New Toy | The Coffeehouse

rjdohnert
You will never know success until you know failure

I just got a new toy the other day that I just set up. A 5 PC KVM switch. No more 5 keyboards or mice and monitors my desk looks so clean. I can now swap between my PC/OS box, my build servers and my Windows/OpenSolaris/My Hackintosh. It works like a charm.

2009: The year of productivity

EDIT: A little fun, I just SSHed into the PC/OS CoreServer from my PC/OS mainbox that I sshed from my OpenSolaris Box, all using KVM.

CannotResolveSymbol
{insert caption here}

KVMs are highly overrated. SSH and Remote Desktop FTW!

My work setup up until a couple weeks ago when I changed desks was comprised of a Windows desktop, a Macbook Pro, and a Linux desktop. Accessed the Windows and Linux machines primarily through Remote Desktop and SSH respectively, and the Windows machine was completely headless (well, it did have a keyboard, but it wouldn't boot without one). Not using the Windows machine anymore, though.

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

I'm still annoyed by how expensive those things are. At least over here. I've been meaning to get some, but now I'm thinking I'll just make a bunch of VHD's and boot from them on the same machine. I never really need to use stuff simultaneously anyway.

Dr Herbie
Horses for courses

The remote access thing got stale for me very quickly (having to remote from home to work to run a virtual machine to connect to a client VPN so I could remote to their server to run update scripts out of hours).
Still, better than having to stay at work until 10pm!

Herbie

cheong

In reply to CannotResolveSymbol

#Jan 20th @ 10:06 PM

Not quite agreed. Having worked as technical support in my previous company, that have a few servers placed in data center, having network enabled KVM proves to be handy during troubleshooting. (Remote desktop / SSH session won't available before bootup completed)

Say you want to reboot into safe mode, with KVM you just switch to that and press F8 during boot, no need to edit boot.ini.

And the nice thing about KVM is that you won't waste the (in)expensive display card on your machines. I've been almost tempted considering to have KVM at home, only if the "sensible" KVM is not that expensive... (My previous company once bought a cheap KVM that you cannot switch between the computers with keyboard shortcut while the current connected computer is booting... that's lame)

Kolin1

In reply to CannotResolveSymbol

#Jan 20th @ 10:06 PM

Give synergy a try

http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/

"Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It's intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).

Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems. Furthermore, it synchronizes screen savers so they all start and stop together and, if screen locking is enabled, only one screen requires a password to unlock them all."

ZippyV
Fired Up

In reply to Bas

#Jan 21st @ 12:35 AM

If you are talking about the new Win7 "boot from vhd" feature I've got bad news for you. The only OS that supports being booted from a vhd is Win7 or Win Server 2008 R2.

Simo
With me it's a full-time job.

Did you get a Belkin and have you posted a 5* review of it on Amazon yet...

Bas
It finds lightbulbs.

In reply to ZippyV

#Jan 21st @ 4:39 AM

Really? That sucks. So much for one great Win7 feature. No wonder nobody was talking about it.

Minh
WOOH! WOOH!

I found this out about KMV a while back and it shocked me... Each KMV has a upper limit bandwidth... Ie, you couldn't do all video resolutions... When I found one that can do 85 Hz I held onto it... even when it has PS/2 plugs...

These days... I just plug in USB-PS/2 converters... Although I'm finding out that those things aren't perfect either... dropping keypresses... Can't handle simutaneous keys... which is vital for Flash games... and such as...

PerfectPhase
"This is not war, this is pest control!" - Dalek to Cyberman

In reply to cheong

#Jan 21st @ 12:53 AM

Our IP KVM's and IP Power switches have proved most handy over the years!

Ion Todirel
buuu

In reply to CannotResolveSymbol

#Jan 20th @ 10:06 PM

yep, same here

Ion Todirel
buuu

In reply to Ion Todirel

#Jan 22nd @ 1:29 AM

however, I saw a KVM over IP device today, and I must admit it was pretty impressive, you get the full boot screen, access to BIOS and everything, remotely, that was nice