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September 14, 2010
USB 2.0 already allowed connecting additional Displays to Desktop PCs and Notebooks thanks to a technology provided by DisplayLink. The most recent devices offer screen resolutions beyond the 1600x1200 barrier and the next evolutionary steps are in front of us. On the upcoming Intel Developers Forum IDF DisplayLink and SMSC will show Video over USB 3.0. This does not only mean even more speed and even more pixels, DisplayLinks chip family DL 3000 and DL1000 integrate Graphics, Network, and Audio functions on one chip. This allows to transmit HD video and Gigabit Ethernet over one single USB 3.0 cable. One imaginable application should be USB docking stations connected to PCs/Notebooks with one single cable. Once the mobile handset vendors agree to this the mobile plus such a docking station will form almost a PC environment on the desktop.
What does all this mean for Desktop KVM? It gets simpler, cheaper, and hopefully more feature-rich and on our Desktops is a little bit more space for more gadgets.
Richard Dominach
September 14, 2010
There are many types of “disasters” that can occur in a data center. These can range from an all encompassing failure to the loss of certain critical IT services. These can happen at any time related to human error, system breakdowns or natural disasters. Time is of the essence when these disasters strike, with the need for quick troubleshooting, diagnosis and repair. Modern KVM-over-IP systems with centralized management and remote power control are key tools to help data center managers and IT administrators recover when disaster strikes.
Since disasters by their very nature are unpredictable, the probability is that they will occur out of working hours! Hence a reliable remote access method is critical to a quick response. KVM-over-IP switches and serial console switches can provide the anytime/anywhere, secure, remote access required for recovery personnel to respond immediately when disaster strikes. KVM-over-IP switches provide BIOS-level server access including support for remote virtual media. This expanded level of remote access may be required in a disaster when servers need to be rebooted, software re-installed, servers re-imaged or BIOS options changed.
It is possible in a disaster that a server or other equipment will completely shut down. In this case, remote power control can be the only way to re-start the equipment without going into the data center. Intelligent rack based power distribution units (PDU) can be connected to the KVM equipment or directly to the LAN in order to remotely restart or power-cycle servers and other devices.
Serial console switches provide access to equipment managed by serial ports. This includes networking equipment as well as headless servers running UNIX or LINUX. The serial console switch provides remote console level access to troubleshoot and re-configure equipment. In addition remote power control is an option.
In a disaster, the corporate network can be affected either partially or completely. Many serial console switches and KVM-over-IP switches have a modem option so that they can be used over a PSTN connection. While a PSTN modem may seem very old fashioned, it can be very useful in a disaster situation if the corporate network is not in full operation. Another alternative is to have a separate backup or management network that connects to the KVM-over-IP and serial console switches.
Since a disaster can be the result of human error, it is useful to which servers have been recently changed . Modern KVM and access systems produce a comprehensive log of server accesses, so that the recovery staff understands which equipment has been changed, when it was changed and even why it has been changed.
Disasters are unpredictable and the managers responding to the emergency must have the ability to quickly access virtually any equipment in the data center. Centralized access management systems like Raritan’s CommandCenter Secure Gateway (CC-SG) can be used to provide centralized remote access to thousands of servers (physical and virtual), networking equipment as well as the ability to do remote power control. The result is that recovery workers can quickly access virtually any server or serially controlled device using a single IP address.
And finally, for larger disasters, responders may need to go into the data center to fully recover. In this case the KVM-over-IP and serial console switches provide a local port capability such that managers can access equipment while in the data center. Through a technology called “tiering” or “cascading” the local ports of multiple switches can be consolidated such that from a single console hundreds of servers can be accessed.
September 13, 2010
With the release of the U.S. federal government’s HSPD-12 directive a few years ago, many CIO’s and IT managers found themselves with a key issue to address: how to authenticate both local and remote IT personnel as they access government servers and networks. HSPD-12 mandates secure, authenticated access to all federal information systems and buildings. While smart cards were already in use in several industries worldwide, their use really exploded when the U.S. Department of Defense responded to HSPD-12 by utilizing smart card technology as the basis for implementing its Common Access Card program (CAC). More recently, the DoD introduced a new type of smart card known as a Personal Identity Verification card (PIV), which must conform to the FIPS-201 standard.
