Re: Using serial console as a poor mans IP kvm?
On 09/08/2016 10:26 PM, Jarle Aase wrote:
>...
> So I'm thinking about serial consoles. My gateway router will reboot
> after an outage, and it can act as a VPN endpoint. So I can access IP
> devices. With a rasberry pi and some relays, I can probably trigger a
> cold reboot whenever I need to. If I could log on to the grub console on
> the servers over a serial link, that's all I need, really.
>
> Does anyone here have any experience with remote control with Debian
> boxes over serial? Will it work reliable?
Quite a while back (Etch) I had some Debian machines running via serial
console. As far as I know everything should still work just as nicely
over serial console. From what I recall, you'll have to set console
settings several places in the system to cover all contingencies for
booting and recovery.
I've used USB-to-serial adapters with the Prolific chipset. They've
worked fine for me, in various models. (I haven't tried FTDI and am
suspicious of them.) There are also specialized PCI and PCIe serial
console servers which add 4 or 8 extra serial ports to a machine. But
if you're going to run everything off of a single rpi then a
USB-to-serial adapter is the way to go. There are ones that go USB to 4
or 8 serial ports, but they are hard to find affordably any more.
About the power relays, I did that before and had a lot of help to make
some custom ones, nothing being on the market back then. I found
someone with skill to build a custom setup that worked over GPIO.
However, nowadays there are several devices that look interesting. One
pre-made series that caught my eye a few weeks ago was this one:
https://unipi.technology/shop/
However, I have not evaluated any units so that is just to point to
what's on the market and not any endorsement. You'll need to wire plugs
and such, too, and I can't see any fuses on those units.
Regards,
Lars
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