Reaching equipment directly.
WHAT CONSOLE ACCESS PROVIDES
The equipment's own display and keyboard, remotely.
WHY THAT MATTERS
It works before the operating system starts, and when the network within the operating system has failed.
WHAT IT ALLOWS
Watching the boot process Entering firmware settings Recovering a system that cannot be reached normally Installing an operating system remotely
WHAT MODERN SERVERS INCLUDE
Management processors providing this over the network, independently.
WHAT NETWORK EQUIPMENT USES
Serial console connections, aggregated by a console server.
WHY SERIAL STILL EXISTS
It works when nothing else does.
WHAT TO SET UP IN ADVANCE
Console access to everything critical.
WHY IN ADVANCE
Configuring it during an outage is not possible.
WHAT TO SECURE
Credentials, strongly Access, restricted
WHAT TO TEST
That you can reach the console of each device.
WHAT TO DOCUMENT
How to reach each one, stored outside the systems it recovers.
