Network Admin Life - Removing a Terminal Server

[@SB-qm5wg]

At my stint in MIS at a hospital, I had to [attempt] to support gear older than I was. Serial, dot-matrix, special radiology stuff, coax, FAX, 1st gen PIX, etc. So much brainstorming making the mega old work with the brand new for people that barely knew how to send an Email.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

I had to laugh at this one. Sound EXACTLY like this job at times. I have no idea how these doctors can be so intelligent when it comes to medical matters but then are befuddled by a mouse. God bless!

[@samjones4327]

Good mornin, Grace & Peace 2 U brother! Thank U 4 sharing another great video with us! "An orderly structured mess" is the best description I've heard in a long time! Sometimes you just have to put the aesthetics aside and let the rack be Thanks again 4 the continued prayers and I'm praying 4 U and all of our brothers and sisters in Christ! God Bless!🙏🏽

[@NetworkAdminLife]

Thank you brother Sam! After you see next week's video, you'll understand why I covet those prayers. God bless!

[@A_Good_Boy.]

What was your role/job before becoming a network administrator? Were you a helpdesk?

[@NetworkAdminLife]

Go back and watch my very first video. I go through my entire resume. God bless! First video: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oojZkmB_eLmfrrcsi=rnyajdrf7TrevE0X

[@princesswalt4010]

I have an old lantronix term server that I use for emergency console access for network devices at my data center. The thing barely does ssl, but does support ssh with old encryption modes, but it does have a cli with reboot capability. I noted that how these work is a remote server or computer makes a telnet or ssh or generic tcp connection to a specific port which then forwards the serial data on a specific serial port. It’s possible that whatever server or system is communicating with the terminal server times out its connection. I actually had similar issues with these long term connections through a firewall, where the tcp connection would be open and idle for so long that the firewall would time out the connection. Neither side would be aware of this timeout and both sides would keep trying to resend packets with no luck. The result would be something like what you are describing…. intermittent communication failures that require a reboot. God bless and happy Monday!

[@NetworkAdminLife]

That's kind of how this one works but for serial lab instrument data. We're still trying to work with the vendor to get this think working! Problem is on their end though. I just know it! :-) God bless!

[@drtracking]

I like RS-232, RS-422, RS-485 in todays "IoT's" it has clear advantages over ethernet that the new generation just can't seem to understand or simply put they prefer not to use it because they want things to be done the easy way. If you have one port to measure temperature in one room, chances are that you don't need to read one BYTE ( Temperature Value ), 10 million times per second. You can have the value 900 time in one second .. that's way to much using a 9,600 bps RS-232 connection. Plus power, you have a 16 port terminal server that probably consumes milli watts per port vs 1 or 2 watts of ethernet. In 10 years that turns out to be a few Megawatts just on the links using ethernet. Next is distance, RS-485 or RS-422 ( Most terminal server use them ) could do a few kilometers vs 100 meter on a ethernet link. Reading remote data on simple IoT's like voltage, temperature, humidity, flowrate, etc... I will always prefer to use a serial link .

[@NetworkAdminLife]

That's a lot I never really thought about. Good points. Thanks for sharing that. God bless!

[@joerockhead7246]

new bosses can be hit or miss. good luck. thanks for posting.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

Fingers crossed! And hands folded in prayer. I'm sure he'll work out in the long run. God bless!

[@esra_erimez]

This past Christmas I gave my father a Televideo 920c. My grandfather gave him one when he was a kid with an acoustic modem. I forgot the name of the service he used, but he taught himself programming on it.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

Nice! CompuServe was big back in the day. Back in the DARPANet's pre-dawn history. God bless!

[@bbjunkie]

6.37 What's that kit on the wall? Looks like a CCTV power supply or something. Good luck with the new boss, can be difficult when those above aren't motivated to do their bit.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

That's all engineering stuff. Not really sure. I think it may be part of the PA system in the building. God bless!

[@A_Good_Boy.]

Sir How much do you earn as a network admin? My guess is around 50-60k. Am I right?

[@NetworkAdminLife]

I don't discuss my salary. God bless!

[@Zetharion1]

Exciting or not we are here for the full Network Admin experience! Anything involving patients or sensitive info we understand wont be recorded.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

That's exactly what you'll get! God bless!

[@codelessunlimited7701]

Is your job is under the title Network Operations Center?

[@NetworkAdminLife]

We don't have a NOC. We have an infrastructure group. One guy that handles servers, one guy that handles networks. Only two of us to run the entire hospital. Which I think is unwise but whatever. God bless!

[@tommychang6500]

Wow…I’m surprised Cerner has their own branded terminal server. I guess the supply of DECservers and Xyplex terminal servers will eventually run out…. Do you know who the actual manufacturer is?

[@NetworkAdminLife]

I do not. I suspect they probably bought a license to manufacture their own terminal servers. I knew they run linux and that's about it. God bless!

[@abhaykalla210]

hey you can ssh to those things and access the Ubuntu console, and reboot remotely as long as you're on the same network.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

Yeah, if I could get into the Linux shell I would just do an init 6 and reboot it that way. However, these are vendor-managed and I don't have the credentials to do that. We'll just continue to yank power to do the reboot. God bless!

[@rotaryconvert]

rs232 terminal server ... I'm taken back to my college days programing in a VAX lab

[@NetworkAdminLife]

Back to my days at Lockheed when one of my many jobs there was as a Vax manager for 3 different Vax 4000 systems. God bless!

[@SyberPrepper]

@@NetworkAdminLife I got all misty eyed when you mentioned DEC. I left them in 1994. A wonderful 14 years. Loved VAXen, Alphas, VMS, Clusters, etc.

[@arnoldasurmonas4397]

In you opinion is it worth it to invest into terminal server? cause in our lab almost everything uses serial to Ethernet converters

[@NetworkAdminLife]

This terminal server was specified and supplied by Cerner so it's not really something I implemented. I will say it's a lot cleaner than all those old Lantronix boxes we had filling up our racks. God bless!

[@andreyns89]

Wait a minute... Are you have a public IP´s on all Management devices? 😳

[@Darkk6969]

It might be the terminal server is from a different location and he peeled the IP label off of it.

[@SB-qm5wg]

I've seen it.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

No, they are public. They are the same 10.x.x.x networks that many corporations use. Still, why temp fate? God bless!

[@NetworkAdminLife]

You have??? We're doomed!!!! And God bless.

[@eointhomas2914]

I remember that you’ve had a battle with this server before 😂

[@NetworkAdminLife]

You have a good memory! I believe that one was the prodution terminal server so it was more of a crisis. This one is just the non-prod or test terminal server so less urgency with this one. God bless!

[@camerong4944]

Oh I remember Cerner.

[@NetworkAdminLife]

I sense some huge implications in that statement... LOL! God bless!