The software of pikvm is so much better than any comercial solution. I think this is actually a disruptive technology if you think about the price that network-based kvms are usually sold at.
The fancy back-plane devices used on higher end servers also allow remote hard restart. That feature is not included on this unit - but maybe not too hard to do, connect from the gpio pins to a mains voltage relay. That has to be something which is a must-have when dealing with a frozen or otherwise unresponsive server in a data center.
My belkin kvm allows key sequences to change the kvm input. You could use this with a kvm that supports input switching via keyboard command to get your wish.
@@nicholasboccio Worked with my Avocent single port IP KVM paired with a Chinese no name 4 port dumb-ish KVM... As long as the IP KVM has a method of sending the correct shortcut keystrokes, it should work.
@Craft Computing If you like KVM over IP. I can recommend to have a look on the one from BifrostConnet. I just tested it the last weeks... Keyboard, Video and Mouse over USB-C or HDMI/USB. It also have 4G Mobile access, WiFi and Ethernet. Build in Battery, charged over USB-C, Micro-USB or PoE. It also have RS232 Serial port. Bluetooth so it local can use Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse and connect it like a USB device...
things to add: - poe power option (if your switch dies you have way bigger problems than no remote kvm), you can use gpio to power the pi - virtual media (mount iso as virtual odd to pc) - use gpio for pwr & rest of system, input for pwr and activity led - pcie bracket mount (for install in PC/server) - serial connector to manage a kvm switch - data only usb cable (just cut the pwr + on the cable, power over gpio)
Pikvm is another very awesome project. He should absolutely try it out! Bonus, it's 100% hardware compatible with the tinypilot hardware. and pikvm has built in support for interfacing with kvm switches, though you may need to do some soldering to build the gpio support... which you should do anyway because pikvm can plug into the front panel connectors on your pc/server to poweron/reset the server too!
I was just searching for something like this about a month ago, sweet. I used to have a raritan, was over 3000 dollars.. worked fantastic though.. had it set up in canada at a friends house and remoted into it from the US so I could play online poker (pokerstars). :)
You could always take a free tinypilot, and hide it behind a reverse proxy to provide authentication and encryption. It might add a tiny little latency but not unmanagable.
Holy crap thank you for making this video!! I had just seen the TinyPilot yesterday and immediately dismissed it because of the price. I had no idea it was open source! I now have a new project!
The other commercial alternatives aren't nearly as expensive as quoted in the video. The Raritan KX IV-101 goes for $550, supports 4K video, has a metal enclosure, HTML 5 and C# based viewer, and a much nicer interface with lots of bells and whistles.
Jeff thanks for the wonderful videos! You are the one I choose to watch as soon as I open the youtube app. Source-critical correct and honest content of your videos means that the quality is at the highest level! Continue Continue continue !!!
please keep in mind: real server (and even some diy have build in kvm, witch was way more funtionality. you can find license key for hp servers online, for my homelab this is fine. if you build a server yourself get an mobo with built in kvm, i use asrock rack, the ip-kvm is perfect, you get kvm, remote media and can even access all sensor data direct, even while an os ist boted up.
Back when I managed a server room, this would have been amazing. With some added security controls, this could be a great remoting solution. I agree with you that adding more hdmi inputs and a function to switch between them in a 1U form factor would be necessary for a more commercial environment. I like what I’m seeing.
What I'd like is a version mounted in a expansion slot, use GPIO headers to control the power on signal/reset headers and run the power from the ATX PSUs 5V STB. That way its completely integrated into the PC and could power it on and off too, so you can recover from a hard lockup.
This is a great idea! In commercial use, you can block via firewall all the remote IPs except your to access to this device, so you can take an old pc and install this open source OS. It's just an idea
Yeah, this looks cool. For handling one server, nice. I would love to have a Pi based solution that could handle 5 devices. That would totally make my day.
I remember two times explicitly whered I'd have given my left nut for a solution like this, but with 8-12 connections. How many 4-5 hour drives that would've saved, ugh.
