That's what I would do... out of band management network where a serial console (and other things) reside.
----- Mike Hammett Intelligent Computing Solutions Midwest Internet Exchange The Brothers WISP ----- Original Message ----- From: "Forrest Christian (List Account)" <li...@packetflux.com> To: "AnimalFarm Microwave Users Group" <af@af.afmug.com> Sent: Sunday, November 3, 2024 2:39:52 PM Subject: Re: [AFMUG] Cellular console server Sorry to hijack the thread. I've been considering developing a few different products to broaden my product line so it isn't so WISP focused. One of the things I've looked at is a terminal server device since the existing ones seem so rediculous for the price. BUT.. to meet the price target I'd want to hit, cellular connectivity would be out of the question, due to the excessive cost of the testing that the cellular networks require to permit connection to their network. This is probably why the existing products which have cellular connectivity cost so much. I was sort of under the impression that it was pretty typical for out of band cellular access to use one of the off the shelf wireless routers/hotspots to provide management-only ip connectivity. That way, you can connect to the management interface on every device. Is this not the case? On Sun, Nov 3, 2024, 6:55 AM dbernardi < dberna...@zitomedia.net > wrote: Not that device in particular but the number of locations and RS-232 ports per device may drive you in a certain direction. I've been looking for a new solution as well. With 100's of locations I find you need some sort of dashboard to track and manage devices, whether home-grown or from a provider. We originally used Opengear 3G console servers but had to replace them as Verizon phased out 3G service so we put together our own RPi with a Verizon 4G USB cellular modem and a Startech USB/RS-232 adapter with appropriate number of ports. That <$200 solution worked pretty well but if you don't pay attention to tunnel management (make sure it switches back to on-net link) it's easy to rack up a 5 figure Verizon bill even with a M2M type service. So if you have a lot of devices to manage having visibility into them and/or cellular is key. Tunnels become less important if you are willing to pay for static IPv4 or stable IPv6 addresses from the carrier but you still have to monitor them. I looked at some ~$1500+ devices but at scale it becomes a pretty significant capital project and I consider tunnel/cellular management more important anyhow. I tested the Digi Connect IT-4 with Hologram and it worked well but they didn't have Verizon as a carrier at the time (they do now for additional fee). We provide cellular backhaul to many T-Mobile and AT&T sites so in the event our PoP/cabinet becomes isolated the concern is that same towers we provide backhaul to would be how we would gain out-of-band access to our equipment said outage. Point being in our case having primary access to Verizon is important. I'm currently looking to test Symetry (Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T)+ Peplink router. Peplink has a what looks like a very nice tunnel service dashboard (InTouch @ ~$40/year/device) but their hardware is lacking console ports so you still need some type console/RS-232 server if you need more than 1 port. I'm considering leaving the RPi and Startech in place as a terminal server (works well) but using the Peplink+Intouch for cellular access/tunnel management (where we struggled). There's also consideration of what you are planning to do with RS-232 access. Are you just doing occasional "show interface" commands when you lose in-band access, uploading firmware/bootloaders, or collecting telemetry. Anyhow, based on what I looked at so far, I think most of the integrated rack mount console servers are pretty similar in features, cost and reliability but your cellular related requirements may matter (eSIM or multiple carrier support for example). Some also seemed to differ in tunnel options as well if that's a consideration. So if the cellular console server meets your needs and cost (scale) is not as important, I think you'll find they all pretty much the same. On 11/1/2024 3:14 PM, Adam Moffett wrote: > > Has anyone used this product? Does it suck? > https://www.wti.com/products/dsm-8dcnm-e-gige-console-server-8-port- > rj45-dual-ethernet < https://www.wti.com/products/dsm-8dcnm-e-gige- > console-server-8-port-rj45-dual-ethernet> > > I got spam from this company recently, and purely by chance I was > researching a cellular OOB management option so I got the manual and dug > into it a bit. It has exactly the features I'm looking for. I'm > wondering if by chance anyone here has already bought from this company > and maybe you can save me the trouble of finding out the hard way that > they're terrible. > > -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com -- AF mailing list AF@af.afmug.com http://af.afmug.com/mailman/listinfo/af_af.afmug.com
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