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Date:      Fri, 06 Jan 2006 17:22:04 +0100
From:      Marian Hettwer <MH@kernel32.de>
To:        Vivek Khera <vivek@khera.org>
Cc:        freebsd-stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: 6.0 on Dell 1850 with DRAC4 management card?
Message-ID:  <43BE992C.5030506@kernel32.de>
In-Reply-To: <DD400FE7-3B39-42E2-BD97-169D0CFAE565@khera.org>
References:  <20060106135717.GA20651@llama.fishballoon.org>	<43BE8304.2010709@kernel32.de> <DD400FE7-3B39-42E2-BD97-169D0CFAE565@khera.org>

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Vivek Khera wrote:
> 
> On Jan 6, 2006, at 9:47 AM, Marian Hettwer wrote:
> 
>> 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.
> 
> 
> This is precisely what I do.  The cyclades work extremely well,  except
> for one flaw: if you power cycle them they send a BREAK signal  down
> every serial port.  So just make sure you don't have  BREAK_TO_DEBUGGER
> enabled on your kernels and you're safe.  Otherwise  expect every server
> to break to debugger on a power cycle of your  cyclade.  Not that you
> need to ever reboot those little boxes, but  you never know....
>
How old is your Cyclades box? Since mid 2002 these boxes don't send a
break when power cycled. And I know what I say, being an ex-employee of
cyclades (o' course, technician). We had customers with quite a large
amount of sun servers and these are usually pretty sensitive regarding
breaks.
Never had an issue due to power cycles...
hm... consider a replacement :)
The old boxes had 5 years of warranty. So, go for it ;))


> I've never enabled the DRAC card on any dell I have that came with  them...
>
I'd rather stick with a good old console which I can access remotely via
ssh, too.


So Long,
Marian



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