Video Suggestion: IPMI Zero to Hero. I've had lot of rack machines with a NIC on the back clearly intended for IPMI remote management but have no idea how to connect to it nor what to use as a client. Is it standard? Is it different for Dell from SuperMicro? How do I use it? How do I connect? Can I get into the BIOS? And so on. Oh, and tell them about Dave's Garage :-)
i wonder if with something like this it could be configured in a way to use the gpio pins to operate the power switch for when you accidentally shut down
Thank you as always. Well done. Would love to see demonstration of the process of connecting it to a remotely hosted server via a public static IP. The actual configuration over a fixed / static. With a worst case procedure for when you get to the clients location, plug it in and it's not visible. Then how to reconfigure a locked down static in the TinyPilot. Any thoughts on that?
Many moons ago I got a Lantronix Spider to perform this function. I had stopped using it for a while due to java problems. But, recently it received updated firmware for html5. So, I plugged it into a console kvm to turn the whole thing into an ip remote kvm. You could do the same with this tinypilot. With the right KVM, it can switch PCs using keyboard inputs, no IO connections needed.
Great review. New to channel. Can I ask why there is a faint Piano music playing in the background? I’m listening to this with headphones on and I literally thought there was something in my house playing piano music before I realized it was the background of this video
But that’s something else! The DP1.4 KVM is for 2 or more computers on the same Monitor+keyboarb and Mouse setup. This is for managing a server over the network.
Yeah, PiKVM also had TLS and password stuff... I guess Jeff wants to give some exposure to the premium developers of Linux server software so that more companies are encouraged to do that. Jeff chose to make a video on Plex rather than JellyFin... I still love Jeff's videos though, such great content
Also, if you wanted to go a little more DIY way, I'd recommend going with pikvm project - it has a lot of nice extra functionalities, eg. can control some external "dumb" KVMs, supports ISO/USB drive emulation, or can even directly interface with ATX motherboards via front panel connector to allow for remote power/reset button pressing. Also supports much cheaper usb-based HDMI capture cards (in general the native raspi ones are recommended, however I didn't have any problems with the $5 ones either... Also allows you to run the software on other platforms, if you're up for some hacking, which in the end got me a working kvm box for ~$40 based on OrangePi Zero board)
Apart from being able to control a physical KVM so you don't have to buy as many TinyPilots as server you want to manage, it lacks something I find almost mandatory: a relay that you can connect to the power-on switch pins on the motherboard, so you can both turn on a powered off server remotely, and force power off and then power on an unresponsive system.
Thx for the review. The rapid side motions on the monitor (around 9:30) trigger something called optokinetic nystagmus and can cause nausea in some viewers.
PoE power the PI and add a relay for the power connection of the "server" so you can power cycle it fully remotely. Obviously you would need either WoL or to set the server for auto power on. Also add a temperature probe with historian.
When they actually get a 1K video version with sound, then we'll be talking. My home environment for professional graphics work (let's leave it at that) requires multiple computers for various clients and having an easy-to use KVM would be a blessing. I would love to remove some of the dozens of cables I have cluttering up my work areas.
@Craft Computing Hello, thanks for the informative video! Can I also use audio in/out with this? Is there another option? What alternatives does this have?
As a sysadmin I have wanted this for over a decade. I have a few of my servers with iKVM ports builtin but certainly not all of them have that. Also the software on these tend to not be updated so when the server gets older it it becomes a security concern. I have looked into options for KVM switches with this feature but they were for the most part outside of my budget as a small department system admin. With that said I could use actually use one today for a different purpose. My desktop PC is not responding at work meaning I have to drive 30 minutes to see what is wrong.
while we're asking for features, it'd be great to use the pi's GPIO to add a relay module that could remotely "press" the power and reset buttons by being wired in parallel with them, for hardware that doesn't support WOL.
I look at this from an AV viewpoint rather than server handling, and think of the Pi with that capture card allowing me to double-check information about EDID and signal from a computer, and outputting to the normal display while I am troubleshooting.
For whoever that wants to use this, use this alongside a (preferably) dedicated IPSEC VPN Server to access your home through a VPN Tunnel before accessing your kvm
"perfect" is subjective I guess. For me, I'd have to say that "perfect" would be something as close to an ipmi solution as possible. To the end, adding the ability to toggle reset/power is _almost_ there. Add in the ability to spoof/mount media and _then_ we've, all but the hw monitoring, arrived. I think the reset/power would be relative trivial. Might have to perform some hackery but dupont connectors from pi gpio header to front panel headers w/some tinykvm frontend 'button' mapping and it's done. Worst case you could just ssh into the tinykvm and twiddle those gpio lines w/echo. The media mapping seems tricky. Have to get the pi to present as a storage device hanging off of the kvm'd system usbus. Then loop/fuse mount images and maybe... Cool idea/device regardless.