Using a smart card to access a PC or server that’s within arm’s reach is easy. However, a major challenge is to support this directive in the data center or any application in which users must access multiple servers or PCs that are often located in a separate room, let alone several feet away. It’s inefficient to connect a smart card reader to each device and insert the card each time access is needed. In fact, it’s usually not possible to do so. In many cases, users need to access servers in inaccessible rooms – and with different security levels.
To meet this need, several smart card-enabled KVM solutions have been introduced by the industry’s primary vendors. Of course, no two are exactly alike, so what do you need to look for? It’s important to choose not only a solution that fulfills the basic requirement of supporting smart card authentication to multiple servers from a single location, but also one that makes the necessary feature adjustments that meet and exceed the highly secure operation requirements inherent of a smart card environment.
September 9, 2010
So, you’ve built a state-of-the-art lights-out data center with all the latest best-of-breed technologies. You have virtual machines, Windows servers, Linux/Unix servers, assorted service processors, blade systems, and a resilient network and security infrastructure. You also have a heterogeneous assortment of technologies, that each requires a different set of access and administration tools. How can you provide your systems admins a centralized system to access everything from a “single pane of glass” to simplify their daily job responsibilities?
Enter Command Center, a vendor-agnostic data center access and management system. Command Center was originally designed to manage KVM and serial switches, but the IT world has changed, and so has Raritan’s Command Center. Command Center offers a wealth of IP-centric tools that are perfect for providing network-based access and management capabilities for today’s modern data centers. Server access tools include RDP, VNC, and SSH for your Windows, Unix, and Linux systems. VMware Virtual Machines are dynamically supported by tight integration with Virtual Center and offer VI Client, RDP, VNC, and SSH access in addition to virtual server system information. Service processors can be integrated by using the native ILO/RILO, DRAC, IPMI, and RSA interface capabilities of Command Center. Network and security systems can be accessed via a web browser, SSH, and Telnet. And if you are using KVM and Serial switches, they can be centrally managed and accessed too!
September 8, 2010
So many people have lost sight of the fact that cooling within a data center is not really a philosophical activity, it’s about moving heat away from the sensitive electronics inside various types of equipment within a temperature range specified by the manufacturer. Unfortunately, the smallest unit or element within this world is typically a semiconductor of some type, most commonly a chip buried deep inside a circuit board, buried deep inside an enclosure, deep inside a rack, somewhere inside a row or pod, and ultimately within a room. The trick is, how can one cost-effectively move heat away from these components? How do we move heat away from JUST these components? It is absolutely true that the most cost effective cooling would be using some technology that directly removed heat just from the devices that needed it. There really is no need to cool everything, the circuit boards or the cabinets or the racks or even the rows, IF we had the ability to remove heat from heat-generating active devices at the chip level. But, that is VERY, VERY hard to do cost-effectively.
Various approaches have been attempted over the years, using combinations and exotic applications of air and liquid plumbing and channeling schemes, trying to minimize the amount of collateral cooling, but in the end, the vast majority of us simply focus on moving vast amounts of air through the aisles closest to each piece of equipment’s inlet air vent, which in turn gets sucked into active devices by more fans through these inlets. The simple goal is to move enough air which is lower in temperature across the whole surrounding environment so that the chips can comfortably bathe in. Tons of inefficiency (or should that be tonnes?), but years and years of tried and true best practices, experience, and products that do just that.
A couple of details about moving air are important here.
So, what can we all do? Try to keep the INLET temperature for all active devices at 76-degrees. Period. NOT higher or Lower. Treat this as a magic number. Any lower (than 76-degrees) and it is wasting energy. Anything above 76-degrees and the internal FANS kick into HI speed and waste a ton of energy. The core goal today would be to get the inlet temperatures for ALL devices to 76-degrees. (And use active real-time monitoring like the Raritan PX-series environmental monitors to assure this happens)
Lastly, you will be rewarded! As a rule of thumb, when changing data center temperatures over the ASHRAE TC9 specified range, every degree of cooling can be estimated at 4% in energy costs. Just turning UP the temperature by 1-degree could save 4% off your energy bill. BUT remember that magic 76-degree figure or you may bite off more than you can chew!