(Only) KVM over IP to the Rescue!

The Problem: Server down, Blue Screen of Death, Server Crash, Frozen OS, Hanging Application, No Access, Business Downtime...

Way out: IP KVM, Remote KVM Access, BIOS Level Access, Hard Reboot, Reboot Process Monitoring, Server Up Again, Business Continuity, No Lost Transactions!

And to the point – there are two server down-time scenarios that every IT admin has nightmares about, and that ONLY a reliable KVM over IP solution in place, ready to go, can solve in real time: 

• OS Crash 
• Network Downtime

In the first case, a hanging OS means this server is not operational! Any app or software that relies on the operating system as a platform to run is just not available. Only a remote KVM connection (KVM over IP) gives you a graphical view of the entire reboot process (including the BIOS stage) and allows you to interfere along the way. While other solutions, such as a combination of software and hardware (IPMI), could provide similar functionality, it is missing one important feature - the graphical view.

In the second scenario, the server is not to be blamed but rather the network connection is down (for any number of reasons). In this situation, you need a back door emergency entrance to that server to make sure all is ok until the network guys will get the situation resolved. Again only a KVM over IP device, through its own network connection, will get you right away to that cut off server.

A lot of the time we confuse between software based remote access and hardware based remote KVM access. It’s true that there are many different remote access tools out there these days, almost every infrastructure vendor offers his own tool, and all are excellent software apps that deliver on their promise day after day.. Except for that one, unavoidable, time where something goes wrong in the server environment and the OS is not responding or cannot be reached.

But server environments don’t necessarily have to be mega data centers or colo facilities. Any small to medium business that does not want to experience down time view itself as a mission critical setup, where the seconds of down time tick away and only some sort of powerful KVM over IP technology in place can stop those seconds from turning into long minutes or hours of night mare.

So, it’s important once in a while to get back to the basics and remind ourselves that KVM over IP is one tool you never want to be missing in the IT manager’s toolbox.

The most popular IP KVM switch?

This micro blog post is about us, Minicom, and we’d like to share some exciting news.

As a KVM over IP vendor, and like any other vendor, our goal and aspiration is one – to satisfy our customers, i.e. the IT admins of the world. So you can imagine how pleasantly surprised (putting it mildly) we were to find out that a leading on-line tech magazine in Germany ranked one of our products as runner up in a list of the 10 most popular IP KVM products, nationwide.

What can be more rewarding than the market saying its word! First place went to Raritan’s one port device, the KX 101 and second place went to Minicom’s 32 port IP KVM switch, the Smart 232 IP.

A closer look shows that our product is the top IP KVM switch on this prestigious list (!), making it the favorite multi-user KVM over IP switch among German IT pros.

The full list (in German) can be found at TechChannel.

More information about the Smart 232IP KVM Switch, can be found HERE

KVM over IP Switch or HP iLO? That’s the question – Or is it??

Posted by:
Tobias Silber

8 Points To Consider When Evaluating the Best Remote
Out-Of-Band Access Solution For Your Data Center.

Lately we have been getting a lot of questions from IT managers that are consolidating their data centers on the issue of an IP KVM switch versus a service processor. While IP KVM switches and embedded service processors, such as iLO from HP, often are looked upon as competitive, the reality is however much more complex. So let’s shed some light on what needs to be taken into consideration before deciding which (or both?) solution is right for your data center.

• Local KVM Access: In the data center, certain situations can arise where you would need to have direct server access independent of potential network disruptions. - In other words, to have local access at the rack level. While iLO can be a good option for remote administration it does not provide local access at the rack. Only an IP KVM switch provides you with this important feature, allowing you to physically connect to multiple servers from one console, at the rack.

• Centralized Server Management: By definition iLO is a one port solution, providing remote access to a single server. An IP KVM switch on the other hand can be connected to a bank of 10s or 100s of servers, providing for a tighter control and more efficient work flow.

• Cost: In order to benefit from the iLO vKVM features, there is a licenses fee. While the license itself can be bought from $130, the true cost of using iLO can easily total over $400 per server when you include all the hidden costs. Compare this to the price per port of an IP KVM switch at $140-170 (including dongles/cable) – and you have easily saved a few thousand dollar per rack!

• Ethernet Ports & Cabling: iLO requires the use of additional cabling and an additional Ethernet port at each server in order to be connected to the network. These requirements are translated into more routers and switch ports, which mean more money spent (part of the hidden cost).  This is in contrast to a KVM over IP switch that consolidates a large number of servers into one ethernet (or two, for redundancy) port.

• IP addresses: Each server equipped with an iLO requires two unique IP addresses!one for the server and one for the iLO. This can dramatically increase the number of IP addresses the organization has to purchase (another hidden cost), and not all data center can meet this challenge. An IP KVM Switch on the other hand, centralized the remote management of up to 32 servers via a single IP address.

• Performance: The KVM over IP video performance is superior to the iLO performance with a better video refresh rate at reduced bandwidth.  To benefit from the best mouse synchronization you need the best video resolutioin support. iLO supports up to 1280x1024 video resolution whereas an IP KVM Switch goes up to HD resolutions. Users of iLO are also limited in their choice of browsers, as it only support IE for Windows and Firefox for Linux in comparison to IP KVM users that can use a whole range of remote clients.

• Ease of Operation: To install the IP KVM Switch you will only need to connect it to the servers, power up and assign to it an IP address. The time spent on configuring a single IP KVM switch in order to access 32 servers remotely is much less than the time you will need to setup 32 individual iLO servers. Think about the time difference when the need for a firmware upgrade arises!

• Security: Another big aspect of keeping IP addresses to a minimum is data security. The less public IP addresses out there, the easier it is for IT to keep the lid tightly closed and avoid the horror of security breaches, just because there are so many IP addresses to look after.

