From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 6 14:43:16 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0F56F16A41F for ; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 14:43:16 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from MH@kernel32.de) Received: from crivens.unixoid.de (crivens.unixoid.de [81.169.171.191]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 874CA43D45 for ; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 14:43:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from MH@kernel32.de) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by crivens.unixoid.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 114D84006; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 15:43:14 +0100 (CET) Received: from crivens.unixoid.de ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (crivens.unixoid.de [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 11077-02; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 15:43:10 +0100 (CET) Received: from [10.38.0.120] (unknown [213.238.63.253]) by crivens.unixoid.de (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4A44E3F2A; Fri, 6 Jan 2006 15:43:10 +0100 (CET) Message-ID: <43BE8304.2010709@kernel32.de> Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 15:47:32 +0100 From: Marian Hettwer User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2 (Macintosh/20050317) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Scott Mitchell References: <20060106135717.GA20651@llama.fishballoon.org> In-Reply-To: <20060106135717.GA20651@llama.fishballoon.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.93.0.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at unixoid.de Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: 6.0 on Dell 1850 with DRAC4 management card? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 06 Jan 2006 14:43:16 -0000 Hi there, Scott Mitchell wrote: > Hi all, > > > I'm thinking about getting the machine with a DRAC4 remote management card. > This looks to be OS-independent (you can configure through the BIOS) so I > expect it will just work. I've seen various posts talking about how it > tends to take over the keyboard and render the real console inaccessible, > but there are workarounds for that. I don't know about the DRAC with FreeBSD, but I assume that the BIOS of this Dell still supports BIOS redirection to serial port. If so, you can have Monitor and Keyboard connected locally and use the serial console remote. Just get a small console server (depending on the amount of servers you have remote), for instance an old cyclades TS. Connect them and you can get on your serial port through the console server via ssh. There you go ;) ssh username:yourserver@console-server A pretty nice way to do remote management. HTH, Marian PS.: If you need additional informations, ask me. At work we have approx 1000 servers (appr. 300 dell's) remote managed with console servers. And it's working fine.