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

[Phil Bedard via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

From a Cisco perspective when we built the first 8000 (Silicon One) routers, the original 8201/8202 had a separate 
Baseboard Management Controller (BMC) the same as a server because we thought people would truly enjoy having that.  In 
turns out no one used it and more were confused by it.  It added extra cost and took up real estate that could be used 
for other things, so it didn’t continue.

Thanks,
Phil

From: Saku Ytti via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>
Date: Tuesday, December 23, 2025 at 12:50 PM
To: North American Network Operators Group <nanog () lists nanog org>
Cc: Saku Ytti <saku () ytti fi>
Subject: Re: What are folks using for serial consoles these days?

Could we just start asking vendors to implement actual out-of-band port.

Like Cisco CMP.

The rs232 port we use, is on-band, if the NOS panics or otherwise is
broken or busy, the rs232 port won't work either. On some routers you
used to be able to have hardware break stop executing NOS and execute
shell on rs232, which would allow you to reset the device via rs-232,
even if NOS is not running, but this is actually going away and was
rarely used by operators.

But actual ethernet port on different SOC decoupled from control-plane
would remove need for these RS232 consoles and would get us peak 2005
technology for networking gear. I think we're ready for 2005.

On Tue, 23 Dec 2025 at 20:43, Doug McIntyre via NANOG
<nanog () lists nanog org> wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 22, 2025 at 05:25:22PM -0800, Dan Mahoney via NANOG wrote:
> > Nobody's jumped up and said "This ioGear/Cyclades/Avocent thing rocks, and it'll have firmware for the next 10 
> > years, for sure".  My network hardware reseller hasn't gotten back to me (but it is Christmas week),
>
>
> Because nothing rocks. They all have the problems you list.
>
> One-off embedded system the manufactorer developed once with zero product cycle in thought.
> Puts out for some number of years until they no longer feel like supporting it.
> And then goes end-of-life with no upgrade options.
>
> I feel like OpenGear (owned by Digi now) tends to be the most future
> proof at this point in time (which will probably change in the future) if you are looking for an embedded box,
> But I've done solutions like you list too, and been happy with conserver and a basic PC.
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