...And just to summarize: IP KVM switches provide centralized remote access to servers, regardless of brand, generation or OS running, whereas iLO is only relevant for HP servers. This however does not necessarily make them competing technologies for out-of-band access, but rather the contrary - HP iLO is a good complementary solution to the KVM over IP Switch in the data center.

Click Here to See iLO and IP KVM Managed Side-by-Side

Make IT smile!

So, you want to access your data centers remotely, butyou have a ton of servers from different brandsand they all have different control panels & passwords?


.....Now that you have many servers, you're IT managers are going "bananas" trying to keep everything under control!

Well, what can you do?Say hello to AccessIT®!!!

Why wait? schedule a live demo now >>

Why Remote Access Management? Security and Efficiency

The benefits of remote server access

Post by Eran Kessel (VP Marketing & Products) - Years ago, the idea of operating and maintaining data centers remotely, or with “lights out” in the server room, seemed radical. Now it’s standard procedure. Why? Because of three compelling advantages:

1. Increased data security—with remote access, the data center can be secured from unwanted visitors.

2. Improved operational efficiency—with remote access, your IT staff can fix problems from their computer screen—they don’t have to be onsite. Remote access means doing more with less.

3. Better cooling/power efficiency—one of the major causes of cooling inefficiency is service staff who open doors and wander around. With remote access, server rooms are sealed tight.

Remote Access Management™: maximizing the benefits, minimizing the risks
Despite the above, many companies are not maximizing their benefits. Worse, they may have actually created new security risks. This comes from the fact that remote server access tools have been adopted gradually, one at a time, often supplied by the manufacturers of the data center’s existing equipment. To maximize the benefits of remote server access, while minimizing the risks, companies need a strategy and a dedicated software solution for Remote Access Management.

What are the new security risks?
A critical security risk lies in access management: the vast majority of organizations store their passwords, user names, IP addresses, server names and more in a single spreadsheet or homegrown database. This provides IT personnel with almost unrestricted access to security-critical data, even data that has no relevance to their tasks. Windows admins can see how to access Unix machines, network admins can see how to access servers etc. There is no benefit to this, and considerable security risk. All an employee, intern or consultant needs to do is download the spreadsheet to a flash drive, and they can carry a corporation’s secrets out of the building.

The solution: task-appropriate access
To improve corporate security, a Remote Access Management solution should limit servers and IT tools to task-appropriate access, e.g. Windows admins should be able to access Windows servers only. An admin that only require RDP access should not have access to power and KVM.

Measuring operational efficiency: resolving critical issues faster
When a server goes down, resolution speed is what matters. With a spreadsheet or custom database, speed is a problem: first, the IT admin is notified of the issue. Then they have to open the spreadsheet, locate the name of the server, and copy and paste its IP address and password and username info. Dozens of mouse clicks and many minutes can pass before a device can be found. If, for example, an attempted RDP solution fails, the operator may try a KVM fix, and the copy and paste process begins again.

Over a typical shift, the wasted minutes can add up to wasted hours of valuable work time.

The solution: a minimum 6x faster server access and resolution
Minicom compared the mouse-clicks required to access a server with RDP and a spreadsheet, vs RDP and our AccessIT dashboard.
The spreadsheet took 37 clicks simply to access a server. AccessIT software cut the number of clicks to six. And that was a best-case situation. For each service attempt—KVM, iLO, PDU—the number of clicks, and the server downtime—jumps drastically.

A proven solution: AccessIT® from Minicom
AccessIT from Minicom was designed from the ground up to meet IT managers’ mission-critical requirements for secure web-based, centralized remote access management.

AccessIT provides fast, secure, trouble-free access to every aspect of a data center’s infrastructure, and streamlines access to remote access tools such as RDP and KVM. It supports all major manufacturers of KVM switches, PDUs and console servers, and supports the industry’s leading in-band and out-of-band remote access services, including RDP, VNC, VMWare, SSH, Telnet, HP iLO, KVM IP, and any proprietary web-based or customized applications.

For complete details, and to read how major customers have deployed Minicom solutions,

visit www.minicom.com

Schedule a live demonstartion now >>

Minicom's KVM IP Solutions Showcased by Rackwise at Datacenter Dynamics Sydney, Australia

Rackwise, the internationally recognized leader in Data Center Management and Intelligence solutions, featured Minicom's KVM solutions at Datacenter Dynamics Sydney, Australia, on June 16th.

Rackwise demonstrated RACKWISE DCM's ability to seamlessly point, click, and remotely connect to servers and other device management consoles. As part of their demonstration, Rackwise used one of Minicom's multi-user IP KVM switches, which gives IT managers remote, out-of-band access to their servers from anywhere in the world using a web interface. All equipment used for the demonstrations was located in Rackwise's Product Demonstration Center, located in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Try Minicom’s KVM IP solution

Upcoming Webinar: Remote Management of Network Closets for Hospitals

Free Webinar Invitation

Subject: Remote Management of Network Closets for Hospitals

Presented by: Wright Line and Minicom

Date: Friday, August 21, 2009 1:00 PM - 2:00 PM EDT

Overview: Most hospitals have a number of network closets in locations all over the facility. These closets will contain one or two servers as well as a serial or network device. Today hospital staff has no way of managing PCs/servers remotely other than using software products like VNC or Remote Desktop. Using a traditional IP KVM is cost prohibitive because they are manufactured and priced to manage 8 or 16 servers.

Today, if an admin needs BIOS access to a server, they have to walk or travel to the closet where it resides. This is inefficient and time consuming.

This webinar will introduce cost effective solutions for not only limiting the travel to the actual servers and PCs, but for simplifying and making all remote management more efficient.