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It's 2004: What Are The Best Remote KVM Options?
Tocano33 writes "Saw a story regarding this quietly residing in the /. Story Retirement Home (tm), but it was from over 2 years ago and wanted to see if anyone had some new insight. We have about a dozen servers in our one rack - not a terribly large setup. However, our admins are not located in the server room and while we can use RDP/SSH/VNC/etc for everyday maintenance, we need to be able to perform offline work and may need to evaluate POST information on bootup, etc. So we're currently looking at KVM options - IP based specifically (ie Raritan Dominion) but we're wondering if there are cheaper options and wanted to know what slashdot readers would recommend."
The Dell 2650 server is nice little middle-of-the-road server, that comes witha kick-ass out of band management card, that will allow you to do all kinds of fun stuff, even when the host is switched off - it has a great PERL interface, so you can script it as well - i know that you probably don't have dells, etc, but you may want to check out out of band management cards as well as KVM solutions. They really rock.
People who think they know everything are a great annoyance to those of us who do.
Since everybody is already familiar with VNC, why not stick with it when you move to hardware?
http://www.realvnc.com/products/KVM-via-IP/
I have gotten so pissed at my (not cheap) belkin KVM that I threw it across the room and then stomped it several times, ala Office Space.
In general, KVMs suck balls. The manual ones are almost as reliable as the electronic ones. Half the time, depending on your keyboard and motherboard, it will cause your whole computer to lock up, loss of mouse control until you unplug and replug the mouse, etc.
The KVMs we got for our artists to switch between their new G5s and their old G4s... they wouldn't work at all with the G5 keyboard. We ordered them new MacAlly keyboards, but some of the special buttons didn't work, so they are back to having two keyboards, directly connected to each computer.
It's really outright fraud that Belkin can represent their products as a general purpose device. They should make a list of compatible hardware.. I'm sure it would be a very small one.
Of course this is with direct KVMs. I have used the CAT5 based KVM deal from Cyberguys with great success. That device allows you to have a local keyboard, monitor and mouse, and a remote one, and both can be used at the same time, with the remote one up to a few hundred feet away. It isn't cheap though.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
This is a problem that has been solved by every hardware platform out there -except- the PC.
Buy decent hardware. Use a serial console (perhaps hooked up to something like a Cyclades box). Move on.
If you absolutely MUST use a PC, there are workarounds like watchdog cards or those dell boxes that basically have a second monitoring computer in them. Fundamentally, though, they are workarounds for an inadequate design.
(In fairness, the PC design's adequate for its intended use: desktops. Using a PC in the server room is a bit like trying to attach a giant U-Haul trailer to a family car: It doesn't work as well as a truck, but you can't blame the car for that.)
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For infrequent use you could consider what we're using: Standard (8-port) KVM Switch that can be controlled by Keyboard + one Avocent KVM IP Switch in front of that. Not too expensive and works reasonably well as long as you don't need to access more than one box at a time.
you have moved your mouse, please reboot to make this change take effect
... is the answer. What is the question ?
As mentionned by lullabud in an earlier post , RealVNC has a 100% hardware solution that's fully independant of the machines. But it's the admins can walk to the rack for the occasional reboot, I'd stick to the pedestrian solution. You should never loose an opportunity to perform some physical activity in this line of business...
SNS Not Sig
Robots are the future. You don't want to drive 100 miles to a remote server for physical access? Just leave a robot there to do the work for you. In a lot of ways, a remotely controlled robot is very much like an enhanced kvm. It can control the computer directly, but it can also switch out CDs for you, or replace faulty hardware. They can't be beat.
You run your servers at 1600x1200? Let me guess: Windows Server 2003? The high res allows you to better manage all of your GUI interfaces?
As for your original question, I imagine that 1600x1200 would probably be possible on any display even if you had to use scroll bars.
We bought a Raritan KX232 for close to $3,600. It services 32 ports over IP. Little integration dongles that connect to your PCs and talk IP over CAT5 close around $75/ea. The whole system works extremely well. The only issues we've had are that their management interface is currently an ActiveX control for IE (a Java one is promised soon) and that when I use Microsoft RDC to connect in to our network (through the firewall) and bring up a PC in the data center, mouse tracking is all messed up. Essentially I'm doing VNC at the remote desktop to a PC in the data center. It can be a little frustrating. But, the hardware is exceptional. We effectively trashed all our old Belkin crap.
I have an AMI MegaRAC G2 installed in one of my co-lo servers at The Planet (Dallas, TX).
It is a standard half-length PCI card that is a looks like a ATI Rage XL graphics card to the host operating system with a VGA connector on the back of the card in case you really need to hook a monitor up to it.
(you do need to be able to disable the onboard VGA on the server - if it has it)
The real magic is with the cards' mini USB connector - cable it up to any USB port on the server and the card will emulate a USB keyboard, USB mouse and a USB CD-ROM (great for operating system re-installs if you prefer Windows!).
On the internal side, the card has a feature connector that allows 'pass-thru' to the servers' reset and power jumper pins.
Because of the feature connector, the card can perform a proper hardware reset and power-cycle via 'pass-thru' to the server PWR_ON/RESET pins if the server manufacturer actually has bothered to put standard pins on their server board like most OEM motherboards have - the card can survive short power outages with the aid of its' dinky onboard battery that can last 30 minutes without power.
My only bugbear with the G2 is that it has a horrible tendency to fall over if it is 'unprotected' from the Internet - if you can protect it from unwanted traffic by ACLs on an upstream router, I can heartily recommend it.
The G3 is meant to have an onboard firewall but my e-mails to American Megatrends over the last few days have been rudely ignored.
Another thing...
The firmware for both cards is based on uClinux and various other GPL'd softwares... no mention of any source on American Megatrend's website although they do quote the GPL license on their download page.
So to sum up:
High-quality card.
Average firmware.
Manufacturer has piss-poor GPL attitude.
Manufacturer has tendency not to reply to e-mails.
I hope this information is helpful to at least some readers.
"Be vewy vewy quiet, I'm hunting wuntime ewwors!" - Elmer Fudd
Ok, so that wasn't one word, but it should be, "OMFGIBMe-serverbladecenter!!!~1~." They are sweet seriously.
Quando Omni Flunkus Moritati
this company makes hardware serial console cards for PCs. They're just PCI cards that emulate a VGA video card (text) and PS/2 keyboard. They also come with a remotely-triggerable pair of pins that you can hook up to the machine's reset connector. They'll get you into the BIOS, you can install an OS, etc... and they're only $350 which is quite cheap for this sort of thing in PC land.
Excuse me sir...
...Thought not.
Can you point me to the nearest shop that sells a sense of humor?
...and that's all there is to it.
Er, yeah. There's been no talk of KVM's in AskSlashdot in 2004.
Learn to search old stories first, you goon.