Re: [SAGE] IP KVM's and PDU which give you the most bang for youbuck

[nmedbery@museverte.net]

We currently use a Raritan Dominian KX 32 port KVM over IP.  I don't
really like it.  You have to install their client software and it uses
some Internet Explorer components (ActiveX actually).  The KVM itself
locks up from time to time and needs to be reset.  Sometimes it recovers,
sometimes it does not.  I upgraded the firmware recently and then grabbed
the new Java client, but I thought the interface got worse!  The older
interface (which still works thankfully) has nice keyboard shortcuts to
refresh the screen etc.  On the new client, you had to use a key sequence
just to bring up the menu giving you the option of a screen refresh, which
had to be clicked with your mouse.  It's possible that a keyboard sequence
could have been used, but it was not intuitive enough for me to figure out
quickly, so I went back to the old client.

The mouse synchronization seems a little off to me as well and the screen 
refreshes are not very good.  Maybe that is more to do with the "over IP" 
part, but I doubt it.  I just have not used other products so I cannot 
compare.  I do know that I don't get a warm fuzzy from using this thing 
though.

I have used Cyclades TS-series equipment and always liked those.  I do not 
know what their KVM over IP products are like and would be interested in 
hearing what others have to say about them.
	-Nate

On Fri, 27 Jan 2006, Lance A. Brown wrote:

> Lucky Dog wrote:
> > Check out the Raritan line of PDU and KVM.
> > 
> > The PDUs have remote control ability via a console port that can also be
> > connected to the KVM.  The KVM has network control so you can access the
> > console without having to actually be in front of the rack.
> > 
> > They can be a bit pricy IMHO but it's turning out to be well worth it when
> > you can VPN in from home and either connect to the console or power cycle a
> > device without having to drive in.
> 
> When I last used Raritan equipment (7 months ago), they were selling
> Avocent's DSView (previously mentioned here) as the "remote access" part
> of their solution.  It sucked to have to rdesktop into a windows machine
> from linux Linux box so I could run the DSView client to access the
> console on my linux servers. :-\
> 
> --[Lance]