Re: What are folks using for serial consoles these days?

[Mel Beckman via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

We use the AirConsole line extensively:

<https://www.get-console.com/shop/en/27-airconsole>
Airconsole - the only Serial Adaptor you'll ever need - Get Console 
Shop<https://www.get-console.com/shop/en/27-airconsole>
get-console.com<https://www.get-console.com/shop/en/27-airconsole>
[get-console-shop-logo-1429842958.jpg]<https://www.get-console.com/shop/en/27-airconsole>

Tiny little brickey things that you can link together using daisychain cables and physical sliding interlocks. All the 
connections are RS45, so you do need various kinds of adapters, but those are available. Natively it speaks Cisco, but 
we have cables for HP and Juniper that interoperate as well.

Internally, it’s basically a linux box. You get SSH pass-through to virtual serial ports with, so just SSH to a 
pre-configured TCP port number to connect to a given serial port in an AirCosole stack. A web GUI is nice for 
configuration. Plus it supports Wi-Fi connectivity, so they are super handy for portable use with tablets and smart 
phones too. Very well thought-out features such as unattended buffering, and dozens of knobs and dials.

Airconsole Enterprise Server (previously "Private Server") is a VM appliance designed to provide NOC operators with 
remote “NASA Screen” infrastructure, creating a simple aggregation point for remote serial console access. I’ve used 
that in SCADA deployments for direct control outside of WonderWare. 

We are constantly finding new tricks these things can do.

 -mel beckman

On Dec 17, 2025, at 4:52 PM, Dan Mahoney via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:

Hey there folks.

Dayjob has historically used USB TTY pods attached to real BSD machines to talk to our cisco consoles, with the amazing 
benefit that with a program like Vixie's rtty (or conserver) you can also capture the output of those consoles in 
real-time, and perhaps use that data to identify a connected device.

As a bonus, because the rackmount devices have real DE-9's on them, it means they work with any kind of cable you get 
(not just your standard rj45 cisco rollover like you might get with a Cyclades thing -- and you don't have to come up 
with the weird-ass mappings for rj45-serial like you might need like our ME4012 NAS (the serial cable is a stereo 
plug), our smart power strips (it's either a stereo plug, or an rj12), or something like an older brocade switch (it's 
a DE9, but it's friggin ODD, and I think it may also be the wrong gender).

It also means, since you're running a real OS, you have patches as long as the OS is supported (so you're not stuck 
with "gee it only speaks rsa1024"), versus some EOL appliance.  But it's also 2u, and since we're recently buying a lot 
of Dell hardware, that's Super Overkill for a dell, so I'm evaluating maybe just going "Appliance".

If we stick with an existing unix box for this, I'd want something with proper IPMI/OOB (so Rpi is out) but maybe the 
dumbest, shallowest-depth atom64 supermicro you can find, in the event you need to do a reinstall or catch a hung 
system.

Are there things that other folks are using that are "easy" to work with that you've found to have Long firmware lives, 
decent warranties and low hassle?  Does anything these days actually have DE9s on it?

-Dan

(You may have also seen my note earlier about the Cisco ASR920, which has RS232 pins in a USB-A header.  No, not via a 
PL2032 chip inside the host that provides a virtual serial...direct txd/rxd/gnd/cts etc, on the USB pins.  I've seen 
things you people would't believe)
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