Choosing A Console Server

August 23, 2010

Any network administrator or information technology manager needs to be able to perform maintenance, schematics, repairs, and upgrades on the computers and data banks within his network.  Rather than directly linking in to every computer, the majority of administrators use a console server to directly communicate with individual PCs or data banks.  This allows remote access from different terminals to system consoles, hard drives, and file storage that would otherwise require direct connections to work from.

A console server functions on anywhere from 1 to 48 serial ports, meaning that one terminal can work with up to thousands of different computers and databases.  Function on Windows software, Unix, and Linux platforms, these servers do not need additional programming to send one command to multiple platforms.  While some businesses use these connections to communicate with one another, the majority of server switches are meant for IT administrators to maintain their control over multiple clients.  The security features of most servers are very high, making it difficult for untrained programmers to acquire select information without passkeys or codes.  The majority of companies that produce these servers advertise them as extremely resilient against third party access.

A console server can cost several thousand dollars, but many individuals or lower budget companies can acquire one for less money.  Commodity hardware from electronics stores allows clients to use serial cards operating on Unix functions to re write functions and set up nodes.  These can be less secure by default, but programmers can create more intrusion firewalls than on normal servers if they are concerned.

Leave a Reply