management processor card

[Michael Murphy_2]

Anyone know if you can use multiple ports from the managment processor card on a 7420 at the same time (as in use the lan port for remote admin and the serial for local console)? Do they see the same output stream? Any downside to lan access (limited ability to help on down system, toc capabilities?)

[Geoff Wild]

You can on a 7410.....

LAN console is great - you are right there - course if the network is down...you need to go to the server...

Rgds...Geoff

[Bharat Katkar]

Hi,
You can use both at a time difference is for serial port you need to connect the terminal directly and you need to be in server room to access the Console. On the other if you are connecting webconsole to lan console port then you can access the console anywhere from the network.

Regards,

[Jeff Schussele · Accepted solution]

Hi Michael,

YES - you can use both. BUT only one can have write access at a time. The other will be in what's known as "spy-mode" & will see everything the port with write access sees. It can gain write control with ^Ecf
With the LAN console & proper PWs, there's no limit to how many could have access & "see" what's going on - just that *only* one can have write access.

HTH,
Jeff

[Bill Hassell]

The GSP management processor is designed to allow many different connections to the 'console' at the same time. The LAN connection, the remote modem connection and the 'real' serial console. To keep everything straight, only one connectrion can have write (keyboard) capability while the others just echo everything. As mentioned, CTRL-E cf will grab the keyboard input capability.

Remote access to the management processor is a severe security risk. The reason is that not only does it have direct access to HP-UX, it can command the processor to restart or in current models, turn off the power supplies. So treat all the access ports as giant holes into the system. Yes, the GSP has a simple password, but it can be reset to nothing by a command from HP-UX. Don't put the managment processor LAN cable on the same network as HP-UX. A management LAN should be created, ideally as a DMZ with heavy restrictions on access.

For remote serial consoles, I would never use the modem. Instead, get a serial console concentrator, ideally one that can use SSH to communicate between the concentrator and the remote sysadmins. Cyclades, BlackBox, Cisco, etc all have useful boxes for this.