I've used serial-over-LAN many times, mostly on older SuperMicro servers. It has a lot of issues, though:
1. Usually can't access the BIOS.
2. Hand-off to the OS is dodgy.
3. Configuring serial terminals is nearly a lost art for some reason; the bits to make it work are certainly all there, but you won't find many cookbook explanations -- especially now that initd is disappearing.
4. The actual wire protocol is only sort of standardized, and ipmitool does not give useful error messages.
5. There are some odd pitfalls. e.g., you *must* make sure you don't have kernel logging to console; otherwise if you have a lot of kernel messages the kernel will grind to a halt as it waits for them all to be sent at 9600 baud.
In most cases having a graphical representation of the console is just easier. Everything happens the way the OS expects, that way.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
