Newbie Question About System Update

[Bill Moran]

Pete French <petefrench at ticketswitch.com> wrote:

> > That's an out of the ordinary KVM.  Would you mind passing on the
> > manufacturer of that unit, I'd like to recommend that unit to a number
> > of clients/associates of mine.
> 
> It's an HP unit. The client is a Java program called IPViewer you
> donwload from their website. I did have to tweak it to run under
> freeBSD (basically download the Linux version and replace the JRE with
> the FreeBSD native one).
> 
> *quick rummage*
> 
> I suspect it's one of these:
> 
> http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/servers/proliantstorage/rack-options/kvm/index-console.html
> 
> Not that I have ever seen the thing. But it seems likely that it's one of
> those. None of the boxes plugged into it are HP/Compaq ones - they are
> a miscellany of odd servers from a variety of places, and it works fine
> with all of them.
> 
> > The point is that a normal, run of the mill KVM doesn't have that capability.
> 
> I havent worked with many colo's - I assumed they all had some kind of remote
> KVM ability, sorry. I see what you mean now.
> 
> cheers,
> 
> -pcf.
> 
> PS: I have no clue how miuch those KVM's cost - they might be horrificly
> expensive if you dont get one as standard with your hosting. HP and 'cheap'
> aren't two words that I naturally associate.

This might be the only real advantage of a serial console.  The unit you
pointed to is ~$4000.00, whereas 16-port serial console units run more
like $1000.00.

Of course, the obvious advantage to the networkable KVM is that you can
remotely admin GUI-based servers easily.

-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com