I dont fully understand KVM. Access to the BMC with IPMI can help with logging and out of band access for things like power off boot config and you could serve X11 windows all over the router/switch with SSL? Is it for ease of access? I just got my first server board and am learning. (P.S. PUT DOWN THE DRINK!)
@@epic-buffalo so it has wiring to control the PC's power/reset button or connect to the corresponding header on the MOBO? I only saw the video and USB.
Could use an existing kvm with it. I do not remember who made it but the one in my server rack had a front panel switcher but it would also cycle through with a special keystroke which would work with the existing hardware.
Oh man I was waiting for this, thanks Jeff! If only we could prototype a usb board with relays to switch sources remotely! Gives me a lot to think about!
i would be interested in this if it could manage 2-4 servers. the server im using right now has ipmi but in the future I will be adding pc based servers so something with 4 ports would be great
I'm more interested in the hdmi to CSI capture.. If he can make one that does 1080p 30 or 1080p 60.. that's a product that'll definitely get my attention. I just want the hdmi capture. I'm curious how that would do as an encoder using the pi4's hardware encoding.
True... but hopefully an inexpensive VGA-to-HDMI adapter would work. UA-cam hides/shadowbans my comments if I include links, but if you search on eBay or Amazon for "vga to hdmi" (without the quote marks), or if you search for for 274053984714 (on eBay) or 4000516744414 (on AliExpress) you should find them.
Teslasmart has kvm over IP solutions for less than $100, and while I haven't personally used any of them, I have used their 4x1 HDMI switch and can attest to it working as specified.
With Jeff Geerling’s work on testing dedicated 4-port NICs via a RPi Compute Module 4 board, you might be able to (eventually) build out your dream 8-16 port Open Source KVM over IP device
I have multiple servers, computers that I need to have a multi-port kvm, but not at RARITAN prices. I have an old RARITAN kvm, and it just works, without HDMI, USB or capability to use modern protocols. Having an economical 8-port kvm, I would be interested for my HOME lab setup.
The only thing its missing is the capability to power on the system, i would instabuy it then, i love ILO4 from my hp microserver and its the only reason i didn't made an DIY nas and used the hp
Hi, nice product. Can manage server systems like ease As an IT manager, a glass of water on the table surrounded with it equipment makes me feel uneasy.
I wish this system could have a remote-on system, maybe something that interfaces with the motherboard power pins, a relay that click the PC on. that would be super neat, at that point you'd only need the RPI to be running to use the system. or maybe even something to interface with the PSU's 5v standby so you could have the pi be inside the computer. I'm thinking pi in the sky, but it would be simple to implement.
Most servers have built in management controllers and that is what you use in an enterprise environment. But I can see this being useful for a simple setup.
The thing is, in 2021 nobody uses "external" IP-KVMs (and thus they aren't really "modern", nor available cheaply after decommissions) cause KVM functionality integrated into BMCs has been a standard feature for the last ten years at least in commercial server space.
We still love you personality Jeff!
Hey, it's my other favorite networking channel!
I Fear Jeff, ty to HL-Alyx...
personality jeff has good fashion sense with the wiskey tribe t shirt
I was cruising along to video thinking “pshh this is worthless if you can’t see bios .... “ paused the video at 11:19 to say I am very impressed!
That's the whole point. It has a regular video input - it doesn't care if it's BIOS or whatever.
Wow! So glad you found this project and did a video on it. Thanks Jeff!
Will you be doing a review of the PiKVM?
The software of pikvm is so much better than any comercial solution. I think this is actually a disruptive technology if you think about the price that network-based kvms are usually sold at.
The fancy back-plane devices used on higher end servers also allow remote hard restart. That feature is not included on this unit - but maybe not too hard to do, connect from the gpio pins to a mains voltage relay. That has to be something which is a must-have when dealing with a frozen or otherwise unresponsive server in a data center.
