[RndTbl] Recommendations for IP KVM switches

[Adam Thompson]

On 2015-03-09 04:01 PM, Gilbert E. Detillieux wrote:
> Howdy folks.
>
> We've got a bit of money to spend before budget year-end, and I 
> thought it might be nice to finally do something more orderly about 
> remote console access to some of our servers.  (Right now, we have 
> some systems with ILOM/ALOM, some on small local-only KVM, and some 
> with no remote management capability at all.)
>
> We're looking at probably a couple 8-port units for a couple different 
> racks.  We're somewhat concerned about costs, of course, but want 
> something reasonable in terms of features.  (E.g. remote 
> authentication through various means like RADIUS & AD would be nice.)
>
> Anyone with experience with particular brands of IP-accessible KVM's? 
> Any recommendations on what to get?  What to avoid? ;) (Canadian 
> supplier would be preferred.)
>

The very greatest and latest generation of remote consoles use HTML5 
interfaces (or at least have the option to), which allows their use on 
non-Flash-capable and non-Java-capable devices, which is a segment that 
is growing at an insane rate.

Be wary in particular of units that require Java, as oftentimes this 
imposes an upper limit on the usable lifespan of the unit, even when the 
hardware is still fully functional; if they don't keep releasing 
*signed* JARs periodically, newer JVMs will refuse to run the old 
applet.  ActiveX tends to suffer from bitrot quite badly.  Flash is 
rare, but at least doesn't usually suffer badly from

A really good on-screen-keyboard is vital; it's otherwise essentially 
impossible to press Alt-PrScr-whatever on a Linux console.

Video quality and resolution... don't really matter.  Since you're 
embedding the console inside another window, you'll likely still run 
most of your server consoles at 1024x768 or maybe 1280x1024. Everything 
supports EDID nowadays, so guess-the-resolution is largely a game of the 
past.

AD integration is another spot where old software releases may cause 
problems; the Win2K to Win2012 era has seen lots of legacy AD clients 
fail to connect unless you disable security features on Win2012.

Remote USB media support is handy for lights-out recovery, but in your 
case probably not a very important feature: you're not all that far away 
from the servers in case of disaster.

Having said all that, I don't know who's ahead right now and who's 
lagging behind.

Raritan & Avocent have always been the leaders of the pack.
APC & TrippLite are usually OK.
Adder was the underdog, leading in terms of cutting-edge features (using 
VNC as the remote protocol, for example).
Startech usually eschews fanciness in favour of basic, but solid, 
functionality - apparently they also support VNC.
Most tier-1 server vendors (and possibly infrastructure vendors like 
APC) will just OEM either Raritan or Avocent switches... and usually 
sell it at half the price of the equivalent Raritan or Avocent ;-).

Make sure whatever product you choose supports ALL the video interfaces 
you need, and ALL the keyboard/mouse interfaces you need (VGA, DVI, 
HDMI, DP+, USB, PS/2, RS232, ADB, Sun, it's easy to forget one if you 
don't do an inventory-by-eyeball).

Also, just keep your expectations reasonable... read this to feel the 
love for KVM/IP: http://arstechnica.com/civis/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=1236197


-- 
-Adam Thompson
  athompso at athompso.net
  +1 (204) 291-7950 - cell
  +1 (204) 489-6515 - fax