Advice on KVM PS2/USB mixture?

[Gordan Bobic]

I'd highly recommend DRACs, but 2450s only support DRAC2s, which cannot
be managed from Linux. They seem to talk something very proprietary over
IP (they don't seem to support TCP, UDP or ICMP at all!). They also
don't have setup tools that work with v2.6 kernels (v2.4 only), and
since they have no BIOS setup built in, you'd need to install something
like RH9 and old OMSA tools to configure them in the first place. :-(

But for the rest of the machine you listed, I think DRACs are the way
forward.

Gordan

Zembower, Kevin wrote:
> I now have a rack of PowerEdge 2450s (2), 2850 (1) and 2950s (2). They
> have a mixture of PS/2 and USB keyboard and mouse ports. Up to this
> time, I haven't done anything fancy with serial terminals or DRAC ports.
> I've just managed them with a PS/2 Keyboard-Video-Mouse (KVM) switch,
> and manually plugging in the USB-only hosts. This has been acceptable
> because often months go by before I need to use the console on these
> hosts.
> 
> However, this is becoming unwieldy. I'd like to ask this group's advice
> on how to manage my systems with respect to the local consoles. Does
> anyone make a KVM that combines PS/2 and USB? I've found some by
> searching, but they often seem like pure PS/2 or USB KVMs, with adapters
> for the other interface. My only experience with these adapters was that
> they required a Windows-only driver that I didn't want to use on my
> Linux systems. Are these adapters easy to get working on Linux systems?
> 
> Should I bite the bullet and convert to serial terminals or DRAC ports?
> I would have to purchase DRAC ports for my older servers. Is this cost
> efficient compared to KVM?
> 
> Thank you in advance for any advice or suggestions you have for me.
> 
> -Kevin
> 
> Kevin Zembower
> Internet Services Group manager
> Center for Communication Programs
> Bloomberg School of Public Health
> Johns Hopkins University
> 111 Market Place, Suite 310
> Baltimore, Maryland  21202
> 410-659-6139 
> 
> 
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