[NTLUG:Discuss] remote boot device

[Eric Schnoebelen]

David Camm writes:
- the idea looks great, with two 'gotchas'....
- 
- 1. the card is ias only - my main server doesn't have any isa slots on
- the motherboard and

	I think they are looking at doing a PCI version.. 

- 2. it's not clear from the website how one installs, and then
- establishes a dial-in connection when required.

	Huh?? One installs it by putting it in the system.  It
replaces any other video adapter in the system..

	As to establishing a dial in connection, I would assume
you put a modem on it, in auto-answer mode, and then dial in..
Once you've dialed, you've got a VT100 session of your systems
BIOS console..

	Personally, I have attached all the serial consoles on
my network to a console server (Portmaster 2e20's running in
reverse telnet mode), and then connect to the console server to
connect to the desired console.

	I also mandate that any guest machines on my network be
set up with serial consoles as well (not much of an issue, since
most of the guest machines, as well as my own, are not PC's..
They are HP's, Alpha's, and SPARC's, all running from serial
consoles.)

--
Eric Schnoebelen		eric at cirr.com		http://www.cirr.com
    Real Programmers don't write applications programs.  They program right
	    down to the bare metal.  Applications programs are for
		dullards who can't do systems programming.