American Power Conversion's Console Port Server line consists of both rack and vertically mounted appliances providing controlled, remote access capabilities to multiple device consoles, such as individual routers or servers. The appliances are available in 8, 16, 32, and 42 port offerings; the latter served in an about 2 inch square vertically mounted (73.5 inches tall) strip (the 8, 16, and 32 port flavors are all rack mounts). Each model is equipped with RJ45 ports for connectivity to servers; the vendor offers multiple cross over cabling possibilities to connect the units to the server's serial ports (25 or 9 pin M/F) or Ethernet ports as required.

Network administrators can remotely access the console port servers via a Web browser, allowing them, in turn, to remotely access and control the individual devices through their supplied console port interfaces. The Console Port Servers themselves connect to the network via 10/100 Ethernet; but the individual servers connected to the Console Servers needn't be directly connected to the network itself.

The devices can be used to alert administrators as to potential problems with connected equipment; and scripting support allows for customized and automated reactions to common error conditions.

New to the Console Port Server line are the vendor's Remote Console Manager (RCM) appliances, which provide similar functionality as the base Console Port Servers and add to them configuration task automation and recovery features for the attached (controlled) devices, including such tasks as OS upgrades, password updates, and configuration changes and rollbacks (the appliance itself can automatically roll back to the last known good device configuration for each attached device). The RCMs can additionally provide continuous monitoring capabilities (up to once every 30 seconds) with the ability to examine and alert (if necessary) on up to 40 preset parameters.

The RCMs appliance includes two option card slots, into which can be inserted a card with 16 serial port connections (again, via RJ45 ports), or 8 serial ports and 8 Ethernet ports (allowing both serial and Ethernet connectivity to up to 8 devices, facilitating, for example, faster file transfers when necessary over the Ethernet connection). Thus a single appliance can support 32 serial connections, 16 serial connections and 8 serial/Ethernet connection, or 16 serial/Ethernet connections, in total.

Base pricing for the appliances ranges from $1,325 (8 port console server) to $9,350 (RCM with one 16-port serial card included). Contact the vendor for further information.