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Cheap KVM Over IP?

Posted by Cliff on from the throwing-that-noisy-box-into-the-other-room! dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I've been looking for a cost effective (ie, cheap) way to remotely administer several servers running a variety of OS's, and would like to have a solution that would allow for monitoring of the bios on startup, etc (ie, not VNC). The most appealing solution is KVM over IP, which really just means a souped up KVM switch with something like VNC running on it, unfortunately all of the solutions I've been able to find are more expensive than I can justify spending. I've played around a bit with making my own Poor man's KVM over IP; I did this by purchasing a cheap (sub $50) VGA-to-NTSC convertor, then feeding it into a video card with NTSC input (the ATI All-In-Wonder Radion), and then by logging into a machine running Windows Terminal Services I'm able to watch the reboot process. Of course, this doesn't address the mouse/keyboard issue, and the quality isn't all that great. What I'm hoping is that someone else might have a suggestion on how to do this, preferably using Linux and the least hardware necessary. Does anyone have any suggestions or insights on ways to do this?" There are pre-existing solutions, but it seems they are all kind of pricey. Can any of you suggest cheap solutions (at or below $500USD) that could handle a farm of 5-10 machines?

"Here are the three approaches I found:

ViewProxy: They make the most economical for administration of multiple machines (by one person). Their ProxyView device plugs into your KVM just like it was a monitor/mouse/keyboard, and then does all the packetizing magic. Price is about $6k from what I can tell.

eRIC: These are the same guys who make the Rolf (Reboot on Lan), which is pretty cool. They make a card called Eric which replaces your normal video card with their card, which has a built in ethernet connection and allows remote control. The cheapest solution at about $700 but only would allow control of the machine it's installed in.

Avocent: I think the first to introduce the whole KVM over IP solution, they have KVM's with this sort of functionality integrated. Some of their products allow multiple users to multiple machine, which is a neat feature but not needed for my applications. Their units run from $4k on up."

3 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. RealWeasel by travisd · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.realweasel.com/intro.html

  2. Serial Console (BIOS Redirection) by Precision · · Score: 5, Informative

    Many newer motherboards support BIOS redirection over the serial port. All of my systems (intel 440gx) supports this. It allows full remote BIOS configuration, etc. Used in conjuction with linux's serial console and sysrq over serial I find the solution works quite well.

    --
    - U
  3. RealWeasel and Other Issues by SEWilco · · Score: 4, Informative
    Yes, the RealWeasel provides a serial MGA/VGA text interface. It also translates serial input to keyboard code conversion. It solves most of the problems, just needs serial-to-TCP/IP to meet the IP requirement.

    • Serial Console (including reset and boot BIOS access)
      • RealWeasel (or similar if there is one) for console in each machine. Needed on machines whose BIOS or OS does not support a serial console.
      • Without RealWeasel, you could use a serial-to-keyboard adapter for remote ASCII console input. Console output becomes a separate problem. (I see a Keyat unit also allows several adapters on a single RS-485 interface, so a single RS-485 link could service several servers)
      • For Linux use, see the Remote Serial Console HOWTO..but no method to reset.
      • Terminal server, to convert all those serial ports to TCP/IP; IP support was specified. (Linux Serial Console HOWTO above has terminal server info also)
      • Mouse support: Another serial port, with servers configured for serial mice. On management workstation, install a serial mouse specifically for remote use.
      • Make a program for your management station which lets you select a remote console. The program pops up an appropriate terminal window (unless it already is running) and connects the serial mouse to remote's serial mouse input port.
    • Reset/power control.
      • RealWeasel offers reset control.
      • Reset could be wired to relays, which would require relays controlled through TCP/IP (could b done through terminal server serial or parallel ports).
      • Web cam and robot arm. Details left as an exercise for the reader.
    • Graphical console remote access
      • X11 Windows System: The usual X11 network access.
      • MS-Windows: Choose favorite remote console solution.
      • VNC: Question asker specified not to use it.
      • Remote Control Review: Review of several remote control packages.
    • As IP is being used, all this can be run through Ethernet or serial PPP links. Or USB, with serial ports for console/mouse and USB-Ethernet for X11 through USB network (Is there an Ethernet-to-USB_Host device, so a USB-through-Ethernet device driver could talk to a remote USB network?)
    • Encryption to protect console data: Have to encrypt the terminal server's link. X11 could run through an SSH tunnel.