A syssies guide to (ssh)console and conserver.

Iain Rae

Division of Informatics

            iainr@dcs.ed.ac.uk
         

Revision History
Revision $Revision: 1.3 $$Date: 2001/04/25 09:14:13 $Revised by: $Author: iainr $
Incomplete draft.

This document is a basic guide to using the conserver console server program within the division. It covers the use of the sshconsole and console commands, issues relating to the hardware and the specifics of the local configuration.


Table of Contents
Overview
console
Using sshconsole interactively
Non-interactive commands
Spying and bumping other users
Maintaining the server
Rebooting, shutting down and powering off.
Things it doesn't do that I would like it to do.

Overview

The Division maintains a number of console servers in order to remotely administer some of our servers. Each server is configured to provide a console session on a the first serial port (com1 on PC's, ttya on workstations), which is in turn linked via a series of RJ45 and DB9/25 serial connections to a serial port on the PC acting as the console server. A daemon, conserver, runs on each console server allowing network access. (ssh)console allows administrators to connect to the appropriate console server and access any console.