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

[Matt Brennan via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

Up until recently I was using the Raritan Dominion SX II models. Dual PSU,
dual NIC, and configurations ranging from 4 to 48 ports.  However, Raritan
has just discontinued that as of June. It is unclear how long they will
continue to provide security patches.

They are recommending customers switch to the ZPE Systems Nodegrid Serial
Consoles. It looks to be much the same, but I haven't had a chance to test
one yet. The only difference I've noticed is the ZPE device seems to have
an embedded 5G cellular module.


On Thu, 18 Dec 2025 at 09:34, Andrew Latham via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>
wrote:

> Dan
>
> I have stacks and stacks of serial console servers. Today I mostly use
> an https://www.coolgear.com/product/32-port-rs-232-usb-to-serial-adapter
> with some pictures of the guts at
> https://lathama.net/Tech/Hardware/USB-32COM-RM if interested. It is my
> solution to a quick build of an https://freetserv.github.io/
>
> (I have seen some things)
>
> On Wed, Dec 17, 2025 at 5:51 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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>
>
> --
> - Andrew "lathama" Latham -
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