Cheap rack monitors or KVM IP (feddit.de)

submitted 10 months ago by n0x0n@feddit.de to c/homelab@lemmy.ml

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Hi everyone! I have a couple of old desktops as servers in my rack. Sometimes , very rarely, I need to use the machines console.

Slide-out rack monitors are incredibly expensive here in Germany, so these are not an option. Next I thought about USB monitors - don these work out of the box with Linux or do the need special drivers? Or would I be better off using KVM over IP? Do you know of other not-so-expensive solutions?

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[-] tvcvt@lemmy.ml 5 points 10 months ago

The way I’ve ended up going is to just use a standard keyboard and monitor with a KVM over IP switch. In the US it’s not hard to find relatively inexpensive ones on the used market, but they do require a module for each computer, which can increase the costs. I’ve had good luck finding the Avocent MPU2016 switches. Worth a look on eBay anyway.

[-] n0x0n@feddit.de 1 points 10 months ago

You’re right, they are not as expensive as I remembered. I’ll try to find one on ebay. How do you access the console - browser with Java applet?

[-] tvcvt@lemmy.ml 2 points 10 months ago

That model’s got an html5 console available so I don’t have to mess with Java. The one thing I haven’t got it to do is remote power cycle. I make a point to set up wake on LAN for that.

this post was submitted on 05 Nov 2023

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