be great:
Logging. If something has gone wrong, you would like to be able to have a look at the previous console output to see - what's up. Ordinary console screens give you the last 25 + what is up. Ordinary console screens give you the last 25 lines. More would be better.
You might be tempted to do without a console terminal, but when - things go pear-shaped you really need to see what's on + things go pear-shaped you really need to see what is on the console. And you have to use the console to boot the machine and do things like OS upgrades or installs.
@@ -101,10 +101,10 @@ lead goes with which hardware. So you spend the first 10 minutes fooling around with breakout boxes and a box of leads, all while the server is down and the users are screaming. Of - course this doesn't deal with the logging or remote access + course this does not deal with the logging or remote access requirements. And inevitably the console is not switched to the machine you need so you lose all the console messages that might - tell you what's going on. + tell you what is going on.One popular solution is to use terminal server hardware. Typically, the serial ports are connected to the various machine @@ -112,7 +112,7 @@ user can telnet to a given IP/port and be connected to the appropriate console. This can be very cost-effective, as suitable old terminal servers can be picked up fairly cheaply - (assuming you don't have a couple lying around). And it is of + (assuming you do not have a couple lying around). And it is of course network-accessible so suitable for remote access. But it suffers from one major drawback: if the network is down, then you have no access to any console, even if you are @@ -189,7 +189,7 @@ about $AUD12,000.
A modem for remote access to the console server host when - the network is down. We haven't done this yet as the computer + the network is down. We have not done this yet as the computer room is next door, but when we put a server in Sydney we will add the modem. The idea is that when the network is down, you can dial up and log into the server machine and run the @@ -234,7 +234,7 @@ info so that could easily be implemented if we needed. And it even has a modem for calling the pager company!
We don't currently support remote power cycling. Some +
We do not currently support remote power cycling. Some versions of the conserver program support this, but it does require specialised serial-controlled power boards. We have no immediate need for remote power cycling (we have a gopher @@ -256,7 +256,7 @@
The only hitch with setting up the server PC is getting the device drivers for the Stallion card. FreeBSD has supported Stallion ISA cards for many years, but unfortunately the driver - has not been actively maintained for some years, and doesn't + has not been actively maintained for some years, and does not support the newer Stallion cards (such as the EasyIO-PCI card or some of the other ISA cards with newer UART chips). I have put together a patch file for FreeBSD @@ -408,7 +408,7 @@ trusted: 127.0.0.1 buzz
The next three lines show three machines to which we need to
connect. We use the cuaEx devices rather than the
- ttyEx devices because console ports typically don't
+ ttyEx devices because console ports typically do not
show carrier. This means that opening ttyEx would hang
and conserver would never connect. Using the
cuaEx device avoids this problem. Another solution
@@ -496,10 +496,10 @@ cuaE0 "/usr/local/sbin/conserver" unknown on insecure
output not otherwise captured by a client console connection.
This is useful as a general monitoring tool to see if anything
is going on. We set this terminal up in the computer room but
- visible from the main office. It's a very handy feature. The
+ visible from the main office. It is a very handy feature. The
downside of running conserver from the ttys file is that it
cannot run in daemon mode (else init would continually restart
- it). This means conserver won't write a PID file, which makes
+ it). This means conserver will not write a PID file, which makes
it hard to rotate the log files.
So we start conserver from an rc.d script. If you installed @@ -797,7 +797,7 @@ exit 0
I think that all Cisco gear that has RJ-45 console ports and runs IOS will have the same cable requirements. But best to - check first. We've tried this on 1600s and 2600s only.
+ check first. We have tried this on 1600s and 2600s only.Both the Stallion card and the 2600 have RJ-45 connections, but of course they are not compatible. So you need to crimp up a @@ -836,8 +836,8 @@ Pin
Note again that colours may be different for your cables/headshells.
Carefully label the cable, and each end of the cable, and test - it. If it doesn't work, testing is really hard as they - don't make RJ-45 serial line testers!
+ it. If it does not work, testing is really hard as they + do not make RJ-45 serial line testers!Let me state this more stongly: Be very VERY sure that you label this cable in a way that is easily, @@ -848,7 +848,7 @@ Pin
If you don't have a rollover cable present, then you can use +
If you do not have a rollover cable present, then you can use the same cable as for the 26xx except plug it in the other way around (i.e. original 8-pin plug goes into the Stallion, the new crimped plug with only 4 active wires goes into the Catalyst).
@@ -1074,7 +1074,7 @@ ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 on secureThe FreeBSD ports collection contains a port for version 8.5 of
conserver. This seems to be older and less featureful than the
- 7.0.2 version (in particular, it doesn't support consoles
+ 7.0.2 version (in particular, it does not support consoles
connected to terminal server ports and does not support a
conserver.passwd file), and is written in a fairly
idiosyncratic manner (using a preprocessor to generate C code).
@@ -1086,7 +1086,7 @@ ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 on secure
machines via a specific serial-interfaced power controller
hardware).
As shipped with FreeBSD, the 8.5 version doesn't authenticate +
As shipped with FreeBSD, the 8.5 version does not authenticate against FreeBSD servers using MD5 passwords. There is a patch in the FreeBSD GNATS system (ports/28432) @@ -1096,8 +1096,8 @@ ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 on secure
It is hard to rotate log files, as conserver
- doesn't create a PID file and killing the parent conserver
- process doesn't kill the children (which have the logfiles
+ does not create a PID file and killing the parent conserver
+ process does not kill the children (which have the logfiles
open).
Compiling it (on anything other than FreeBSD) is a pain @@ -1159,7 +1159,7 @@ ttyd0 "/usr/libexec/getty std.9600" vt100 on secure makes a ISA or PCI video card that looks like a PC video card but actually talks to a serial port. This can be used to implement serial consoles on PC hardware for operating systems - that can't be forced to use serial console ports early + that can not be forced to use serial console ports early enough.