[ale] 1U server question

[ale_nospam at fayettedigital.com (Jim Lynch)]

I'm toying with the idea of putting in a small system in a colocation 
site and was looking at 1U servers.  I've not worked with these before 
and haven't quite figured out how you initially boot them.  None of 
them, that I've looked at, mention a serial port which was what I 
thought one might use to communicate with the bios.  One did have a 
statement like "lan only" under "Remote management" which I'm assuming 
is how you'd access it. 

But, how would that work?  I could see if it were a dhcp client it could 
get an ip address, but then you'd have to guess what it is.  Also it 
wouldn't make sense to assume dhcp 'cause once you got it in the colo 
site, you couldn't be assured that there was a dhcp server nor would you 
be able to connect to it. 

Anyway, before I spend $$ on something, I think I need to know how these 
things work.

Anyone?

Thanks,
Jim.