Re: [SAGE] DTE: PCMCIA card which emulates a monitor?

[Chris Hoogendyk <hoogendyk@bio.umass.edu>]

I realize this isn't the same thing, and it doesn't give you the mouse 
and the GUI on the headless server; but, then, it's a headless server, 
right? So, don't use the GUI. (Barring those weird situations where the 
vendor, say Oracle, has all it's install stuff done as a Java GUI. But 
that's a different ball game, and then you're stuck being haunted by a 
nearly headless server.)

I have a Keyspan USB serial adapter with multiple ports. I connect them 
to the console ports on my servers. Then I open a terminal session on my 
Mac, launch Kermit, and connect to the serial port. Title that window 
"server A console". Repeat. Then I have my ssh open, connect to my Mac 
remotely with Timbuktu over ssh, and I have access to the console on my 
servers, from home. Both Timbuktu and Kermit function properly for me to 
interrupt the server if that's what I want to do. When I'm building the 
server, that's the only access I have had, because I really don't have a 
monitor or keyboard on some of my servers.

Also, I'm in a unix environment. That should apply as well to linux or 
BSD. But, if you're talking Windows servers, then this may not do you 
much good.

---------------

Chris Hoogendyk

-
   O__  ---- Systems Administrator
  c/ /'_ --- Biology & Geology Departments
 (*) \(*) -- 140 Morrill Science Center
~~~~~~~~~~ - University of Massachusetts, Amherst 

<hoogendyk@bio.umass.edu>

--------------- 

Erdös 4




Richard Chycoski wrote:
> I'd hoped that this would work as well. I've used KVM-to-IP devices to 
> remote a console, and while these would work for the intended 
> application it would be troublesome to configure the network on the 
> laptop just for this purpose when needed. The boxes that I've used 
> weren't cheap, and require external power. At that point I might as 
> well acquire a small LCD monitor and keyboard to use.
>
> If anyone finds the silver bullet at some time in the future - please 
> ping the list!
>
> - Richard
>
> Joseph Noonan wrote:
>> On Wed, 14 Nov 2007 at 11:48pm Ted Nolan wrote:
>>>
>>> You may recall that some months ago, I was looking for what amounted 
>>> to, though I couldn't think to frame it this way, a virtual 1 seat 
>>> KVM switch that could be run from a laptop.
>>
>> Yes, and I read the thread with a lot of interest (hope?), because 
>> I've looked at my notebook on a table or floor in a server room and 
>> thought: "I've got a 15" flat panel, a keyboard and a mouse, but lets 
>> go get a monitor and keyboard to plug into headless over there".  I 
>> wish notebooks at least had a connector that would let you use the 
>> built in display as a standalone monitor -- but I guess that's not 
>> going to happen. Sigh.
>>
>>
>>> That particular card seemed not to exist, but I did get some pointers
>>> to a possible alternate, the KVM2USB box from Epiphan :
>>>
>>> www.epiphan.com/products/product.php?pid=27&gclid=CLPWlej7u4oCFQImUAodVUsXPg 
>>>
>>>
>>> It was a bit pricier than what I had in mind, but I decided I would 
>>> get one
>>> and check it out.  I finally had the occasion to use it recently, and
>>> I'm afraid I have to say I'm not too impressed.
>>
>> I bought the overpriced POS[1] myself and have had exactly zero 
>> success with it.  I've tried that crappy software with 3 different 
>> notebooks (Dell D610, d620, D520), and with several (Dell) servers 
>> varying in age from 5 years to 3 mos ago, an old DEC/Compaq Alpha, a 
>> couple of misc. whitebox PC's and even another notebook I was 
>> configuring but didn't want on my desk.  Work with none of them well 
>> enough to do a bare metal install.
>>
>>
>>> What you get is a box with a CD, the actuall KVM2USB box, a USB cable
>>> and the VGA/kbd/mouse pigtail.
>>>
>>> The KVM2USB box is about the size of a pack of cigarettes, and is 
>>> entirely
>>> powered through the USB connection.  It seemes reasonably well made and
>>> robust (the case is metal).  It may in fact be a fine piece of 
>>> equipment.
>>
>> Agreed -- it really seems to be nicely built.
>>
>>
>>> The software, unfortunately, is otherwise.  First, the CD that comes 
>>> with
>>> the device is stamped as a driver CD, but when you put it in the drive,
>>> all it does is start an IE session to the Ephiphan web site, from where
>>> you are expected to download the real drivers.  I don't per se have any
>>> problem with a company saying up-front, go to our site to make sure you
>>> have the latest stuff, but you shouldn't label that as a driver CD.  In
