Mailing List Archive

On Aug 31 16:08, Lee Eric wrote:
> 1. What equipment do I need to use conserver to manage them? Every
> machine has a console port, but nothing connected.
> 2. Does conserver can use LAN to manage machines using console?
> 3. What configurations need to set up for machines including BIOS and
> OS? My OS is Fedora 12.

I generally use conserver in conjunction with a terminal server like a
Cyclades or a serial multiplexer like a Digi box.

The setup looks like this:

Nodes A, B, C:
- serial cable running to Cyclades or Digi
- console=ttyS0 on kernel command line
- configure serial console in inittab (or equiv) so you get a
prompt

Server X:
- Ethernet cable to Cyclades or Digi (or put it on the switch)
- converser.cf looks like so:

default cyclades {
type host; host cyclades;
portbase 7000; portinc 1;
}

console A { include cyclades; port 1; }
console B { include cyclades; port 2; }
console C { include cyclades; port 3; }

OR

default digi {
# devices tty100 - tty115
# use port number from box.
type device; device /dev/tty1.; devicesubst .=P02d;
portbase -1; portinc 1;
baud 115200; parity none;
}

console A { include digi; port 1; }
console B { include digi; port 2; }
console C { include digi; port 3; }

Another option might be to use Serial-over-LAN, but I don't have the
configuration example for that.

Nate
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Hi Lee,

Nate has offered one good configuration, which is based on a common
implementation that will scale well up to very large sites. (Cheers, Nate!
:-) But, the roots of Conserver allowed the conserver host to have
multi-UART serial boards in the Conserver server, and that may be a cheaper
model for you to start.

You can get some more basic information from a couple older tutorials that
I have posted at http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Training/published.html
Specifically, take a look at the basic tutorial from LISA 2002 (
http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Training/LISA2002-T9.PDF) or the Bay-LISA
talk (http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Training/BayLISA-consoles.ppt).

Nate's reply presumes that server X and the others are all some variant of
Linux/UNIX. Is that true in your example? (If servers A, B, and C are some
variant of Windows, for example, the newer machines do allow some monitoring
of the boot process using "serial console redirection" settings in the BIOS,
and some servers (ex: HP, Dell, Rackable) have Service Processors (*LOM)
which even allow you to remotely reset the server, or command the power on
and off... so, Conserver can even help with Windows servers as well.)

Best regards,

-Z-

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 1:08 AM, Lee Eric <openlinuxsource@gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm a newbie at conserver. I have several PCs and servers need to
> manage and I don't know if conserver can help me. I read the basic.cf
> for beginning but I think there are some concepts I may miss. So I got
> some questions here.
>
> 1. What equipment do I need to use conserver to manage them? Every
> machine has a console port, but nothing connected.
> 2. Does conserver can use LAN to manage machines using console?
> 3. What configurations need to set up for machines including BIOS and
> OS? My OS is Fedora 12.
>
> So let me show the environment I have. There are 4 machines.
> A(192.168.1.1), B(192.168.1.2), C(192.168.1.3), X(192.168.1.10). So A,
> B, C will be clients, X is the server which is running conserver. They
> are just connected with a switch, they are all have console ports as
> well. But console ports are nothing connected.
>
> My question is can I use conserver to view the console information of
> each client? If yes, can anyone show me a basic configuration example?
>
> Thanks very much.
>
> Regards,
>
> Eric
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list
> users@conserver.com
> https://www.conserver.com/mailman/listinfo/users
>



--
ConsoleTeam - Support and training services for Conserver users.
www.conserver.com/consoles/
consoleteam.blogspot.com

Thanks, mate. So obviously I have to use a terminal server like a
Cyclades or a serial multiplexer. That indicates it's impossible just
put PCs/Servers into a LAN then using conserver directly, right?

Regards,

Eric

On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 11:04 PM, Zonker <consoleteam@gmail.com> wrote:
>   Hi Lee,
>
>   Nate has offered one good configuration, which is based on a common
> implementation that will scale well up to very large sites. (Cheers, Nate!
> :-) But, the roots of Conserver allowed the conserver host to have
> multi-UART serial boards in the Conserver server, and that may be a cheaper
> model for you to start.
>
>   You can get some more basic information from a couple older tutorials that
> I have posted at http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Training/published.html
> Specifically, take a look at the basic tutorial from LISA 2002
> (http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Training/LISA2002-T9.PDF) or the Bay-LISA
> talk (http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Training/BayLISA-consoles.ppt).
>
>   Nate's reply presumes that server X and the others are all some variant of
> Linux/UNIX. Is that true in your example? (If servers A, B, and C are some
> variant of Windows, for example, the newer machines do allow some monitoring
> of the boot process using "serial console redirection" settings in the BIOS,
> and some servers (ex: HP, Dell, Rackable) have Service Processors (*LOM)
> which even allow you to remotely reset the server, or command the power on
> and off... so, Conserver can even help with Windows servers as well.)
>
>       Best regards,
>
>              -Z-
>
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2010 at 1:08 AM, Lee Eric <openlinuxsource@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm a newbie at conserver. I have several PCs and servers need to
>> manage and I don't know if conserver can help me. I read the basic.cf
>> for beginning but I think there are some concepts I may miss. So I got
>> some questions here.
>>
>> 1. What equipment do I need to use conserver to manage them? Every
>> machine has a console port, but nothing connected.
>> 2. Does conserver can use LAN to manage machines using console?
>> 3. What configurations need to set up for machines including BIOS and
>> OS? My OS is Fedora 12.
>>
>> So let me show the environment I have. There are 4 machines.
>> A(192.168.1.1), B(192.168.1.2), C(192.168.1.3), X(192.168.1.10). So A,
>> B, C will be clients, X is the server which is running conserver. They
>> are just connected with a switch, they are all have console ports as
>> well. But console ports are nothing connected.
>>
>> My question is can I use conserver to view the console information of
>> each client? If yes, can anyone show me a basic configuration example?
>>
>> Thanks very much.
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Eric
>> _______________________________________________
>> users mailing list
>> users@conserver.com
>> https://www.conserver.com/mailman/listinfo/users
>
>
>
> --
> ConsoleTeam - Support and training services for Conserver users.
> www.conserver.com/consoles/
> consoleteam.blogspot.com
>

_______________________________________________
users mailing list
users@conserver.com
https://www.conserver.com/mailman/listinfo/users

On 09/01/2010 08:31 AM, Lee Eric wrote:
> Thanks, mate. So obviously I have to use a terminal server like a
> Cyclades or a serial multiplexer. That indicates it's impossible just
> put PCs/Servers into a LAN then using conserver directly, right?

Impossible unless your PCs have a management module like an IPMI BMC or
some proprietary *LOM, as others have pointed out. Most server
motherboards these days come with a BMC, but it may need some work (new
firmware, for instance) to get it working. Try running 'ipmitool sdr'
from the host itself to see if you have one. :)

I run a large setup based on ipmitool and IPMI SOL using conserver and
no extra hardware elements (IPMI even goes through the main network
interface so we don't have a management LAN for this.)

You can find the wrapper script I use for ipmitool and config file
examples here:
http://cern.ch/ahorvath/rpms/conserver/ipmi/

HTH,

Andras

--
Andras HORVATH
Systems engineer, CERN CF FPP
Tel: +41 22 767 4290 // Fax: +41 22 766 9154
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