[Cialug] KVMs

[Dan Ramaley]

+1
Another vote for the simplicity and cost effectiveness of a crash cart.

Back when i had a job that included free data center access, we used 
KVMs around the turn of the century. I think it was in the mid to late 
2000s that we switched to a crash cart. Looking back, there were 
probably a few factors to that change: server density just got too high 
(and the KVMs that can manage double-digit numbers of computers aren't 
cheap), remote management (such as IPMI) became standard (or a 
relatively low-cost add-on), and reliability of both hardware and 
software got good enough that it was pretty rare to need console access 
anyway. Oh, we probably also made the shift around the time servers went 
from PS/2 connectors for their keyboards to USB, which made our old KVMs 
obsolete. Rather than buying new KVMs or a pile of adapters, it was 
easier to just rely on the remote management and have a crash cart for 
the rare times that wasn't good enough.


On 2023-04-12 09:27, Sean Flattery wrote:
> This is the way.
> 
> 
> Date: Wed, 12 Apr 2023 06:42:04 -0500
> From: kristau <kristau at gmail.com>
> To: Central Iowa Linux Users Group <cialug at cialug.org>
> Subject: Re: [Cialug] KVMs
> Message-ID:
>          <CAM+7bFRSJTXy6h_Zf-F5Vw14YpcFre2FwJNhGMOnb8UUK9Br3g at mail.gmail.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="UTF-8"
> 
> What is the limitation which requires console access to manage these
> systems? Can you not perform day-by-day management over ssh? You may not
> need a KVM at all.
> 
> We ditched our server room KVMs a long time ago in favor of a "crash cart."
> Most everything can be managed remotely, but on the rare chance
> console access is required, we have an old keyboard, monitor, and mouse on
> standby.
> 
> On Tue, Apr 11, 2023 at 5:28?PM L. V. Lammert <lvl at omnitec.net> wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, 11 Apr 2023, David Champion wrote:
>>
>>> Does your equipment support LOM, i..e Dell iDrac? I think that's what a
>> lotof people prefer to use over KVM now.
>>> The Pi KVM thing looks fun, not sure how good it is at all.
>>>
>> Nothing that sophisticated, .. just have a bunch of Dell 9020s running VMs
>> & containers.
>>
>> Used to have four stacked KVMs, but decided to replace them with a
>> 16-port.
>>
>>          Lee
>>
>