>>> this case, I had taken out my WI-FI card to put in a USB2 card to hitch
>>> the KVM2USB to, so .. no Internet.  I don't want to overstate the 
>>> difficulty:
>>> I was at home, not in the only server closet in Burkina Faso or 
>>> anything
>>> like that, but it did irritate me.
>>
>> I had exactly the same reaction. "That is NOT a driver disk".
>>
>>
>>> Second, I had a lot of problems actually installing the drivers when 
>>> I did
>>> get them downloaded (Windows only, of course).  I don't know exactly 
>>> what
>>> was going on.  I finally changed my store brand USB2 card for an 
>>> Adaptec
>>> USB2 card and got it working, but I can't say for sure that actually 
>>> had
>>> anything to do with it (Win XP was happy enough with the store brand 
>>> card
>>> for everything else I've ever tried with it).  The driver installs as
>>> a hidden device in Device Manager, the first time I've ever seen that..
>>> Anyway, after several tries and unexpected re-occurances of "found new
>>> hardware", and manual driver unloading, it finally settled down.
>>
>> I didn't have this kind of trouble with the drivers, but I was using 
>> the built in USB ports on the recent-ish Dells mentioned above, not 
>> an addon card, so maybe that was it.
>>
>>> Third, the actual application is not good at all.
>>
>> Correction: it is a complete piece of crap.  I have NEVER been able 
>> to successfully interrupt a server while it was booting using that 
>> app.  Not once.
>>
>>> Once you get the driver installed, you can start the console 
>>> application and all appears well:  a window opens with the boot 
>>> screen of the PC you are hitched to.  As various parts of the boot 
>>> sequence clear the screen on the subject PC, the application resises 
>>> the window, and retunes its VGA capture parameters.  That's annoying 
>>> as it goes completely blank each time it recalculates, but livable.
>>
>> Agreed.
>>
>>
>>> What is not livable is the KVM part of the application.  By default,
>>> you are just an observer of the screen, but you can select a menu to
>>> "Enter KVM Mode" at which point your mouse and keyboard are supposed to
>>> be mapped through to the PC at the far end.  Unfortunately this doesn't
>>> work well at all.  I can speak for the mouse support, as the remote PC
>>> was a FreeBSD box, and I didn't need anything more than a text mode
>>> console, but the keyboard emulation was miserable.  I suppose there may
>>> be something strange about my laptop, which is an old (IBM era)
>>> Thinkpad, but it seems vanilla enough.  I found that while some control
>>> characters would go thorugh OK (like ^Z for suspend), ^C would not.
>>> Also the application appeared to be trapping the ALT key and not
>>> sending it through, and sending through the arrow keys worked only
>>> intermittently.  Sometimes, like old versions of VNC, everything would
>>> get into a wierd state and the keystrokes passed through seemed to have
>>> nothing to do with what I was typing.  Randomly hitting shift, CTRL &
>>> ALT would eventually get it back into a working state.  If you didn't
>>> type anything for a while it would stop listening to you, and you would
>>> have to reset the app to KVM mode (or in some cases, restart the whole
>>> app).  Eventually I just gave up on it and got out another keyboard
>>> (keeping the VGA capture as my monitor though).
>>
>> You have very accurately summarized my experience.  I can't figure 
>> out what kind of system the developers ever tested this against as it 
>> has been 100% useless for doing any kind of bare metal loading of 
>> servers.
>>
>>
>>> Looking at the Epiphan manual, they are all about VGA capture, and KVM
>>> is a couple of paragraphs of afterthought.  I also must say, in 
>>> fairness,
>>> that I never attempted to contact their tech support.  Perhaps they 
>>> could
>>> have resolved all my problems straight-away.  I felt it more likely 
>>> however,
>>> that this would probably take far longer than just getting out a 
>>> keyboard.
>>
>> Exactly.  I gave this thing one more try on a trip to a remote office 
>> just a couple of weeks ago and ended up stealing a KVM port from 
>> another server because I really did need to get the server installed 
>> before leaving later that day.
>>
>> On another note, I recently discovered this:
>>
>>     <http://www.kvm-switches-online.com/0su70028.html>
>>
>> and I'm going to try one of these.  I figure I can use an extra 
>> cardbus 10/100 that I carry with me anyway and a crossover cable and 
>> get the desired effect.  We'll see.
>>
>>
>>
>> thx,
>>
>> -j
>>
>>
>> [1] Doesn't mean "point of sale"