[Beowulf] Re: recommendation on crash cart for a cluster room:fullcluster KVM is not an option I suppose?

[David Mathog]

Prentice Bisbal <prentice at ias.edu> wrote:
> Even with IPMI, you still need a crash cart of some type to initially
> set up IPMI in the system's BIOS. At the minimum, you need to set the IP
> address that the IMPI interface will listen on (if it's a shared NIC
> port), and the password. You definitely don't want to leave the default
> password.

That could more easily be done on a bench before racking the system. 

I have a really, really long PS/2 KVM cable that runs from a
monitor/keyboard/mouse on the one table in the machine room to whichever
machine needs work.  I don't recall its length, 30 feet maybe, but these
sorts of cables work up to 100 ft or so.  The single long cable works
here because the machine room is small.  In the two steps forward, one
step back category, many machines now have no PS/2 connectors, and the
one place where USB has a problem is with long cables, which max out at
5 meters.  This can be increased with more cables and hubs, but it stops
being simple at 5 meters.  If you just want to plug in a VGA monitor
into such a system then a 100 ft single cable is still an option.

Anyway, for me it is a lot easier to snake the one long cable across the
floor than it would be to roll a cart around. YMMV.

Regards,

David Mathog
mathog at caltech.edu
Manager, Sequence Analysis Facility, Biology Division, Caltech