PowerMan 2.3 [LSARC/2008/734 FastTrack timeout 12/4/2008]

[Bruce Rothermal]

Lets see if I can explain this better and you all can let me know how  
much of this to put in the questionare.

Powerman consists of a client and server process for the purpose of  
consolidating power management (turn systems on and off as found in a  
lab environment or remote unmanned dark equipment rooms). A user would  
login to the system. In this case a Solaris system which provides all  
the security within the OS and protocols such as ssh. The user runs  
the client program powerman with options specifying the name of the  
device to turn on or off and the command of on or off. It can also  
request status. This client sends the RPC request to the server and  
the server spawns off a process to handle this request. The server  
side is configured with information about the devices it manages how  
they are interacted with (terminal or proprietary protocol, serial  
line or network connection). The server uses specialized scripts  
similar to expect functionality to then communicate with the device to  
power it on or off. This communication is configured to be done over  
point to point connections or private sub networks.

Hope this makes things clearer.

Thank you

Bruce

On Nov 26, 2008, at 10:14 AM, James Carlson wrote:

> Danek Duvall writes:
>> So in all of this, there's no description of what powerman actually  
>> *is*.
>
> It centralizes control of power control units, often used in a lab,
> much in the way conserver centralizes console servers.
>
>> Or what the interfaces are.
>
> Good point.
>
> -- 
> James Carlson, Solaris Networking              <james.d.carlson at sun.com 
> >
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