Newbie Question About System Update

[Bill Moran]

Pete French <petefrench at ticketswitch.com> wrote:

> > Colocation that does not include serial console access is IMHO worthless.
> 
> i;ve been following this discussion with interest - what advantages does
> a serial concolse give you over a colo's standard KVM access ? I've
> never used a serial consolve with FreeBSD, though I see the phrase crop
> up a lot.

KVM requires you to physically _be_ at the colo.

A serial console with an IP address and ssh capabilities (which is easy to
set up, or fairly inexpensive to purchase) allows you access to the system
as if you're sitting at it, over ssh.

i.e. using a serial console you can boot a different kernel, remotely, see
the messages that come up when a kernel panics, etc ...  Most of the stuff
you could do if you have physical access, without requiring physical access.
A serial console allows you to do a proper upgrade remotely, because you
can still access the system when it's in single user mode.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com