If you’re like me and work in an environment that has a
whole host of servers running various Windows OSes, then
I’m sure you use a variety of tools to provide remote
access to them.

To connect to our NT4 boxes, we have PC Anywhere
installed, and the Windows 2000 and 2003 machines are
using Terminal Service. But because of incompatibility
with TS and Oracle, we have SMS installed on some
devices!

This variety of solutions means we can get onto our
servers without leaving our desks, which, let’s be
honest, is great! However, it can be confusing knowing
what remote tool is configured on what server. The
other problem is that, no matter which utility you
use, they still have one big flaw - when Windows is not
running, you have no idea what is going on with your
server.

It was after numerous trips up to the server room to
reboot a crashed OS that I finally flipped and made it
my mission to solve this problem once and for all!

After looking around for an ideal solution, I
eventually came across the idea of installing an IP
KVM switch. The IP KVM basically replaces your
standard KVM switch and all its extended
keyboard/video/mouse cables with a single network
cable.

Once installed, it works just like a standard KVM.
However, from your desktop, you can remotely connect to
the switch and from here you can see all your servers
and then get a full screen showing exactly what
messages your servers are displaying. If you reboot
the machine, then you can watch the full reboot cycle,
right from the BIOS initializing to the OS starting up
- it really is just like standing right in front of the
box.

We have had our IP KVM installed now for maybe a month
and all of the IT team just doesn’t know how we lived
without it. The amount of time saved has been amazing
and well worth the outlay of the device. I don’t think
I’ve been to our cold server room since we installed
it, and anything that means I don’t need to leave my
desk makes me very happy!

[Andrew Smith]