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

[heasley via NANOG <nanog () lists nanog org>]

Tue, Dec 23, 2025 at 08:51:54PM +0100, Lukasz Bromirski via NANOG:
> I'm pretty sure you're half-joking and half-not, but that's the reality.
> I lead platform (hardware) development for Cisco Firewalls. I can tell you,
> that during my discussions with all of our Customers, from biggest to smallest
> ones, security folks don't appreciate fully dedicated, separate out-of-band
> management ports, with their own OS that's available no-matter-what.

I'd expect that, from a security perspective, one problem is that
BMCs are often neglected by both the customer and the mfg.  eg, they
often never receive a s/w update for the life of the product or the
update procedure is arcane and unautomatable; both like smc and
unacceptable.

Regardless, maybe provide a jumper to disable the bmc, like smc does?
Provide a sku that comes with it disabled, if you must.

It might not fit all user scenarios, but a bmc port that is shared with
the mgmt port, per-RP, would also save mgmt network ports.  like some
smc boards.

And, just have a cli and a command that connects to a tty on the RP.  No
guis, no curses magic, no menus; KISS.  Sun's LOM was a great impl.

> - you vote with your wallets

how much is really saved?  is it actually a noticable cost?  make it a
daughter card?
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