So I sometimes need the ability to console into my servers to troubleshoot something or change BIOS settings etc, but always balk at having to haul a monitor and keyboard to get local access. When I worked in datacenters they had those mobile KVM carts you could wheel around to accomplish this, but I’m looking for something more portable.
Something else I was looking into was the PiKVM which I think would satisfy the need, but I’m curious if anyone here has experience with them (either DIY or the prebuilt units)? Also, I believe I would need to keep one of these in each of my server locations, of which there are two that are on different floors of the house.
Anyone have some advice, or some other solutions I haven’t thought of? Thanks in advance!
I DIY’d a PIKVM from an old Raspberry Pi 4 I had lying around for use in a homelab server. It’s been great, no complaints here, very handy if you need BIOS or direct console access from a phone or laptop. I especially like that you can hook up the PC power buttons to allow hard power cycling via the web interface. Though if you’re looking for something portable you’d probably skip that part.
I am using this and it works well: https://geekworm.com/products/pikvm-a3?pr_prod_strat=e5_desc&pr_rec_id=e3dd7e750&pr_rec_pid=7163618558040&pr_ref_pid=8361776218425&pr_seq=uniform
They have many other options too.
At work we use the NexDock for that purpose (for anything that doesn’t have proper Ethernet remote management, at least). It’s relatively convenient that it’s self-powered and self-contained, basically a laptop minus the computer part.
(Conveniently, I see this is also a new model that replaces the awkward mini-HDMI port with a proper full-size one)
If you need VGA, you will have to buy an active VGA-to-HDMI dongle. They’re cheap (down to about $10-15 these days) and seem to work just fine.
Should the preference be to use a laptop you already own, you’ve got a few options. Either an IP KVM like the JetKVM, GL.iNet Comet, NanoKVM, etc, or a USB one such as the Openterface.
(Note that a couple of those links are pre-orders or otherwise not immediately available, make sure you do your research)
All of these things are fairly comprehensively reviewed by tech-focused Youtube channels, just gotta pick your favourite form factor.
You might want a “lapdock”; basically a keyboard, monitor, and trackpad in a laptop form factor: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lapdock
I did come across these in my search, but don’t know much about them. I’ll do a little more research, but yeah something like this may do the trick
I’ve heard good things about this:
I recently bought one and I am quite happy with it.
This thing looks great! I’ll have to dig into it more to make sure it satisfies my use case but this is a contender
I somehow forgot these exist, I’ll check it out
I’ve used this a lot in the past at work. I see now that it’s discontinued, but I’m sure they have a new thing in its place. tiny, easy to use, and a huge time saver.
I have the startech usb kvm. It’s expensive new, but used it can be pretty cheap.
If you want to really tinker there is a uConsole kvm project.
If it’s an intel cpu you might have vapor, which is a native kvm. If you have AMT then I think you get kvm to the bios but it won’t give you kvm once the OS boots.
