Low-Bandwidth, Truly Remote Management? 215
kaiser423 writes "I'm looking to integrate some highly critical solutions into what would essentially be a remote, moving datacenter. No operators will be allowed at the site, and we may be able to have a high-speed INMARSAT data link. As a backup, we're planning to have multiple redundant low-speed Iridium data links. Essentially, we're looking to be able to power up/down and reboot some computers, and be able to start/stop some programs. We're willing to write the terminal interfaces necessary for our programs, and possibly do the remote desktop thing with some of our 3rd-party programs. But what is out there that would give us this type of access, work robustly over a high-latency, low-bandwidth stream, and would be tolerant to intermittent network outages? Please hold the pick 2 of the 3 jokes, I know they're contradictory goals; I'm looking for a compromise here! These boxes would regrettably nearly all be running Windows (with some VxWorks). Does anyone out there remember those days, and have any solutions that they preferred?" Read on for a few more details of this reader's requirements.
We've been looking at remote in-band and out-of-band management solutions, and really have found a ton of products. However, the "low-bandwidth" solutions still exceed our potential Iridium bandwidth (~10Kbps). Even if we have the INMARSAT link (192Kbps sustained, higher burst), a number of these solutions would hit that limit. We're starting to look at going old-school with some terminal-style applications, but haven't found much of a market for it; it seems to be a market that died with 56k modems. PC Weasel looks kind of like it might work, but the demo doesn't work for Windows.
Your Sinister Plan, Sir? (Score:5, Funny)
Without knowing what you're trying to accomplish, it's hard to give any real advice. Automated spy van? Unmanned laser plane? Knight Rider style service truck? Continually running train with nuke launcher? There are only so many things you can do with an intelligent roving unmanned platform.
Be truly innovative (Score:3, Funny)
This may take a while as threading the mail system tends to cause kinks that have to be sorted autonomously by remote postman protocol.
When it arrives, plug in and use normal LAN remote control technology. Thanks to XKCD [xkcd.com] for the idea