On (2013-01-09 22:05 -0500), Randy Carpenter wrote:
1. Something that is *not* network (ethernet or otherwise) (isn't that the point of OOB?)
No. This is not what OOB means. Out-of-band means not fate-sharing your production network. OOB networks are networks, running ethernet, frame-relay, ATM or something else. Just that they are broken at different time to production network, so if you fuck up your production network, you can still access your device via OOB network. The serial port you have in your router is not OOB port, it's fate-sharing the control-plane, if your OS breaks down, your serial port. Think IPMI, if you break your linux installation, you can't login to linux to reload the linux, you need IPMI/DRAC/vPro for that, which is normal ethernet.
2. Something that is standard across everything, and can be aggregated easily onto a "console server" or the like
'console server' costs more than ethernet switch. So you get less and you pay more. You can't you use RS232 to send images.
I don't really see what is wrong with with keeping the serial port as the standard.
Then you don't have to use one, you're welcome to use existing solutions, this is not robbing that that on-band RS232 from you. It's adding something new. Cisco devices which have CMP still have legacy on-band RS232, because not all people will realise immediately why and even if they do, not all people can migrate it day1 in non-greenfield. -- ++ytti