My belkin kvm allows key sequences to change the kvm input. You could use this with a kvm that supports input switching via keyboard command to get your wish.
I am wondering if that will work right now and was hoping someone that is using this method would be here to confirm
@@nicholasboccio
Worked with my Avocent single port IP KVM paired with a Chinese no name 4 port dumb-ish KVM... As long as the IP KVM has a method of sending the correct shortcut keystrokes, it should work.
@Craft Computing If you like KVM over IP. I can recommend to have a look on the one from BifrostConnet. I just tested it the last weeks... Keyboard, Video and Mouse over USB-C or HDMI/USB. It also have 4G Mobile access, WiFi and Ethernet. Build in Battery, charged over USB-C, Micro-USB or PoE. It also have RS232 Serial port.
Bluetooth so it local can use Bluetooth Keyboard/Mouse and connect it like a USB device...
things to add:
- poe power option (if your switch dies you have way bigger problems than no remote kvm), you can use gpio to power the pi
- virtual media (mount iso as virtual odd to pc)
- use gpio for pwr & rest of system, input for pwr and activity led
- pcie bracket mount (for install in PC/server)
- serial connector to manage a kvm switch
- data only usb cable (just cut the pwr + on the cable, power over gpio)
1U KVM "of my dreams" - YES PLEASE!
I had heard of PiKVM but not this project before.
PiKVM does seem to be more potent project. Hope he will review that and compare the too
Pikvm is another very awesome project. He should absolutely try it out!
Bonus, it's 100% hardware compatible with the tinypilot hardware. and pikvm has built in support for interfacing with kvm switches, though you may need to do some soldering to build the gpio support... which you should do anyway because pikvm can plug into the front panel connectors on your pc/server to poweron/reset the server too!
I was just searching for something like this about a month ago, sweet. I used to have a raritan, was over 3000 dollars.. worked fantastic though.. had it set up in canada at a friends house and remoted into it from the US so I could play online poker (pokerstars). :)
Best use of a Rariton ever 🤣🤣
Thank you for 10:43 onward. I'm just teaching myself Remmina and this explanation was very helpful for remote access vs kvm access.
You could always take a free tinypilot, and hide it behind a reverse proxy to provide authentication and encryption. It might add a tiny little latency but not unmanagable.
where could i read up on how to do this?
Shows BSOD screen while advertising Linux hosting at Linode. EPIC!😎
I remember dealing with the Compaq/HP and Sun lights out offerings. As you said - Java app/version hell.
Holy crap thank you for making this video!! I had just seen the TinyPilot yesterday and immediately dismissed it because of the price. I had no idea it was open source! I now have a new project!
check out Pi-KVM It have more features and opensource too
@@fox_1047 Sweet! Thanks!:)
The other commercial alternatives aren't nearly as expensive as quoted in the video. The Raritan KX IV-101 goes for $550, supports 4K video, has a metal enclosure, HTML 5 and C# based viewer, and a much nicer interface with lots of bells and whistles.
Jeff thanks for the wonderful videos! You are the one I choose to watch as soon as I open the youtube app. Source-critical correct and honest content of your videos means that the quality is at the highest level! Continue Continue continue !!!
please keep in mind: real server (and even some diy have build in kvm, witch was way more funtionality.
you can find license key for hp servers online, for my homelab this is fine.
if you build a server yourself get an mobo with built in kvm, i use asrock rack, the ip-kvm is perfect, you get kvm, remote media and can even access all sensor data direct, even while an os ist boted up.
Back when I managed a server room, this would have been amazing. With some added security controls, this could be a great remoting solution. I agree with you that adding more hdmi inputs and a function to switch between them in a 1U form factor would be necessary for a more commercial environment. I like what I’m seeing.
What I'd like is a version mounted in a expansion slot, use GPIO headers to control the power on signal/reset headers and run the power from the ATX PSUs 5V STB. That way its completely integrated into the PC and could power it on and off too, so you can recover from a hard lockup.
This is a great idea! In commercial use, you can block via firewall all the remote IPs except your to access to this device, so you can take an old pc and install this open source OS. It's just an idea
This is seriously cool, I'd buy a switch with 8 or 12 inputs if / when the new budget comes around
You could connect the gpio to the reset and power. You could even connect the LEDs.
