December 30, 201312 yr I love the IPMI on my SuperMicro motherboard. I am currently building a second server from a Lenovo ThinkStation D20 motherboard and was wondering is there is any such thing as a generic remote management card (like IPMI) that can be installed on a PCI/PCIe slot? I basically want to have BIOS level KVM access much like my IPMI. John
December 30, 201312 yr I bought some PCI cards to do this a while back. ATEN IP8000. I got them cheap from eBay. They come with a wall wart type PSU and the interface is pretty much identical to the Supermicro IPMI interface, you can use them without the external PSU if you can live without true lights out. The only slight clunky thing is you have to plug in the VGA to the card and then the monitor to the ATEN card. In the end I never used them and bought a IP KVM instead so they are sat on my shelf gathering dust.
December 31, 201312 yr Author Thx Chris. I ended up getting one of these: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Raritan-Dominion-KX116-16-Port-Switch-KX116-with-Rack-Mounts-/380784063034?pt=US_KVM_Switches_KVM_Cables&hash=item58a87fb23a + 2 CIMs. I'll report back how well (or not) this works. John
January 6, 201412 yr Keen to hear how you get on as the price is extremely good and I can see it being quite popular here
January 6, 201412 yr We used to use Raritan our datacenter. You do understand that the one you purchased will NOT give you any kind of IP connectivity? You also cannot control power.
January 6, 201412 yr That's a VERY good price !! Reading the description it looks like a superb solution for a multi-system KVM over IP. However ... StevenD's comments indicate it doesn't actually do some of those things. Steven -- can you clarify just what it can and cannot do? I assume there are other modules that are needed ... is that correct?
January 6, 201412 yr Nevermind! It looks like the "KX" series has built-in IP. You used to have to add an additional module to get IP access.
January 6, 201412 yr So this is indeed a VERY good price. Anxiously awaiting a report by John on just how well it works ... at that price I'll definitely pick one up if it works as well as the description indicates !!
January 7, 201412 yr having a hard time finding EU equivalent at the same price. are there other options?
January 7, 201412 yr Author Wow...you scared me Steven! Anyway, I received the unit yesterday. It fired right up...although a bit noisy but that is not a concern for me. Since it has a static IP by default (192.168.0.192), I had to hook my laptop up to it directly to change the IP to fir my network. Edit: You can change the IP via a local connection (monitor/KB). Default user/pass are admin/raritan. I have used both the web client (java) and the thick client and both seem stable even if 5 years old. I updated the Fw to the latest. I'm not sure if it already had it but it did not tell me otherwise. I did order (and have received) 2 sets of server side PS2 adapters (http://www.ebay.com/itm/400620553108?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649) but I have yet to test actual functionality. I need to move the box into, or at least close to, my rack as it is sitting on my basement floor right now. My Arch/KVM test server sitting next to it has only USB connections. I guess at the very least I could see if I get video. I'll try that later when I get home. As I said, I still have to put it through its paces but everything looks very promising. While I LOVE my IPMI, it just isn't an option for each server I have: Dell Poweredge 1750 (pfsense) Dell Poweredge 1950 (WIN2K8 for vCenter Server. This one has DRAC) - hopefully I can retire this box if I ever move to Xen/KVM SuperMicro X8DTH-iF (ESXi 5.5...right now anyway. This one has IPMI) Lenovo ThinkStation D20 (Testbed...eventually unRAID running natively on Arch/Cent/Opensuse/whatever) I really hope this does the trick. I'll report back soon. @NAS...I just did a search on Ebay for KVM over IP. there are lots of different options and I started to do my research after that. Raritan seems to have the best name. John
January 7, 201412 yr Author @NAS... Do any of these fit the bill: http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/Computers-Tablets-Networking-/58058/i.html?_from=R40&_nkw=kx116 John
January 7, 201412 yr looks like all of them would be shipped form the USA. Not the end of the world but shiiping + TAX + replacement PSU makes what was cheap no longer as cheap.
January 7, 201412 yr My IP KVM is this one :- http://www.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Product_Id=439622 £80 from ebay with 16 CIM's
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