Using serial ports for out-of-band management

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Applies To: Windows Server 2003, Windows Server 2003 R2, Windows Server 2003 with SP1, Windows Server 2003 with SP2

To perform out-of-band management, you need to establish a secure connection through a serial port, phone line, or an additional network connection. The serial port, also known as a COM port, is the most common out-of-band interface. It is the default out-of-band device for Emergency Management Services. You can provide remote access to an out-of-band serial port by using modems or terminal concentrators, as described later in this section.

To use the serial port as an out-of-band device with Emergency Management Services, it must meet the following requirements:

  • The serial port must be a standard 16450 or 16550 Universal Asynchronous/Receive Transmit (UART) device. Windows Server 2003 tests the device for compliance before using it with Emergency Management Services.

  • The serial port interface must be provided by hardware, not by a Windows driver.

  • If the system firmware is compatible with Emergency Management Services, the firmware and the serial port must be configured to use the same serial port settings.

  • A kernel debugger cannot share the same COM port. To avoid this problem, disable kernel debugging on servers with Emergency Management Services enabled. For more information about using kernel debuggers with Emergency Management Services, see the Storage Technologies Collection of the Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference (or see the Storage Technologies Collection on the Web at https://www.microsoft.com/reskit).

  • The serial port must be the only out-of-band management port. Emergency Management Services does not support one out-of-band port for outbound communication and a second port for inbound communication.

Direct serial connections provide no logical security and therefore must be secured physically. For more information about security considerations, see "Providing Security for Remote Management" later in this chapter.

Note

  • When you use Emergency Management Services with a serial port, use null modem cables that support the carrier detect signal.

For Emergency Management Services technical details and information about configuring serial port settings, see the Storage Technologies Collection of the Windows Server 2003 Technical Reference (or see the Storage Technologies Collection on the Web at https://www.microsoft.com/reskit).