For home users the hobbyist kit is the way to go. I actually might pick one up when I remote mount all my networking equipment in my garage.
Yeah, this looks cool. For handling one server, nice. I would love to have a Pi based solution that could handle 5 devices. That would totally make my day.
this
It all makes sense at 11:19 !
This is indeed a great tool to have.
First video of yours I've ever seen .. not only do I love this product, your presentation of it covered all bases. Subscribed!!
I've been looking for something like this for years!
I remember two times explicitly whered I'd have given my left nut for a solution like this, but with 8-12 connections. How many 4-5 hour drives that would've saved, ugh.
Same!
It seems like the pikvm is a better product
I agree.
That's how it looks to me.
Video Suggestion: IPMI Zero to Hero. I've had lot of rack machines with a NIC on the back clearly intended for IPMI remote management but have no idea how to connect to it nor what to use as a client. Is it standard? Is it different for Dell from SuperMicro? How do I use it? How do I connect? Can I get into the BIOS? And so on. Oh, and tell them about Dave's Garage :-)
I've been looking for exactly this kind of solution. Instantly ordered one after watching
Definitely useful, especially for sites located in remote regions that do not have any IMPI available
I appreciate that they have a fully fleshed-out product but it seems kind of shitty to lock the security functions behind a separate paywall.
Yeah. Would have been better if they secured it for free and added on things like USB mass storage emulation as the paid pro version.
Honestly, slapping a reverse proxy in front of the webserver and enabling TLS authentication takes like 10 minutes.
If cooling is a concern, cheapo stick on aluminum heatsinks could easily work but I really doubt it'll ever get that hot.
i wonder if with something like this it could be configured in a way to use the gpio pins to operate the power switch for when you accidentally shut down
Yes, I’ve been looking for things like this for years but they have only started to get good recently. Thanks for profiling this project!
Thank you as always. Well done. Would love to see demonstration of the process of connecting it to a remotely hosted server via a public static IP. The actual configuration over a fixed / static. With a worst case procedure for when you get to the clients location, plug it in and it's not visible. Then how to reconfigure a locked down static in the TinyPilot. Any thoughts on that?
This is a good solution for those compoters don't have ipmi.
Many moons ago I got a Lantronix Spider to perform this function. I had stopped using it for a while due to java problems. But, recently it received updated firmware for html5. So, I plugged it into a console kvm to turn the whole thing into an ip remote kvm. You could do the same with this tinypilot. With the right KVM, it can switch PCs using keyboard inputs, no IO connections needed.
That cat is gorgeous 🐈😻
Great review. New to channel. Can I ask why there is a faint Piano music playing in the background? I’m listening to this with headphones on and I literally thought there was something in my house playing piano music before I realized it was the background of this video
The Great Wendell over at Level1Techs actually designed a KVM switch and is selling them.
No link?
Link?
But that’s something else! The DP1.4 KVM is for 2 or more computers on the same Monitor+keyboarb and Mouse setup.
This is for managing a server over the network.
Link ?
*Spoiler Alert*
PiKVM has the same features for zero as all features are enabled opensource
PIKVM has also remote control of the power
Yeah, PiKVM also had TLS and password stuff... I guess Jeff wants to give some exposure to the premium developers of Linux server software so that more companies are encouraged to do that. Jeff chose to make a video on Plex rather than JellyFin... I still love Jeff's videos though, such great content
@@hardwarelabor1631 How does PiKVM accomplish this?
@@fonte935 It also uses a usb hdmi graber or hdmi over csi
@@fonte935 Look at the Video from Novaspirittech
Also, if you wanted to go a little more DIY way, I'd recommend going with pikvm project - it has a lot of nice extra functionalities, eg. can control some external "dumb" KVMs, supports ISO/USB drive emulation, or can even directly interface with ATX motherboards via front panel connector to allow for remote power/reset button pressing. Also supports much cheaper usb-based HDMI capture cards (in general the native raspi ones are recommended, however I didn't have any problems with the $5 ones either... Also allows you to run the software on other platforms, if you're up for some hacking, which in the end got me a working kvm box for ~$40 based on OrangePi Zero board)
tiny pilot actually got this idea from Pi-KVM, not the other way around :)
We love PI-KVM it has more features features that this wich are useful for remote reboots the lot
Apart from being able to control a physical KVM so you don't have to buy as many TinyPilots as server you want to manage, it lacks something I find almost mandatory: a relay that you can connect to the power-on switch pins on the motherboard, so you can both turn on a powered off server remotely, and force power off and then power on an unresponsive system.
