Out-of-band management (OOBM) Console is a remote server management technology that plugs into keyboard, video and mouse ports (KVM), and transmits input/output through the internet protocol (IP)
KVM over IP is a server management technology intended to support user input and output on a remote server through the internet. In simple user terms it is best described as a remote monitor – yes, the one you would use at home – which is being accessed over the internet.
An individual server’s IP KVM management GUI at Cherry Servers is accessed through Cherry Servers client portal, however, there are a few additional steps before you are able to fully access the control window of a server:
- Log into your client portal.
- Navigate to the server’s menu which you are trying to access.
- Press „OOBM“ button which you will find on the selected server’s menu. One key note here is that only dedicated servers have IP KVM available.
- You will be redirected to a „Log in“ panel for the IP KVM and there you will need to provide user credentials which were sent to you with server order logins. If you by chance lost your credentials you can request password change at the same server’s menu by clicking „Change IP KVM password“ button and specifying a new password.
- Once you have logged in, you will either be greeted with a small window preview of your server which upon clicked will launch JAVA configuration file download or you will need to navigate to „Remote Control“ section and press config download button there. Due to variety of server motherboards there might be more than one type of IP KVM between different servers and navigation can differ.
- At this step you should have downloaded JAVA configuration file. If you have JAVA installed on your system you will be able to launch JAVA application by clicking on the configuration file itself (If it is not working, you might need to install JAVA on your system).
- Once JAVA applicaion is launch you will be presented with a window to your server as if its monitor was right there infront of you. You will then be able to perform keyboard or mouse inputs.
NOTES:
- Some server IP KVM will allow you to choose HTML5 access to IP KVM instead of running it through JAVA.
- Once the IP KVM application is launched you will be able to mount ISO files by navigating through the top menu of the console (Plus some additional controls).
- JAVA might also present you with „Blocked“ status when trying to launch the console, this means that you need to add „IP KVM“ IP address to whitelest for JAVA.
Technical details regarding IP KVM:
KVM switch over IP devices use a dedicated micro-controller and potentially specialized video capture hardware to capture the video, keyboard, and mouse signals, compress and convert them into packets, and send them over an Ethernet link to a remote console application that unpacks and reconstitutes the dynamic graphical image. This KVM over IP subsystem is typically connected to a system's standby power plane so that it's available during the entire BIOS boot process. These devices allow multiple computers to be controlled locally or globally with the use of an IP connection.
Servers at Cherry Servers come with a dedicated network port solely for IP KVM and it is not visible from the operating system.
Dedicated server’s IP KVM at Cherry Servers is not accessible through the internet until the client himself presses “IP KVM” button from his client portal. The remote access for server’s IP KVM will be available for the next 24 hours after that initial action. Therefore, your servers are secured from any kind of brute force attacks on their IP KVM management access while no access to IP KVM was requested.