Why is Satellite not a good OOB option?
From my Galaxy Note II, please excuse any mistakes.
-------- Original message -------- From: William Herrin <bill@herrin.us> Date: 01/10/2013 8:20 AM (GMT-08:00) To: Randy Carpenter <rcarpen@network1.net> Cc: nanog@nanog.org Subject: Re: OOB core router connectivity wish list On Thu, Jan 10, 2013 at 1:24 AM, Randy Carpenter <rcarpen@network1.net> wrote:
On Wed, 9 Jan 2013, Randy Carpenter wrote:
My main requirements would be:
1. Something that is *not* network (ethernet or otherwise) (isn't that the point of OOB?)
I don't understand this at all. Why can't an OOB network be ethernet based towards the equipment needing management?
How do I connect to it from many miles away when the network is down? I have connected to a misbehaving border device at a remote network via dial-up before, and was able to get it back up and running. I would not have been able to do that if the only options were ethernet or ethernet.
Dial up with PPP and then cross the ethernet? Drop off a cellular modem with IP service instead of a dialup modem? Perhaps you haven't noticed but IP over circuit-switched voice lines is giving way to voice over IP packet switched systems. That POTS line the dialup modem needs doesn't have a lot of future left.
But having a console->serial is significantly less complex than console->IP_Stack->ethernet. So many more things to go wrong. I've never had a device that had a faulty serial port. I have seen numerous faulty or misbehaving network ports.
I've had faulty serial consoles more than once but that's beside the point. Yes, ethernet-based OOB is more complex than a simple serial console. It's also a lot more effective. At this point the server vendors have gotten it down to a science where it's just as reliable and not especially expensive. Time I'd say for the big iron router vendors to follow suit. Regards, Bill Herrin -- William D. Herrin ................ herrin@dirtside.com bill@herrin.us 3005 Crane Dr. ...................... Web: <http://bill.herrin.us/> Falls Church, VA 22042-3004