Thx for the review. The rapid side motions on the monitor (around 9:30) trigger something called optokinetic nystagmus and can cause nausea in some viewers.
With a power spliter on the motherboard this could be awesome to have the possibility to power it from the pi remotely
PoE power the PI and add a relay for the power connection of the "server" so you can power cycle it fully remotely. Obviously you would need either WoL or to set the server for auto power on. Also add a temperature probe with historian.
When they actually get a 1K video version with sound, then we'll be talking. My home environment for professional graphics work (let's leave it at that) requires multiple computers for various clients and having an easy-to use KVM would be a blessing. I would love to remove some of the dozens of cables I have cluttering up my work areas.
Well, I know what I'm doing this weekend. Thanks Jeff!
Rambo needs more end user interaction, no kvm switches required.
Came for the kvm info, pleasantly surprised by the orange in the intro...please continue to add more orange
@Craft Computing Hello, thanks for the informative video! Can I also use audio in/out with this? Is there another option? What alternatives does this have?
Please make a video on how to set this up for us DIY users. I could really use this in my home lab!!
Can you compare this vs PiKVM, i use that on my setup but which is better?
As a sysadmin I have wanted this for over a decade. I have a few of my servers with iKVM ports builtin but certainly not all of them have that. Also the software on these tend to not be updated so when the server gets older it it becomes a security concern. I have looked into options for KVM switches with this feature but they were for the most part outside of my budget as a small department system admin. With that said I could use actually use one today for a different purpose. My desktop PC is not responding at work meaning I have to drive 30 minutes to see what is wrong.
while we're asking for features, it'd be great to use the pi's GPIO to add a relay module that could remotely "press" the power and reset buttons by being wired in parallel with them, for hardware that doesn't support WOL.
That's one way to void your warranty.
I look at this from an AV viewpoint rather than server handling, and think of the Pi with that capture card allowing me to double-check information about EDID and signal from a computer, and outputting to the normal display while I am troubleshooting.
For whoever that wants to use this, use this alongside a (preferably) dedicated IPSEC VPN Server to access your home through a VPN Tunnel before accessing your kvm
Remote reset and power button would make it perfect!
You could add that with gpio
"perfect" is subjective I guess. For me, I'd have to say that "perfect" would be something as close to an ipmi solution as possible. To the end, adding the ability to toggle reset/power is _almost_ there. Add in the ability to spoof/mount media and _then_ we've, all but the hw monitoring, arrived. I think the reset/power would be relative trivial.
Might have to perform some hackery but dupont connectors from pi gpio header to front panel headers w/some tinykvm frontend 'button' mapping and it's done. Worst case you could just ssh into the tinykvm and twiddle those gpio lines w/echo.
The media mapping seems tricky. Have to get the pi to present as a storage device hanging off of the kvm'd system usbus. Then loop/fuse mount images and maybe...
Cool idea/device regardless.
@@PrimalNaCl the PiKVM project has all those features and is free.
Holy shit, this is exactly what I've been looking for, for years!
In addition to more inputs I'd love to see adding serial for each input. It's less common but it's nice to have for when you need it.
Interesting, finally an affordable way to enter a bios remotely!
you can get pid cables on usb and monitor converters it will do
Have you used PCOIP? You can find old teradici cards and zero clients pretty cheap on ebay, with the zero clients giving you bios level access.
Craft beer and sysadmin... Subscribed
I dont fully understand KVM. Access to the BMC with IPMI can help with logging and out of band access for things like power off boot config and you could serve X11 windows all over the router/switch with SSL? Is it for ease of access? I just got my first server board and am learning. (P.S. PUT DOWN THE DRINK!)
Does this KVM also carry audio ?
Could always rig up some relays to the GPIO and control the PC’s power and reset button to wake a pc without wake-on-lan or hard reset a machine
PiKVM does that.
@@epic-buffalo so it has wiring to control the PC's power/reset button or connect to the corresponding header on the MOBO? I only saw the video and USB.
