What is conserver?

From an email I once sent...

Conserver is an application that allows multiple users to watch a serial console at the same time. It can log the data, allows users to take write-access of a console (one at a time), and has a variety of bells and whistles to accentuate that basic functionality. The idea is that conserver will log all your serial traffic so you can go back and review why something crashed, look at changes (if done on the console), or tie the console logs into a monitoring system (just watch the logfiles it creates). With multi-user capabilities you can work on equipment with others, mentor, train, etc. It also does all that client-server stuff so that, assuming you have a network connection, you can interact with any of the equipment from home or wherever.

A FAQ!

Mailing Lists

There are currently two mailing lists available. announce@conserver.com is an announcement-only mailing list for informing of new versions, major developments, etc. users@conserver.com is for general Q&A, discussions, ideas, etc for conserver users. You can sign up my sending a message to announce-request@conserver.com or users-request@conserver.com with a subject of "subscribe" or head over to the online web pages.

Origin

The console server software found here is a heavily modified version originally written by Tom Fine (fine@head-cfa.harvard.edu) at Ohio State and then Kevin S Braunsdorf (ksb+conserver@sa.fedex.com). Patches from Robert Olson (olson@mcs.anl.gov) were then applied to get network console support.

Arnold de Leon (arnold@corp.webtv.net) then fixed various bugs and added enhancements while at Synopsys. I then took the result, continued fixing things, and added features we found useful.

Certainty Solutions (formerly Global Networking and Computing - GNAC) has been supporting my coding efforts (in too many ways to list) since 1996.

The conserver.com Distribution

The result is a combination of many people's work. This version is being released in hopes that it will help others. There is no warranty or support implied by the distribution of the software.

As of version 6.1.7, the packaging and numbering scheme has changed. I used to package conserver as conserver-GNAC-v.vv. Since GNAC (now Certainty Solutions) has changed it's name I've decided to drop the GNAC portion and use a 3 digit version number (conserver-v.v.v). Why change the version numbering? I need to differentiate this thread of the code from the original authors and I couldn't come up with a good replacement for the GNAC name - sad, but true.

Downloading

The current version is 7.0.3.tar.gz. You can get it via FTP or HTTP. See the CHANGES file for information on the latest updates.

Installation

Check the INSTALL file for instructions.

Other Good Information

Zonker Harris has fabulous documents regarding the hookup of consoles to terminal servers and other such devices. His Greater Scroll of Console Knowledge is a great place to start.