Laptops, Headless Servers and KVMs? 397
Administration of headless machines can be a pain, and working on multiple machines can also be a bit of a bother. KVM boxes solve some of the problem, but sometimes finding a keyboard and a monitor to lug around to these machines is most of the problem. Is there a portable solution that might solve both of these problems? Wouldn't it be nice to carry around a specialized laptop that could act as both a portable display and input device? Does something like this currently exist?
KJH1138 asks: "I am looking for a hardware/software combination that would allow me to use my laptop as the KVM for a headless server before, during, and after OS configuration. What I have in mind would be a server KVM/USB to laptop serial/USB connection, with software on the laptop to provide KVM control of the headless device, with or without an OS. A PC Anywhere or Linux equivalent wouldn't work since they would require the headless system to already have an installed OS. I would prefer a Linux-based solution on the laptop, but would settle for a Windows option. I simply don't want the clutter of a keyboard and monitor."
PGillingwater has a similar desire: "Like many regular readers, sometimes I need to visit a customer site to diagnose equipment, like firewalls or routers. More systems these days use VGA output and keyboard input, which means having to scrounge a display and keyboard, then looking for a spare power socket in the machine room, which is not always easy! I am wondering if anyone has seen a laptop which also allows VGA input and keyboard output. This would be a cool idea. Use it as a normal laptop most of the time, then hijack the video and keyboard to connect to other systems when you need it."
What we do... (Score:4, Interesting)
If we can't ssh to computers or telnet to equipment (switches, etc) we have an OpenBSD laptop which we can use as a console via a serial cable and kermit. That's assuming a unixish system, though. If you're only running Windows on servers then why not install TightVNC and control it from your desktop? Assuming the machine is still on the LAN, of course. If it's not you'll probably just reboot it anyhow.
VNC? (Score:2, Interesting)
Works great.
VGA to TV converter with ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Then get one of those flex keyboards that roll up. http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?
Re:Pardon my ignorince but ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Place the machine in the rack
Write down the mac of the management NIC
Kick the machine on with WOL
Configure the bios and scsi via web
The machine installs via PXE boot (you got that on your site don't you?)
Configure it
Test it
Configure it
Test it
(repeat as long as needed)
Then take it out of your test rack and place in the "Live" rack (what you don't have a test site?!?)
Re:Pardon my ignorince but ... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just an additional comment.
Assume you have more than one nice server, at least two machines with ethernet connections, and all with bioses that understand the serial port (and yes, you can find x86 bioses that will do this):
Consider daisy-chaining the machines together by serial port:
Now, when a server has problems, its always possible to connect through ethernet to the server 'one hop down' from it, then connect through the serial port to the machine in question. If the machine 'one hop down' doesn't have ethernet, try the next machine 'one hop down'. Hopefully, you have at least 2 machines with ethernet connections, or else you run the risk that the faulty machine may be the machine with the ethernet card.
Needless to say, this works best with a unix-style OS.
Synergy ? (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe not exactly what you're looking for but this excellent peace of GPL software lets you use only one mouse+keyboard pair to interact with multiple computer+screen pairs, may they be running Mac OS, Windows and Linux/Unix.
RTFA (Score:1, Interesting)
He needs kb/vid *before* the OS loads as well as after, and for things like routers and sniffers running proprietary OSes but with kb/vga ports. VNC, PCI cards, telnet, and almost every other suggest does not solve the problem as posted.
I'd take a piece of crap used $100 laptop, gut it, and cut some blanks to mount a standard vga port and keyboard port on the outside of the case, and hook them to the kbd and display in the case.
Heck, if you are good enuf, you might could even do it without gutting the case and still have a working laptop.
inputs from kb/mouse, needed: video input. (Score:2, Interesting)
Maybe someone could make a pcmcia card that had a dongle with a place to connect another computer's video output. (or USB connected device that did it.)
Then you run something that from 1,000 feet looks like a VMware session that has no running OS, but just does Input/Output to the real pc on the other end of the cables.
Something tells me this is totally doable, with a way to convert the video in... yeah...
Can I skip to the "profit!" step please?
(Since you have a mouse input and kb input, hopefully anyway, you can take male-male cables and cross connect two pcs, the laptop and server)
OK wait, maybe what you need is a little box with Kb/Vid/Ms cables coming from it to the "Server" then a USB cable and some software?
Now CAN I PROFIT?!