> If I were running a Plan 9 server on bare hardware in the datacenter, > I wouldn't want to have to take a hike every time I needed to do > certain activities, even though my key to the datacenter door grants > me physical access should I need it. In this case, though, it's > running under VMware ESXi, so the vSphere Client gives me remote > access to the console, much as the HMC does for the AIX systems, but > still... My point is that if one wants to open themselves up to > another avenue of attack (albeit carefully controlled) by allowing > such things to be done via network, they should be able to. So in > that sense, maybe drawterm'ing to hostowner is the appropriate answer...
at coraid and at home, serial console &/| cec and consolefs(8) has been sufficient for almost all cases, including rebooting the auth server. we use power switches in testing, in case we really wedge machines. i don't see an additional security concern, as logging in is the first step to contacting consolefs. - erik
