KVM over Ethernet Switches for FreeBSD Boxes ... ?
Chris Pepper
pepper at reppep.com
Fri Apr 2 18:50:14 PST 2004
At 2:34 PM -0500 2004/04/02, Ketrien I. Saihr-Kesenchedra wrote:
>At 12:20 PM 4/2/2004, you wrote:
>>Anyone have any recommendations on what works with FreeBSD? I've had
>>fun/issues in the past with KVMs that just don't seem to work well,
>>including BlackBox stuff ...
>
>Should've mentioned on IRC, but I may not have been paying
>attention. My fault.
>
>>I'm interested in being able to power-cycle a box remotely, as well as be
>>able to get into the DEBUGGER remotely if I need to ... I don't care if
>>the interface has to be run under Windows, as we have one in our office
>>for the bookkeeper ...
>
>You're looking for Rose Electronics gear. This is going to cost you
>a pretty penny. Specifically, the UltraLink (KVM via Ethernet.) I
>haven't used the UltraLink, but I've heard very good things about
>it. You'd likely want to combine this with an UltraMatrix E-series
>(which provides serial per machine as well) or a ServeView Pro.
We've been talking to Avocent & Cyclades about this.
Cyclades <http://www.cyclades.com/products/> is a bit
simpler. They offer AlterPath ACS, terminal servers of 1-48 ports
running Linux/iptables/sshd/http/https. AlterPath PM is a series of
managed power strips, capable of controlling 8-20 outlets via serial
interface (which can be controlled via their web interface. AlterPath
KVM is a 16 or 32 port KVM, using cat5 cabling to the servers. The
next KVM rev will support TCP/IP connectivity to the KVM for
management (hopefully Java based and broadly compatible). We like the
ACS and the TS predecessor.
Avocent offers more products, including equivalents to the
above, but their DS series KVMs
<http://www.avocent.com/web/en.nsf/Content/DSR2010>, which they
suggested, only support 30' on the cat5 cables due to signal
strength, and up to 16 ports/KVM. They also offer external modules
that take TCP/IP connections and plug into the console port of a dumb
KVM to provide the same level of functionality (SwitchView IP?). The
DS series, unfortunately, requires a Windows service to do the
authentication, but it consolidates access to multiple KVMs. Makes
more sense for many KVMs; licensing is odd -- apparently you purchase
SKUs with a fixed number of network connections per KVM, as well as
user licenses to run the DSView (Windows) or DSWebView client
software, as well as a license for the authentication server
(includes a backup license).
With both types of KVM, the cat5 dongles are expensive. For
small deployments, I'd probably go with the piggyback TCP/IP module,
on top of regular KVMs -- we have some non-cat5 24-port KVMs which
are nice, but also not cheap.
Both companies offer some level of integration between KVM,
serial (which is just another dongle for the DS-series KVMs), and
power management, but we haven't tried most of the options yet. One
advantage Cyclades mentions is intelligent grouping of power
management outlets in the TS configuration, so you can control a
system with 2 or 3 AC outlets without remembering which you have to
shut off together.
Chris Pepper
--
Chris Pepper: <http://www.reppep.com/~pepper/>
Rockefeller University: <http://www.rockefeller.edu/>
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