--On Monday, May 13, 2013 09:24:13 PM +0200 Tony Berth <tonybe...@googlemail.com> wrote:
> I would like to know what kind of environment you use for remote > management of one or more openbsd servers. Which KVM over IP solution > would you recomend. For OpenBSD I usually try to have hardware with a decent serial console or integrated OOB mechanisms like the Sun ALOMs. (Those that use a *different* ethernet jack than that used by the OS.) If I am forced into a situation that mandates a KVM type of setup, then one solution that has worked well for me is the AdderLink iPEPS <http://www.adder.com/products/adderlink-ipeps> or iPEPS-DA <http://www.adder.com/products/adderlink-ipeps-da>. One nice thing about the AdderLink products is that they use the commercial RealVNC (encrypted) for remote management so that you're not faced with having to do something annoying like starting MS-Windows in a VM just to be able to run the tools to access your remote servers. (Yes, I'm looking at you, VMWare.) (And you other remote management solutions that need windows-specific clients.) The AdderLink can be a bit expensive for small businesses and hobbiests in their recommended one-per-server configuration (approx USD 500), however if you don't have to have different access levels for different servers' consoles, and can put up with accessing the console of only one server at a time, then you can amortize this cost by putting a decent non-networked (but electronic) KVM switch between the AdderLink and multiple servers. That price also seems comparable to similar types of technology. And for the record, the DLink DKVM-8E does *not* constitue a decent KVM switch; it's crap. It looks like AdderLink have DVI/HDMI versions of the iPEPS available, too, although I've not used them. Besides using encrypted network traffic and supporting a small number of login accounts, the AdderLink offers rudimentary source-IP-based access control. It's still a good idea to use a segrated admin subnet if you can, just on general principles. Devin
