Some of us run museums. I have a Raritan KX III that cost 3000 CHF new, still works, still supported with firmware. But it is 1U, loud fans, and the HTML5 client is... present. Not good. Present.
For new builds? PiKVM. For existing enterprise gear? The Raritan stays until it dies.
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Unix philosophy or no philosophy
My fallback is simpler: serial console server. OpenGear ACM7004, four ports, out of band over LTE. No video, just text. For Linux servers, text is enough 99% of the time. BIOS config is the 1% where I need video, and for that I plan a maintenance window.
Not as cool as PiKVM. More reliable than IPMI. Different trade.
Looked at those, price is 400+ EUR for the base model here. PiKVM is 1/8 the cost. I get that enterprise support matters for some, but for my five boxes in a Tallinn basement? No.
The LTE part is nice though. My PiKVM is on WiFi from the office next door. If both ISPs die, I have no access. LTE backup would solve that.
Network boot believer
If the machine boots, I can fix it. My real problem is when it won't boot at all. PiKVM lets me see the POST, enter BIOS, select PXE or local disk. Without it, I am guessing.
IPMI iKVM should do this. Often doesn't. Especially on consumer boards where it is an afterthought.
I considered this. But my use case was reinstalling, which means selecting boot device in BIOS, which means video. Serial doesn't get you there on most boards.
The 3-2-1 rule for access: I think I need three methods. IPMI (broken), PiKVM (building), and... what? Serial for the 99% case where I don't need BIOS?
For me: IPMI, PiKVM, and provider remote hands as the absolute last resort. Three methods, two tested, one expensive and slow.
I have never needed remote hands. I have needed PiKVM four times. The hierarchy is real.
Same hierarchy here, but my third is the train, not remote hands. OVHcloud hands are too slow and too expensive for a hobby box. The train is slow but cheap, and I get pierogi at the station.
Everyone's third method is different. That's the point of the thread, I think.
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San Francisco. I break things so I know how they break.
I broke my PiKVM by trying to power it from the host's USB port. Host died, PiKVM died, no independence. Now it runs from a separate USB PSU on a different circuit. Learned the hard way.
Separate power is as important as separate network. Galvanic isolation means nothing if you starve it.
This is why I use PoE for mine. Pi 4 with PoE hat, one cable, switch has UPS. If the host dies, the switch and Pi stay up. If the building loses power, the UPS keeps both running long enough to see the shutdown.
Overkill for Buenos Aires power, which fails weekly. But it works.
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PoE is nice but the Pi 4 PoE hat has a fan. Fan dies, Pi overheats, KVM dies when you need it. I use passive heatsink case, no moving parts. 2.5W means passive works.
For the Zero 2 W, no hat needed, just a buck converter. Even simpler.
