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.
IPMI + DRAC or similar? (Score:4, Insightful)
you can do an aweful lot with IPMI, i.e. power cycle, and a remote access card that supports ssh can do the rest, alternatively a TTY terminal and pipe your consoles to serial ports
oh, windows? nevermind
The ONLY Correct Answer (Score:5, Insightful)
It's no joke. Embedded remote access cards like iLO from HP or DRAC from Dell are the only real solutions.
It would be painful to use their console viewing features over a low speed satellite link but, it would be no problem to power cycle, collect statistics and more. You can even forgo the web interfaces and use ssh on many of them.
Control the power. (Score:2, Insightful)
I think it is important that you have all the equipment you can on IP addressable Ethernet Power strips so you can physically cycle the power remotely independent of higher level computer control. Something like this: Power Strip [leunig.de]
There is no substitute for the ability to toggle the most significant bit--for sure.
It sound like this is for Science in Antarctica.
Re:Linux would be better for this, but.... (Score:2, Insightful)
I wouldn't fight the jokers defending ridiculous specs like low-latency low-bandwidth remote windows implementations. Use telnet, only call it secur-link 2008 in the specs. The joke is right back at them.
There are plenty of commercial ssh implementations for windows.
Re:RealWeasel? (Score:2, Insightful)
The folks at RealWeasel have a cute little device. Plugs into a PCI slot and emulates a VGA card. It then outputs, over rs-232, a serial console approximation of whatever the system is displaying on the VGA device. Also has watchdog, manual reset, and keyboard functions. Those, plus a bog standard serial terminal server, and you are all set.
Better quality servers (from Dell, HP, IBM etc) come with remote access cards to do the same thing, along with power & reset, raid reconfiguration, hardware monitoring, and other neat stuff. I've got quite a few in my server room.
Something I have expertise on.. (Score:3, Insightful)
I've seen people watch a slingbox stream over these things with no skipping, in a dense area. In a sparse area like what you've described, no one else will be on your spot beam, so the entire bandwidth of the beam is basically yours to use. It's really not an issue.
Also, if this doesn't work for some reason, easy solution for the CLI that no one wants:
1. Write CLI
2. Write Client-side GUI for CLI so that customers think it's new technology
3. Profit!
Re:IPMI + DRAC or similar? (Score:2, Insightful)
oh, windows? nevermind
It depends on what you are doing. Many elements of a Windows server can be managed remotely using MMC snapins that allow a remote connection.
No remote desktop access is required for these remote management applications. In particular, you can manage DNS, Users, DHCP, Registry, event logs, etc, over RPC, without having to take on the bandwidth-intensive task of rendering remote video.
As for custom applications and installing software that can't be scripted into a MSI running a fully-automated install, yes you need a solution such as RDP for administration.
You can reduce bandwidth usage by pumping down the resolution, displaying 16 colors instead of 256, disabling printer/sound redirection in the RDP client, and tuning a few other settings.