A Guide To Remote Server Management

Server management is a challenging job. Space in server rooms is at a premium and solutions for production environments have to be quick. Using separate consoles or terminals to manage each machine is expensive and complicated. In addition, the ability to manage devices remotely is a key benefit. One of the best solutions to these problems is the console server. These devices allow highly centralized management of computers from a single terminal machine. With network connectivity and a modem, servers can be managed and controlled via a command line interface from anywhere via telnet.

Management services accessible via the console include software installs and upgrades, remote status viewing, or general troubleshooting. The convenience of not having to manage machines manually is a significant time saver. In addition, saving space is a key advantage to using one of these devices as proving a full console and keyboard takes up a substantial amount of space while one of the commercial devices can fit into a rack by itself.

The console server itself is essentially an aggregator for serial communications from the other computers. This single device then manages any hardware such as communications devices or other serial-based services provided by the server. This spares operators from having to patch into individually racked machines manually, saving some time and effort when troubleshooting computers.

There are many different vendors and flavors of console servers. Many offer all-in-one hardware solutions, while others are user constructed and run open-source software. The advantages of the homebuilt solutions are that they are cheaper than many of the commercial solutions but may take up more space in computer rooms. The hardware solutions often have slicker management options such as browser interfaces. These allow IT techs to manage a number of servers remotely using a graphical user interface.

Homebuilt console servers are usually constructed from PCs that are loaded up with serial interface cards and run special terminal emulation software on a Linux based OS. These provide much of the same functionality as commercial hardware but because of typical hardware, limitations can connect to fewer computers. For example, commercial devices can manage up to 48 servers. The homemade devices can only manage up to perhaps less than ten computers depending on how many multi-serial port cards can be added to the machine.

For enterprises that need secure remote access to computers in server rooms, a console server is probably the best solution for uniform control and monitoring of operations. These solutions are customizable and flexible enough to meet the needs of high demand operations. When a machine goes down or needs maintenance, it is good to know that the problem can be solved from anywhere network or dialup access is available.



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