On Wed, Mar 05, 2014 at 11:04:59AM +1300, Nicholas Lee wrote: > Is there a reason why the SOL console is prefer on the standard console?
There are several. 1. Cut and paste. 2. Scrollback. 3. Built-in remote access. 4. Reliable use of kmdb and bootloaders (witness the not-uncommon recent thread in which someone was unable to use the keyboard). 5. No need for a browser, Java, etc. so you can access the system from any device that has an ssh connection to the BMC or concentrator. 6. Standardised behaviour across a wide range of manufacturers and models. > I'm not had problems with supermicro's web based KVM in the past with other > hypervisors. I haven't tried their SOL web console, so I'm not sure work > well that would work. KVMs, BMC-based or otherwise, address (3) and sometimes but not always (4) above. All the other reasons still apply. I've found exactly one situation in which a KVM is actually needed, and it doesn't apply to your use case nor the OP's: certain shitty Dell systems have a PERC firmware setup mode that won't redirect. So if you have one of those, and if you need to perform hardware RAID configuration remotely, and you can't use MegaCli to do it, then you need a KVM. Otherwise, you don't. I can assure you that there are many problems I've debugged over serial consoles that I could never hope to have solved if all I had were VGA and a keyboard (even a working one). Since the only reasons to use the console are initial setup and debugging or service restoration, it's somewhat easy to overlook these advantages during normal use. But when you need console access, a serial console (SoL or via a concentrator) is simply better in every possible way, and it's not even close. Most "real computers" don't even have VGA and never did; that it exists on today's servers is a throwback to the days of Windows. You don't need it, and you don't want it. ------------------------------------------- smartos-discuss Archives: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/184463/=now RSS Feed: https://www.listbox.com/member/archive/rss/184463/25769125-55cfbc00 Modify Your Subscription: https://www.listbox.com/member/?member_id=25769125&id_secret=25769125-7688e9fb Powered by Listbox: http://www.listbox.com
