VNC video card?

phil-news-nospam DeleteThis @ipal.net;533054 Wrote:
> Does anyone make a video card (PCI or PCIe) that has an ethernet
> connection
> which can be connected to the LAN and allows a VNC client to connect
> (to an
> IP address either configured on the card or acquired via DHCP based on
> the
> MAC address of that ethernet) and access the video, mouse, and keyboard
> (the
> latter two also handled by the card).
>
> No, I am not interested in one of those boxes that converts VGA to
> VNC.
>
> --
> |

They do make such a card, its been around about ten years, and you can
find them for about 10 bucks online.

HP - Hewlett Packard began a project years ago for an Oil company to
produce a PCI card that included external PS/2 Keyboard and Mouse
connectors that you could plug from the card into the actual ports on a
motherboard. It was called RILOE- Remote Insight "Lights Out" Ethernet
card.

Further these cards include a seperate Ethernet port and exernal power
supply to keep the card powered up even when the main server is switched
off.

Though designed as an "add-on" card for vanilla HP servers, it also had
an internal jumpstrap cable to hook up to the servers power switch.
Several websites have pseudo documented the pin-outs so you can hook
these up to your momentary switch contacts.. its not designed to control
110v but merely closes a relay to make and break the momentary contact.

The card serves up a mini-webserver interface on port 80 and redirects
to port 443 and uses a self signed RSA certificate for secure
authentication and I believe RC4 realtime encryption to protect the
video. A "Real" RSA certificate can be uploaded or you can upload your
own and use your own CA to verify the indentity of the server your
connecting to..

A Java 1.5 browser based applet for connecting to and processing the
Video is downloaded into the browser and your online.

The Generation 1 RILOE is found fairly cheap all over the internet
today, but its not a prized item because its processor is fairly low
power and you must use an older version of the Java JRE to use the
applet. HP no longer makes them, but they work ok.

The Generation 2 RILOE called RILOE II is a much greater prize and
generally runs about $150 if you can find them. It has a faster
processor and presents the keyboard and mouse as USB devices if I recall
correctly.. which of course means you need a OS that can deal with
detecting USB devices... it also means "no external keyboard and mouse
cables".

These cards are really cool.. but nearly "all" of HPs server line and
their blades include a built in iLO chip and an external ethernet port
that connects only to that chip. The Video feature is disabled until you
buy a an Advanced license for about 200 or so.. but its really worth it,
the user experience is like sitting at the real console and you connect
your cdrom floppy, or cdrom images and floppy images from your laptop
direct to the server for firmware upgrades, OS installs and ect.. also
lets you SSH into the iLO and then you "insert" and "eject" cdrom iso
images or floppy images stored on webservers. The cost is darned cheap
when you start pricing KVM over IP scenarios and considering cabling and
rack space.

Oh yeah.. with the "built-in" iLO chips, even when the server is
powered "off" the iLO is still powered up via trickle feed through the
servers existing power supplies. So you can still access the iLO.. its
called "lights out" for a reason, with these you never need to visit the
data center. You can remotely power up or down any server, and watch the
entire boot cycle through the remote browser Video console.

If you don't like browser based applets, there is a standalone Gnome
gtk+ based applet that will also connect to the video console.

And.. I sound like a commerical.. but.. And.. you can "Record" the
video and play it back later in a video player you can download from
HP.

Its a pretty startling technology.. plus there are SNMP management
features, hardware audit features.. and IPMI mangement features.

I used to work at HP so I may be partial.. but they pack a lot of
undocumented features in the iLO that will make them desirable for years
to come.
 >> Stay informed about: VNC video card? 

I also feel inadequate in not describing "all" the cool things about
iLOs.

Like you can "script" them with Perl and Vbscript from Linux, Windows
ect..

The iLO is like another computer in a computer that just so happens to
control the host.

They have an XML based "language" which is almost like SOAP that you
can use to send them commands and get replys. I used to use command line
PHP scripts to open an https connection and send requests and get
replys.

It's well documented and quite mature at this point.

They are preconfigured with dhcp enabled to set themselves up if dhcp
is available on your network, and roll to a preassumed static IP after
several dhcp attempts if thats not successful.

The dhcp request is sent with an indentifier that clearly states it is
an ILO and and has its identity tag which is pasted to the outside of
the server and on a hang tag, and on the bill of sale.

Of course you can set them up with a new static IP scenario and turn
dhcp completely off.

They maintain their own log of events on the server and can send SNMP
traps on events themselves.. or you can load an OS driver that lets your
SNMP agents send messages through the iLO on behalf of the OS.

.. well that's all i can think of off the top of my head.. but when i
think of buying servers, towers or rack mount, i think of the ML and DL
servers at HP because they are so flexible.
 >> Stay informed about: VNC video card?