Out of band access to devices?

[Andrew Pollock]

Hi,

Way back in December of 2003, I asked the question of out of band access.

I'm back in a similar environment where I have a number of Cisco switches
attached to Cyclades AlterPath ACS console-access servers, and all remove
access to the switches is disabled. Telnet isn't an option, and I suspect
that the IOS version doesn't include crypto, so I can't enable SSH access.

So the only way of managing the devices is via SSHing to the Cyclades and
getting on the console port. We can SSH directly to a specific port of the
Cyclades, and after authenticating, get on the console attached to that
port, and disconnect by way of the standard SSH disconnect break sequence
when we're done.

I'm wondering if RANCID has evolved over the last nearly 2 years to include
such out of band access to devices, or if it's much of a muchness still?

regards

Andrew