I have been considering this thing for over a week now... guess I'm sold
i just got a asrock rack mobo for my diy server. has integrated ip-kvm with way more functions
ok, that's great ... not my use case
I've got multiple Raspberry Pis and a NUC that are headless, but this would make an effective remote crash cart.
Could use an existing kvm with it. I do not remember who made it but the one in my server rack had a front panel switcher but it would also cycle through with a special keystroke which would work with the existing hardware.
I live in a one room apt and I still have a 42u server rack:/ (Dedicate and entire room of your house)
Oh man I was waiting for this, thanks Jeff! If only we could prototype a usb board with relays to switch sources remotely! Gives me a lot to think about!
I'm actually working on a hacked together version of that myself.
@@CraftComputing and add some gpio goodness to also handle the reset/power on the box, so you can remote start the machine if its off too...
i would be interested in this if it could manage 2-4 servers. the server im using right now has ipmi but in the future I will be adding pc based servers so something with 4 ports would be great
This is neat! 1u 8port KVM sounds about perfect!
I'm more interested in the hdmi to CSI capture.. If he can make one that does 1080p 30 or 1080p 60.. that's a product that'll definitely get my attention. I just want the hdmi capture.
I'm curious how that would do as an encoder using the pi4's hardware encoding.
The other KVM's are like 10-30 ports. $3000 for a 16 port KVM is going to be less expensive per device, offer user management, and a warranty.
Ummm how many servers have HDMI ports?? I do agree that better KVM and remote KVM options are needed!
True... but hopefully an inexpensive VGA-to-HDMI adapter would work.
UA-cam hides/shadowbans my comments if I include links, but if you search on eBay or Amazon for "vga to hdmi" (without the quote marks), or if you search for for 274053984714 (on eBay) or 4000516744414 (on AliExpress) you should find them.
Would it be possible to have a skype/teams meeting remotedly (audio support)?
Teslasmart has kvm over IP solutions for less than $100, and while I haven't personally used any of them, I have used their 4x1 HDMI switch and can attest to it working as specified.
If you have an intel environment you can utilize vPro to get to bios over network.
With Jeff Geerling’s work on testing dedicated 4-port NICs via a RPi Compute Module 4 board, you might be able to (eventually) build out your dream 8-16 port Open Source KVM over IP device
You remind me of my brother, Love your vids man. Always passing a like/thumb up.
I have multiple servers, computers that I need to have a multi-port kvm, but not at RARITAN prices. I have an old RARITAN kvm, and it just works, without HDMI, USB or capability to use modern protocols. Having an economical 8-port kvm, I would be interested for my HOME lab setup.
I'm curious how well this would work on a pi 0w as the only thing I can see being lost is the ethernet, however it would be a way smaller package
It works fairly well, actually. At least the hardware part, didn't try the software.
Is it me or is it that Rambo has actually put on weight 😂
Alright, it comes with beer too. Yay 🍺🍻🍺
The only thing its missing is the capability to power on the system, i would instabuy it then, i love ILO4 from my hp microserver and its the only reason i didn't made an DIY nas and used the hp
PiKVM does that.
With the new RPI microcontroller you even may control a switch and connect to more than one unit.
Hi, nice product. Can manage server systems like ease
As an IT manager, a glass of water on the table surrounded with it equipment makes me feel uneasy.
I wish this system could have a remote-on system, maybe something that interfaces with the motherboard power pins, a relay that click the PC on. that would be super neat, at that point you'd only need the RPI to be running to use the system. or maybe even something to interface with the PSU's 5v standby so you could have the pi be inside the computer.
I'm thinking pi in the sky, but it would be simple to implement.
Maybe wake on lan
One thing I don't get is... why is the power switcher needed... are the other available USB ports of the PI not good for the emulation part??????
Does it transmit audio?
How is this better/worse/different than Pi-KVM?
Most servers have built in management controllers and that is what you use in an enterprise environment. But I can see this being useful for a simple setup.
hey thanks i was looking 4 that.
and can u tell what s the red ball u have on ur desk
thanks in advance
The thing is, in 2021 nobody uses "external" IP-KVMs (and thus they aren't really "modern", nor available cheaply after decommissions) cause KVM functionality integrated into BMCs has been a standard feature for the last ten years at least in commercial server space.