argonblue
08-13-2002, 03:12 AM
I just found this forum tonight and this is my first post... this may be turn out to be my favorite even over GFY’s forum (if you don’t know, please don’t ask).
Anyways... I run a decent-sized web hosting company and I’m negotiating a deal on some cheap rack space and bandwidth with which, I will expand to co-location services.
Something that I would like to offer, is remote access to machines (presumably via some type of IP KVM device) and I was wondering if anyone had any suggestions or thoughts on providing people with remote access to their [insert platform here] machines?
rpg-works
08-13-2002, 03:18 AM
You might want to consider dropping this into your client's machines:
http://www.realweasel.com/
It redirects the video card to a serial port. With the right hardware, they can watch their PC boot up (pre OS load) through telnet! Quite useful to have...
They do, unfortunately, sell for $250 though.
Skeptical
08-13-2002, 04:14 AM
I've heard of realweasel before. My question is, do you have to install this thing in every single server?
complx.net
08-13-2002, 09:10 AM
Concidered just using VNC?
Not as great, but it's free.
FHDave
08-13-2002, 10:01 AM
VNC needs the OS to be loaded first. How if you have problem, say, you need to fsck your hard drive? How if the server won't even load the OS? How do you trouble shoot the problem? VNC won't be of much use here. In fact, for a *nix environment, SSH is just as useful as VNC.
rpg-works
08-13-2002, 11:46 AM
With RealWeasel, unfortunately, you have to install one in each and every server that you wish to remote control.
FHDave
08-13-2002, 11:50 AM
I don't think that's really bad, at $250/server (unless if you don't have the extra PCI slot). Remote KVM over IP runs at around $3000-$4000 and i believe that's for 8 servers only.
ethos
08-13-2002, 01:46 PM
IBM's Remote Supervisor Adapter can handle 12 servers. I haven't used it though.
ClusterMania
08-14-2002, 08:55 PM
http://webhostingtalk.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=53121&highlight=remote+kvm
Skeptical
08-14-2002, 09:57 PM
But putting in an additional card on each and every 1u unit? Don't even have enough room to do that...
cbtrussell
08-14-2002, 11:08 PM
We offer VNC for Windows servers, or PC Anywhere.
For *nix boxes, remote console is the way to go. It's functionally identical to being local and plugging in a laptop with a normal nullmodem cable. We offer this to our clients for a nominal monthly fee, and always reserve one port on the remote console box for emergency use by any of our clients at a given time.
Brandon
