We are trying a somewhat-radical new strategy. For our newest rack, we bought a Raspberry Pi Model 3B. It has four USB ports, and into each port we plugged a dual-headed USB to RS232 adapter, for a total of 8 ports.
So far, so good. The main benefits are ease of use (our team can use the same tools they use on their laptops) and cost (100-150 USD total for the setup I just mentioned). The gotchas are that it only has one inbuilt Ethernet port and it does not have built-in support for redundant power. But we are using this only for emergencies, and we access the site once every few months anyway, so we were willing to make that concession. -- Hunter Fuller Network Engineer VBH Annex B-5 +1 256 824 5331 Office of Information Technology The University of Alabama in Huntsville Systems and Infrastructure On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 4:03 PM R. Benjamin Kessler <[email protected]> wrote: > We've deployed async HWICs/NIMs in Cisco routers for customers in hundreds > of locations. > Many/most were also pared with 4G cards provide an out-of-band connection > back to a centralized data center. > > R. Benjamin Kessler > PRESIDENT / CHIEF NETWORK GEEK > ZENETRA CORPORATION > CCIE # 8762 | CISSP | PCNSE > P: (260)-271-4330 | M: (260)-437-5774 > > -----Original Message----- > From: cisco-nsp <[email protected]> On Behalf Of Robert > Raszuk > Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2019 5:00 PM > To: Nick Cutting <[email protected]> > Cc: Cisco NSPs <[email protected]> > Subject: Re: [c-nsp] Console connections > > Hi Nick, > > Indeed I was looking also at opengear but got a bit scared with limited > software based pinout switching capabilities ... Some models can switch > between X1 and X2 but is this enough ? Today we use avocent which claims to > be soft selectable between RS485, RS422 and RS232 pinouts. > > > https://opengear.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/216371943-Which-adapter-will-I-use-to-connect-to-various-types-of-equipment- > > In my case in those 10 racks are complete wild zoo of various eval > equipment and just trying to avoid as much as possible per vendor console > adapters going forward. > > Many thx, > R. > > > > On Thu, Jan 31, 2019 at 10:55 PM Nick Cutting <[email protected]> wrote: > > > We use lots of opengear. > > Expensive - but awesome > > > > I did just roll out a cisco 4431 with 3 octal cables for a client > > though, but opengear has way more features and supports 2 people at > > once on the lines etc > > > > -----Original Message----- > > From: cisco-nsp <[email protected]> On Behalf Of > > Robert Raszuk > > Sent: Thursday, January 31, 2019 4:28 PM > > To: Cisco NSPs <[email protected]> > > Subject: [c-nsp] Console connections > > > > This message originates from outside of your organisation. > > > > Hello, > > > > What would you all recommend these days for min 8-12 port rack mounted > > terminal servers to talk to various vendor's router and switches > > console ports ? > > > > For years I used cisco 2511 but now it is history .. so what's the > > best cisco or not cisco successor for it ? > > > > It would be awesome if it would also have few KVM switch ports for > > video&mouse to get them over IP, but this is just "nice to have" - > > primary I need to get 10 async terminal servers. > > > > Any proven in action hints ? > > > > Many thx, > > Robert. > > _______________________________________________ > > cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] > > https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp > > archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/ > > > > > _______________________________________________ > cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] > https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp > archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/ > _______________________________________________ > cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] > https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp > archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/ > _______________________________________________ cisco-nsp mailing list [email protected] https://puck.nether.net/mailman/listinfo/cisco-nsp archive at http://puck.nether.net/pipermail/cisco-nsp/
