[Info-vax] satellite with more than one boot server

[Stephen Hoffman]

On 2013-02-02 21:13:17 +0000, Phillip Helbig---undress to reply said:

> In article <keji01$8hm$1 at dont-email.me>, Stephen Hoffman
> <seaohveh at hoffmanlabs.invalid> writes:
> 
>>> If one ethernet card goes flaky, I can just swap the cable and
>>> reboot.
>> 
>> How often do you have failed NICs, and why are they failing?
> 
> True, it is rare.

Isolated NIC errors?  Very rare.

Failures that cause the box to crash, to fail POST or to fail to boot 
are more common.  Administrative (human) failures are far more common, 
too.

But sure.  Get all the NICs going.  Get Phase V configured, and the 
subnets, and the rest.  I wouldn't leave the NIC turned off, if you do 
go to the effort of getting all this to work.  And to ensure a switch 
doesn't fail, connect the second path via a second switch.  (Do be 
careful not to get wires crossed and looped back to the same switch, as 
some connections can cause some really wild failure modes, particularly 
if your switches don't support a spanning tree.  Also don't get the 
switches cross-linked, as you don't want the traffic traversing on both 
paths.)


>> So do you have a remote serial connection into that available?
> 
> A real terminal.

So that would be a "no".  Preferable would be remote access.  Remote 
access usually involve remote management by a terminal server, or via a 
host with multiple serial connections, or analogous.  A "real terminal" 
is best left for use as a static display in a museum.  Or as a wheel 
chock for a truck.  Aa either ammo or as part of a counterweight in a 
trebuchet.  But hest not in its originally intended role; not in any 
serious use.


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