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Hardware

It's 2004: What Are The Best Remote KVM Options? 67

Posted by timothy from the stuff-that-has-to-work dept.
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."
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It's 2004: What Are The Best Remote KVM Options? More

It's 2004: What Are The Best Remote KVM Options?

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  • Dell (Score:5, Informative)

    by passthecrackpipe ( 598773 ) * <passthecrackpipe@@@hotmail...com> on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @01:05PM (#10643727)
    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.

    • Re:Dell (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Timodious ( 178572 )
      ...it has a great PERL interface...

      I really, really don't want to sound snobby, but I suspect that if you spell perl that way, you are not qualified to judge the interface's quality.

      Do you have direct knowledge of and experience with the API? If so, I sincerely apologize.
      • I saw recently that Perl is now an accepted form of spelling.
      • Yes, I have both direct knowledge as well as direct experience with the API, it is simple but cool, very functional, and "It Just Works(tm)". In a recent linux cluster project I delivered for a customer we used the cards as STONITH (hope I spelled it to your liking) devices, driven by PERL and SSH. They do VNC as well.

        And yes, you do sound snobby... ;-)

  • RealVNC hardware (Score:5, Informative)

    by lullabud ( 679893 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @01:09PM (#10643802)
    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/ [realvnc.com]

  • KVMs mostly suck (Score:2, Interesting)

    by GigsVT ( 208848 )
    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 al

  • Don't use PCs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by beegle ( 9689 ) * on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @01:28PM (#10644100) Homepage
    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.)

    • Re:Don't use PCs (Score:5, Informative)

      by HawkingMattress ( 588824 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @02:03PM (#10644584)
      it's not a pc issue, more a how many are you ready to cash for it one. Just buy a real server with redundant everything, tons of fans, integrated error reporting and a system which allows real remote administration (that is, even if the machine is off, or the network card is dead, or you want to access the bios, or you need to install an os but don't have the cd in the machine so you need to be able to use an image as a virtual drive)...
      We had those things for something like $4000 from HP, probably other vendors have similar things, but the bottom line is: it's really worth the money. We thought we couldn't afford that, but it already payed for itself in a few months because we didn't have to do anything on the machine since they were set up, plus not having to drive 50km everytime we really need physical access...

  • Avocent (Score:4, Interesting)

    by kzanol ( 23904 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @01:43PM (#10644311)
    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.

    • Re:Avocent (Score:2, Insightful)

      by ben_degonzague ( 222715 )
      We use avocent where I work. Its great. The remote software allows you to view the console and have all the functionality. So, when you have to reboot into the bios or diagnostics to view an error message, you can just load up a program instead of driving 30 miles. Definetly would recommend it, saves time.

    • Re:Avocent (Score:3, Informative)

      by Gudlyf ( 544445 )
      I second the Avocent KVMs. The newer ones allow you to cable between the switch and the KVM unit via Cat-5 cabling (and their special dongles, of course). They have dongles for Sun, PC (both USB and PS/2), and serial, and the remote software works on Linux and Windows.

    • Re:Avocent (Score:2, Insightful)

      by platos_beard ( 213740 )
      Just curious, but what would frequent use be? I can see occasionally needing to get into bios settings or see pre-boot messages, but why would you need to do that frequently and not have to be on-site anyway?
  • really long wires back to the room the admins are in
    • Excuse me sir...

      Can you point me to the nearest shop that sells a 15-mile keyboard, video, and mouse cable, that will stretch all the way across town... and by the way, also one that won't run through people's backyards? ...Thought not.

  • VNC... (Score:2, Interesting)

    by fini ( 571717 )
    ... is the answer. What is the question ?

    As mentionned by lullabud [slashdot.org] in an earlier post [slashdot.org], RealVNC has a 100% hardware solution [realvnc.com] 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...

  • Robots (Score:4, Funny)

    by I_Love_Pocky! ( 751171 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @02:19PM (#10644776)
    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.

  • I'm happy with our Raritan (Score:3, Informative)

    by SeattleDave ( 236077 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @04:15PM (#10646274)
    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.

  • American Megatrends MegaRAC G2/G3 (Score:4, Interesting)

    by LiteForce ( 102751 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @05:50PM (#10647329) Homepage
    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.

  • One word (Score:5, Insightful)

    by The Iconoclast ( 24795 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @06:14PM (#10647575)
    IBM e-server bladecenter.

    Ok, so that wasn't one word, but it should be, "OMFGIBMe-serverbladecenter!!!~1~." They are sweet seriously.

  • PC Hardware Serial Console card (Score:4, Informative)

    by asdfghjklqwertyuiop ( 649296 ) on Wednesday October 27, 2004 @10:05PM (#10649433)
    this company [realweasel.com] 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.

  • We make decent use of HP/Compaq Remote Insight (now Integrated Lights Out) boards. They work pretty well, allow remote power button, etc. The one thing that bothers me is that in the G2/G3 servers, they have started charging extra for a Remote Console license fee. What this means is that you can watch the boot through post, then the display shuts off and you have to guess. That means that if you have a Windows server which bluescreens or a Linux server which fscks every time it boots, you're kind of out
    • As I understand it, the license is for graphics mode. So if you set your Linux server to use text only (and definitely not the framebuffer device) you should be able to use it. Windows of course is right out.
    • The remote console license also gives you features like remote floppy drive and remote CD-ROM. These are invaluable if you need to be able to access these devices outside of your OS for troubleshooting.

      All rack mount HP servers (The Density Line, DL) now have the remote insight board integrated as a standard feature, believe me, if you have 42 servers in a rack you do not want to be dealing with a KVM.

      Compaq/HP Remote Insight is the best out of band Remote management in the market.
    • I have no problems getting a serial console on my G2's. Just added the following line to /etc/inittab

      S0:2345:respawn:/sbin/mgetty -r -s 115200 ttyS0

      (after the mingetty line - can't remember if I also had to install mgetty)

      I also added the following to the kernel 'append' options in lilo.conf

      console=ttyS0,115200

      Then you can use ILO's serial console to your hearts content. I also use this with BL10e blade servers.
  • How about using a surveillance camera tied into an autonomous robot? That is much better and you don't have the unreliability of a PC to contend with. In addition, the robot can be used in a hazardous environment such as the CORPORATE WORLD.
  • Er, yeah. There's been no talk [slashdot.org] of KVM's in AskSlashdot [slashdot.org] in 2004.

    Learn to search old stories first, you goon.
  • We use some of these in our data center. They are IP based and might be cheaper than the ones you are looking at. http://www.avocent.com [avocent.com]

  • How about IPMI [intel.com]?

    The marketing blurb goes something like this:

    [IPMI] will allow for remote monitoring, management and recovery capabilities, regardless of the status or health of the server. New features such as enhanced security using leading authentication and encryption mechanisms in combination with remote console viewing will help reduce operational risk by securing remote operations. Moreover, with IPMI being implemented at the silicon level, it deals with monitoring basic server parts such as power

  • hmmm, get cross-over keyboard and a capture card....
  • I've had great luck with an 8 port KVM over IP switch bu Digital V6 (http://digitalv6.com/)

    Reasonable cost - works with VNC, or a java applet.

    I also bought the integrated power control - I can now cobtrol the mouse/keyboard as well as cycle power from just about any web browser.

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