[rescue] FDDI card

[Brian Hechinger]

On Mon, Feb 25, 2002 at 03:30:33AM -0600, Amy wrote:
> 
> > actually, if someone thinks that GUI consoles are the best way to deal with
> > SERVERS then it's obvious that not only are they not accustomed to serial
> > consoles, they don't know any better.  GUI consoles are LUDICROUS.
> 
> why?

because it's unnessesary complexity for a simple task.  you need keyboards
and monitors, or at the very least a KVM setup.  three wires for each box,
one for video, one for mouse and one for keyboard.  you should see the racks
of 1U IBM machines we have here at work, you can barely see the backs of the
machines for all the friggin wires.  with a serial console one very skinny wire
is more than enough.

but let's talk about remote access.  how do you get remote console access with
a GUI console?  you have to jump through all sorts of hoops to get it to work.
with a serial console, all you do is slap a modem on the console port and dial
in when needed.  or get a console server so you can telnet into the console of
your machines, or.....  lots of things.  what do you want to do.  with a GUI
console, you only really have one option.  and it's a fairly foul one at that.

GUI consoles are an insane amount of complexity for what is a very simple task.
windows is especially braindamaged in it's inability to function without it's
GUI.  that's fine, we all run linux/netbsd/solarisx86/whatever.  but now you
have the joy of trying to get serial console on a type of machine that was
never meant to have a serial console in the first place.  i've used it with
PCs.  it's PAINFUL.  if the machine is hung, what do you do?  can you send a
break over the serial, drop to the monitor and reboot the machine?  probably
not.  so now you need an APC masterswitch, or something similar to be able
to reset the box, so you can hop on the console and do some work.

a console is supposed to be a simple device.  it has a very specific task,
and that is to do what you can't do from a network connection.

do i need to go on?

-brian

-- 
"Oh, shut up Buddha."  -Jesus Christ (South Park)