[TriLUG] Drop and insert transparent firewall (OpenBSD)

[Aaron S. Joyner]

Lee wrote:

> Jason Tower wrote:
>
>> management is also different from most linux setups.  since it has no 
>> IP addresses on either interface, you can't ssh to it.  instead, you 
>> ssh to another host and run minicom which communicates with the 
>> firewall via a serial port.  this particular hardware has the ability 
>> to direct the bios display to a serial port, so you can actually see 
>> the bootup info and even change bios options remotely.  pretty slick :-)
>>  
>>
> Jason,
> What hardware did you use? x86's lack of ability to have a true serial 
> console has always irked me. Unless of course you used one of those 
> add-in cards that translates the kb/video into serial.

(not that I'm Jason, but)
The hardware used was a 1U Dell server, I'm sure Jason can provide more 
details about the precise model, etc.  It's a Dell / Intel motherboard, 
and most of the Intel server boards provide the ability to push the BIOS 
out the serial port.  I use it on the Intel server boards, ala the Intel 
S875WP1 and it's siblings.  Generally, you don't want to use the BIOS 
functionality of trying to force the entire OS out the serial port.  
Just setup the BIOS to use the serial port, then the kernel to output to 
the serial port, and once it's up and running put a Getty on the serial 
port.  Fairly straight forward.

Aaron S. Joyner