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I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

jeffgeerling.com

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Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#61

Post by geerlingguy »

noncoml wrote: post #56
atomicnumber3 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's one of those things where $400 is WAY too much for a homelabber, but most companies (even small ones) can barely count that low when speccing out hardware, ESPECIALLY these days. $400 is like one hard drive in a machine that will potentially have 8-24 of them. ......Unsettlingly that's also like 16GB of dram in a machine that might be measuring memory in TBs

don't these boxes already have a BMC? KVM is kind of poor man's BMC.

There are tons of devices used that have no built-in BMC (like the Thinkpads in the original comment in this thread), yet still need reliable remote control in certain cases (e.g. a remote lab, or multiple-unit headless testing).

It would be a bit odd if a place was deploying new Dell servers and slapping IP KVMs on top of them.

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#62

Post by nmilo »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #14

+1000 points for the PiKVM V4 Plus. We (Revise Robotics - a YC company!) refurbish laptops with robots and AI - as part of this, we (or rather, the AI) send(s) keyboard commands in software to the computers we're refurbishing. How/why? The AI needs to navigate the BIOS among other tasks - so we need a KVM to send arrow down and enter, roughly speaking. We were a GL.iNet KVM shop until we ran into a nasty issue with a…

Surprised no one's built a BIOS MCP yet

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#63

Post by gregsadetsky »

nmilo wrote: post #62
gregsadetsky wrote: post #14

+1000 points for the PiKVM V4 Plus. We (Revise Robotics - a YC company!) refurbish laptops with robots and AI - as part of this, we (or rather, the AI) send(s) keyboard commands in software to the computers we're refurbishing. How/why? The AI needs to navigate the BIOS among other tasks - so we need a KVM to send arrow down and enter, roughly speaking. We were a GL.iNet KVM shop until we ran into a nasty issue with a…

Surprised no one's built a BIOS MCP yet

Extremely please build one! I'm serious. :-)

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#64

Post by xnyan »

mstaoru wrote: post #58

Surprised nobody mentioned Intel vPro AMT so far. It is basically an always-on KVM that's part of CPU firmware, powered by an always-on 5V PSU rail. There is a scary amount of options, including unattended periodic (or alarm based) phone home, user acceptance or full user override, boot media spoofing, Serial over WiFi... All built-in into consumer(-ish) CPUs.

> All built-in into consumer(-ish) CPUs.

Dude, I wish. I run a large homelab filled with consumer and small business grade intel hardware, and would love to have vpro on all my mid-high end consumer intel platforms. I have the experience and network environment to lock it all down securely, and it's very reliable high performance low level access from before boot.

It's true that some number of relatively expensive consumer-grade CPUs support vPro, but the catch is it also requires the motherboard's chipset to support it, and it has to be both implemented and enabled in the BIOS.

You rarely if ever see consumer hardware with a chipset that supports it. On all the systems I have that fully support vpro from soup to nuts, you have to intentionally turn it on because it's quite dangerous in the wrong circumstances.

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#65

Post by noncoml »

geerlingguy wrote: post #61
noncoml wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

don't these boxes already have a BMC? KVM is kind of poor man's BMC.

There are tons of devices used that have no built-in BMC (like the Thinkpads in the original comment in this thread), yet still need reliable remote control in certain cases (e.g. a remote lab, or multiple-unit headless testing). It would be a bit odd if a place was deploying new Dell servers and slapping IP KVMs on top of them.

OK, I just don't see the intersection of people/companies that are using thinkpads in their server room and those willing to pay $400 for a KVM being too large

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#66

Post by JdeBP »

gregsadetsky wrote: post #57
JdeBP wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not from GL. I write my own USB HID handlers and I'm being nosy about bad protocol that exists in the wild. Was the 0 byte in some input report? In a descriptor? Somewhere else?

TLDR - GLKVM's kernel emits a trailing 0-byte DATA packet (ZLP) (which PiKVM does not) Supposedly, this is due to the `req->zero = ((count % maxpacket) == 0)` line in the kernel's f_hid.c - which, for 8-byte HID keyboard reports, makes it append a trailer packet. Strict BIOS HID stacks treat this 0-byte packet as malformed and beep.

Interesting. My first thought is wondering whether the keyboard HID is adding report IDs to its input reports, because it isn't in boot mode or something. That would have that effect.

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#67

Post by m463 »

Neither the review or these comments talk about the USB drive feature. (did I miss it?)

Some(?) of the KVMs not only simulate a USB keyboard and mouse, but also a USB storage device.

This means you can remotely provide a boot image and the KVM will make a USB drive appear that the remote system can boot (and install from).

Re: I tested every IP KVM in my Homelab

#68

Post by brewdad »

geerlingguy wrote: post #40
bobson381 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Could you get a kvm connected to a networked PDU with per-outlet control? Then a power cycle on the plug for the mac would accomplish the same thing. Or just use the network port on the PDU directly w/o kvm.

The annoying thing with Macs is they don't have the ability to 'Power on after clean shutdown and power cycle'. They can power on after a power fail, but that's not the same thing. I want to be able to have power toggle on my Mac remotely, but without soldering in a jumper on the power button, AFAIK there's no way to do it :(

They mentioned Gil’s Fingerbot. It’s literally a remote controlled “finger” that can be commanded to press your power button. Obviously, if your MacBook goes with you everyday rather than living on a rack, this isn’t a practical solution.
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