Digital KVM-IP
An alternative to integrated system management is the use of KVMs. Originally, KVMs were simple switches that let multiple systems be run from a single location. Today, digital KVM systems offering KVM over IP use standard Category 5 cabling in combination with a small adapter that converts KVM--and even USB I/O--to the common IP protocol. This eliminates the bulky cables of earlier systems and lets KVM-IP signals run over conventional networking hardware.
To see how KVM-IP would work from an OBM perspective, we examined Avocent's latest 16-port DSR2030 KVM-over-IP switch. The company's DSR series supports Web-based KVM-IP, intelligent power distribution and serial console management of target devices, as well as secure modem access to managed systems for true OBM applications. In its base capacity, the DSR2030 supports IP-based KVM switching of servers locally using a directly attached monitor, keyboard and mouse. Remote Ethernet users also can access the DSR2030 using its secure, internal Web interface or through Avocent's server-based DSView 3 app, which supports the management of any number of DSR switches.
What takes the DSR series beyond basic KVM-IP functionality and into the realm of OBM solutions is its flexibility to directly connect to servers using KVM/USB modules, serial devices over separately powered serial modules and intelligent switched PDUs (power distribution units). More important, all these devices can be accessed through the Web--if network connectivity is available--or, in the event of total network failure, through a modem and the DSView software.
Even Avocent would be the first to admit that experiencing KVM over a modem would be like watching grass grow, but a number of key functions don't require the use of a remote desktop. For those that do, the latency of the remote user experience is perhaps the main downside to full KVM-IP access. The amount of traffic generated by redirecting an entire desktop over an IP link can make remote management tedious at less than T1 speeds, but the DSView UI supports multiple bit-depths and levels of compression to reduce the amount data traffic needed for desktop redirection. This is an issue not only with KVM-IP systems, but also with integrated solutions like system-management processors, as well as with almost any product that offers bitmapped--rather than text-based--console redirection.
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