Linux: Print all messages to console *and* monitor?

Question

I run Linux (RedHat-based, CentOS, SL, versions 5 & 6) on a variety of Supermicro and other whitebox servers. Some have IPMI, some do not.

Sometimes we want to log into these system using the attached Keyboard/monitor console. Other times we log into these systems via a remote serial console. And other times we interact with these systems using the IPMI KVM-over-LAN. With all of these methods, we'd like to see consistant output on all of the serial console and on the KVM screens.

With all of these console methods, we want the ability to interact with the system from startup to shutdown, and we want to see the entire boot sequence. This includes seeing any messages printed by, and interacting with:

1. The BIOS (This is handled by the BIOS console redirection in many modern BIOSes, and is independent from the Operating System)
2. The bootloader (Grub 0.97, in this case)
3. See messages printed by the kernel
4. See messages printed by programs during the startup session
   • (e.g. Starting sshd: [ FAILED ] typo in sshd_config on line 171)
5. The login: prompt , and allow me to log into the system.

I've tried a few methods, but it seems that no matter what I put in grub.conf, some messages are printed to either the monitor or the serial console, but not both.

Is it possible to tell the bootloader, Linux kernel, OS, etc. to print all messages to the attached monitor and too the serial console?

Answer 1

I've tried a few methods, but it seems that no matter what I put in grub.conf, some messages are printed to either the monitor or the serial console, but not both.

In theory, you can use multiple console= options in the grub.conf to make the Linux kernel output to all console when possible, something like this:

title CentOS (2.6.18-194.el5)
    root (hd0,0)
    kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.18-194.el5 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb console=tty0 console=ttyS0,9600n8 
    initrd /initrd-2.6.18-194.el5.img

But in fact, according to the Serial Console HOWTO, messages from init and syslog only appear on the last listed console device.