[ale] Remote access

[Michael H. Warfield]

On Fri, 2013-08-16 at 16:22 -0400, Ron Frazier (ALE) wrote: 
> Hi Chuck,
> 
> OH. You want remote KVM control when there's no OS running. Well,
> THAT's different. Sound's like you might need remote power control
> too. Actually, I could use something like that for my Dad's machine
> when he's not there to boot it and connect me to it so I can use
> crossloop.
> 
> I brought up this topic once before.  I think Michael Warfield?
> mentioned doing something like that with a raspberry pi.

We discussed it.  It's on my list of things to do with the RPi but it's
definitely under the heading of "Advanced Projects" and may end up
requiring one of the more advanced combo boards that are popping up.
That combo quad core RPi / Arduino Due (the Udoo) looks very promising
for the advanced stuff, like video capture.

Several of my other, simpler, projects are in the can.  I now have an
RPi on my Mead Weather Station monitoring that.  The serial console and
syslog server projects were pretty trivial.

> I don't think anything ever came of it.

It's still on the table.  Early this year, I decided, for some very
non-technical reasons, to put some of the advanced projects (any that
require electrical design, layout, and construction) on the backburner
until after the first of next year.  That includes the KVM idea (which
is probably the last thing I'm going to look at - but the Udoo looks
good for that for several reasons - including the USB emulation) but
also includes the Power Line Monitor project.  I've don't some diagrams
and preliminary work on that when I decided I would be better off, long
term, shelving it for a few months.

> There are some commercial products that do this.  I think the cheapest
> is $ 300 or so.  I've never had the budget to buy one for Dad.  I just
> drive to Jasper periodically, have lunch with the folks, and work on
> the pc.

I have one of the cheaper ones.  I wouldn't recommend it.

I also have one of the big (expensive) 32 port Avocent KVM units with an
associated PDU (Power Distribution Unit - 32 port 20A controlled power
strip) in one of my labs.  Yeah, those are 5 digits to the left of the
decimal point and I still think the Avocent remote IP connections are a
POS unless you've got LOTS of bandwidth you can throw at it.  I can
crash and reboot that entire KVM if I access one of the larger graphics
screens over a slow link.  I think their TCP stack is junk and is
crapping on itself when it gets too much congestion and transmit
backlog.

> You could try googling remote ip kvm.  I think that's what these are
> called.

That is correct.

> This assumes you could get a remote ip connection into the network
> that the destination machine is on, perhaps through a vpn.  Some of
> the units may have a way to initiate an outgoing connection.

That I have not seen.

> I'm not sure.  Such a device can present a severe security risk.

> If I see anything interesting in the category, I'll let you know. I've
> never personally used this type of equipment.
> 
> This may or may not be applicable. Maybe you can get a watchdog card
> to automatically reboot the machine if it's down for more than 5
> minutes, or whatever.
> 
> Do you have a budget for equipment?
> 
> Sincerely,
> 
> Ron

[Snip]

Regards,
Mike
-- 
Michael H. Warfield (AI4NB) | (770) 985-6132 |  mhw at WittsEnd.com
   /\/\|=mhw=|\/\/          | (678) 463-0932 |  http://www.wittsend.com/mhw/
   NIC whois: MHW9          | An optimist believes we live in the best of all
 PGP Key: 0x674627FF        | possible worlds.  A pessimist is sure of it!
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