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Out of band management schemes?

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w6bi
w6bi's picture
Out of band management schemes?
Periodically a remote node needs power-cycling.  Larger sites typically have nodes connected to a POE-enabled switch that allows individual ports to be power-cycled.
But inevitably the node you need to power-cycle (due to being unreachable) is the node you use to get to the switch :-/
For those situations, some out of band management is needed.   We've discussed using logic outputs from co-located repeater controllers when available, or maybe a VHF or UHF receiver with a tone-decoder + relay outputs.

What are you using for out of band management in these cases?

Orv W6BI
 
K6AH
K6AH's picture
NPR-70
I'm getting ready to install a pair of NPR-70 radios.  I have them working in the lab and am just looking for an installation opportunity on the tower.
kc8ufv
kc8ufv's picture
Scripts on attached linux box

I've not specifically used this with AREDN, but I have used it with a link we've got under unlicensed rules (so we can do encryption). With our local club, we've got a wifi link set up. Every once in a while, it will either drop the link or the internet connection. This could easily be adapted to AREDN use, though. 

At both of our repeater sites, we've got a nice, addressable APC outlet strip, with the wifi radios (and at the main site the cable modem and router) plugged into specific ports. We have a script we run every 15 or 20 minutes via cron that checks 3 remote addresses that all should always be reachable. If the first passes, it doesn't even try the other two. If all 3 fail, the linux system running the script triggers a reboot of the relevant equipment. I can share sanitized versions of the scripts if desired. The main site actually uses two similar scripts, one watching internet connectivity, the other monitoring the link, and devices on the other side of it.

AB7PA
Might consider a cellular

Might consider a cellular modem or a router with cellular module if recurring fees aren't an issue.
Here's a possibility if you already have a Raspberry Pi at the site:
https://www.raspberrypi.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=227462#p1398572

AJ6GZ
Almost Out Of Band
The MikroTik routers/switches have several functions which can help, although not entirely out of band. There is a built-in Power Cycle Ping function which will bounce a PoE port upon ping failure. This is configured on a per-port basis. Also you can write your own scripts within the device to test and repsond to all sorts of things. The OS can also have management IPs on more than one VLAN, so as long as you can get to one node's ssh shell on a mountain, you would be able to telnet to the switch and kick other ports manually. There is also a watchdog for the switch itself. NPR-70 sounds promising! Ian
AB7PA
"Alexa, reboot my node"

Wouldn't it be cool if you could just say "Alexa, reboot my node!"  Hmmm...  maybe we could figure that out somehow. smiley

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