Edit: I was pleased to find the links below still seem to work. Every now and again I still pull out my trusty serial connections but it is more rare than it once was.
Originally posted September 17, 2007 on AIXchange
Some System p customers buy a smaller POWER5 machine, but don’t want to buy a hardware-management console (HMC) to go with it. It could be that the cost of the HMC outweighs its perceived benefits. Perhaps they don’t plan to partition the machine, and will run it as a single image. However, they still want to be able to manage the machine remotely. They have a few options. To set the machine up initially, they can plug a laptop into either HMC connection on the back of the machine and access the advanced system management interface (ASMI) that way. This is all explained here.
They can configure the IP addresses and plug the HMC network port directly into the network if they so choose, and use that connection to access and manage the machine.
But what if they want to access a console remotely? Then they need to plug into the serial connection in the back of the machine. (If you Google “Serial to Ethernet converters” you should be able to find many different products from which to choose.)
Accessing ASMI via ASCII terminal is described here.
The newer laptops no longer have serial connections built in. I used to take a serial cable and connect it from my laptop to the back of the machine, and access ASMI and the console that way. My laptop has plenty of usb connections. I needed to buy a USB-to-serial converter, and plug that into the back of the machine. My converter had a male end on it, as does the serial port on the back of the machine, so a gender changer was also in order.
Then, if you’re running Windows on your laptop, you can run hyperterm (pay attention to which com port your USB-to-serial converter is running on–speed, duplex, etc.) and make a connection to the serial console. If you put your serial-to-Ethernet converter on your network, you can then access the console remotely.
As you look around at the different products, you’ll also see serial-terminal servers so that you can manage more machines in your environment via one terminal server.
Although having an HMC is certainly the preferred method for managing these machines, methods are available to manage your machines without one. What other solutions have you come across?