[sdnog] Terminal Server

[Daniel Shaw]

Salaam Hiba,
>      We have some equipments in distant area around 8 hours (plane trip) from Khartoum. We are using 3600 series cisco router as terminal server to insure console connectivity. We use SSH connection to access the server, then we access any device terminal through reverse telnet.But in 70% of the time, when we disconnect from that device; we will loose the connection to the server itself and we have to initiate new session multiple times to reconnect.
> So, my questions are:
> - what can be the cause for that?
> - is there any recommendations to enhance connection reliability to insure it is up all the time?
> 
I’ll let others with more router know-how answer the above two.

> - is there any comparable solutions that give the same functionality?
> 
But, on this last: yes. Various.

As with any solution, the options vary in both cost and the amount of effort to set up.
Broadly though, your choices are:
1. Use a cisco/juniper/etc. router as your terminal server - what you are already doing :)
I guess here it comes down to the model and the code. Again, not my area of expertise.

2. Use a purpose built blackbox from a vendor. A google search will turn up many many options.
I don’t have any experience with a specific vendor, and I don’t know what would be available in your region or what the costs would be. The cool thing with these is they sometimes have additional features like built in GSM modem for complete out of band remote access.

3. Use a PC/small server. You’d need to add the multi-serial break-out. But once that’s installed, any Unix/Linux would allow you to ssh in and then run a terminal over /dev/whatever1, /dev/whatever2, etc.
Again, it would depend on what hardware you can find a supplier for. Multi-serial breakouts can come as installable PCI cards with an external interface very similar to what you’s see on a c3600 with a similar branching cable. Or, you can also get USB based ones I believe that have the serial “ports” in an external box, and one USB connection back to the terminal host.
I’ve only used the former (an add in card) many years ago. But I guess that a USB based one may be cheaper/easier to get and more universally compatible to available server hardware.

- Daniel



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