[NTLUG:Discuss] remote boot device

[Mark Bickel]

David Camm wrote:

> after some recent troubles, i'd like to be able to have remote console
> support (like on a serial POTS connection) for my server so that i can
> issue a C-A-D sequence remotely when the machine has (heavens forfend)
> taken itself offline and i can;t issue a shutdown via telnet.
>
> the isp with whom i co-locate said they could provide a box that acts
> like a power strip and can be telnet-ed into, thereby providing a remote
> power-off sequence.
>
> when i inquired how that would work with a system that supports file
> caching, like linux, i got 'well, it works fine with sun machines
> running solaris'.
>
> any leads would be greatly appreciated.
>
> david camm
> advanced web systems

American Power Conversion makes a remote boot device with some nice
features
like MD5 crypt, HTTP interface, SNMP manageable, etc.
http://www.apc.com/products/masterswitch/index.cfm

If you do some web crawling you should be able to find plenty. Perhaps what
you
want are some capabilities that are standard with high-end intel servers
from
Compaq, Dell, IBM, etc. Things like a server monitoring board that has
multiple
user-programmable watchdog timers that can monitor bus, IRQ, and disk
activity,
as well as temp. fan speed, case intrusion, etc. There are a variety of
such
cards that could be added to your machines. On the high end, manufacturers
of
fault tolerant systems that are designed to meet the more rigorous
requirements
of the telecom industry like Force, AXI, GNP, RadiSys (formerly
TexasMicro),
and Richardson TX based CASI come to mind. These companies make rackmount
servers that comply to BellCore's NEBS and LSSGR specifications.

The traditional telecom operators are much more demanding in terms of
reliability
and survivability than your typical datacom/ISP types. Remember telecom
networks traditionally were designed for "5 nines" uptime, with things like
911,
police, fire, hospitals, depending on them. The typical datacom environment
has
quite a lot of room for improvement! Most datacenter managers could get a
big
clue by studing the telecom industry approach WRT power and grounding
systems,
lightning protection, earthquake bracing, route and facility diversity,
cable
management, etc. I could go on (I guess I just did) but you get the
picture, right?

Best,
Mark.Bickel at ericsson.com


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