North American Network Operators Group
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Re: Personal Co-location Registry

  • From: Kelly Setzer
  • Date: Thu Mar 18 19:42:29 2004 
On Thu, Mar 18, 2004 at 10:41:53AM -0800, John Todd wrote:
[...]
> >> Realweasel is a great idea if you can afford it -- but the PCI version
> >> lists for $350, which is as expensive as some used 1U servers on EBay.
> >
> >Is there an effective alternative?  All the intel "servers" these days
> >seem to have one of those handy-dandy (note: sarcasm) ethernet ports
> 
> $250 (Cisco 2511 w/cables) + 2x$200 (APC 9210) + 16x$270 (1u Intel 
> PIII 650/2x18gSCSI/1g) = $4970 for 16 
> remotely-configurable/rebootable machines in 19u of space.  Now, 
> double that for 38u (4u short of a full rack) and add a Cisco 3548 at 
> $1600.  That turns into $11540 for 34 machines, all remotely 
> manageable with remote power cycle.  One of those systems could be an 
> altq traffic shaper/router.  Not a bad configuration for a 
> best-effort 1u rental service.  The trick of course is getting 32 
> identically-configured 1u machines at this price, with some spares. 
> It's nice to buy equipment on eBay on a one-by-one basis, it doesn't 
> scale for bulk purchases of identical equipment.

This is relevant, if tangential, to the current discussion on 1U colo
for remote ops/looking glass/etc.

Summary:

1) One respondent mentioned that Penguin Computing sells a complete
system with a serial console/management port.
I found the following links on Penguin's site:
http://penguincomputing.com/store/relion-130.php (+ other select models)
http://penguincomputing.com/support/serial_redirect.php

2) John Todd's excellent price break-down above is useful in the
"best-effort" context.

3) Numerous respondents helpfully pointed out that a number of
motherboards include a serial management/console port and have for
several years.  This is useful in environments where self-built systems
are acceptable.  In corporate environments, warranty and service issues
may make that undesirable.

4) One nanog member indicated that I am an idiot.

Personally, I recently priced intel server systems from a variety of major
vendors including Dell, Compaq/HP, IBM, and Sun (intel-based).
All of them offered (proprietary?) ethernet-based remote management.
None offered serial management.



Thanks to everyone for their responses.

Kelly