console access

[Andy Kosela]

--On June 7, 2008 2:16:26 PM -0700 Jo Rhett <jrhett at netconsonance.com>
wrote:

> On Jun 5, 2008, at 11:35 AM, Paul Schmehl wrote:
>> It's not quite that simple.  To do that, I have to block out time to
>> drive 45 miles during my supposed "off" hours and do the upgrade
>> there.  Because, if it breaks networking and I'm at home, the server
>> will be down for at least an hour until I can drive to the hosting
>> company, get access to the server and restore the old kernel.
>
> Paul, you should arrange with your colocation provider to get an out of
> band serial connection to the system, and configure the console to go to
> the serial port.  We provide that for free at $EMPLOYER and most other
> places I know of do it for free or nominal charge.
>

or if your colocation provider is using any modern server hardware
(HP, Dell, IBM) and I bet
they do, they should give you lights-out access (HP's ILO2, Dell's
DRAC). Then you can even
remotely mount iso images from your laptop at home directly on the
server (very handy sometimes).

-- 
Andy Kosela
ora et labora