Frankly, if you don't have console's on your servers, then they can't
   be all that important and then it just doesn't matter when you turn
   them off.
   
   Sysadmins build machinerooms with consoles, console cables, and 
   console servers.  I have a machineroom with close to 200 machines
   in it, and I have one monitor.  I can get to any console on those
   machines from anywhere, even across the planet.
   
   If you want to build a hacked up network, then that's up to you. But
   then you can hack up your kernel with whatever code you want too. But
   don't make everyone else have to have that code there just because
   you like to run a sloppy network.



i wish i had the hardware to do this.  send me a few supported
multiport serial cards?  i just don't have the supported hardware
to have all my machines with serial console connected at the
same time, and this feature would be useful for the couple that
do not have soft power (ie, halt -p doesn't work.)


.mrg.