Chapter 1
Introduction
Overview
The KM0832 Matrix KVM Switch gives IT administrators in large corporations advanced control of multiple servers. Operators working at up to eight consoles (monitor, keyboard, and mouse) can independently and simultaneously take direct control of up to 32 computers. By cascading additional KM0832 and daisy chaining KM0432, 8 operators can access and control more than 8,000 computers.
The 8 consoles belonging to the master station (the root, or highest level KM0832) are able to access all the computers on the installation—those that are directly connected as well as those that are daisy chained and cascaded. The 4 consoles belonging to each of the slave stations (the daisy chained KM0432 switches) can only access the computers that are connected to them on the same daisy chain level (directly connected and cascaded).
The KM0832 features a modular design with automatic console conversion that allows any combination of PS/2 and USB consoles to control any combination of PS/2, USB, Sun, Mac, and serial computers. The RJ-45 KVM port (CPU port) connectors, combined with Auto Signal Compensation (ASC), allow signals to travel up to 300 meters between console module and KVM adapter cable (CPU module) and still maintain high video resolution, eliminating the need for KVM extenders, and allowing the installation to take advantage of the internal Cat 5e and Cat 6 wiring built in to most modern commercial buildings. In addition, use of RJ-45 connectors saves precious IT real estate by allowing a full 8 user ports and 32 KVM ports to reside in a single 1U system housing.
Setup is fast and easy—plugging cables into their appropriate ports is all that is entailed. Because the KM0832 intercepts keyboard and mouse input directly, there is no software to configure, so there is no need to get involved in complex installation routines or be concerned with incompatibility problems.
Access to any computer is easily accomplished either by means of a powerful menu-driven On Screen Display (OSD) system, or by entering Hotkey combinations from the keyboard. A convenient Auto Scan feature also permits automatic scanning and monitoring of the activities of all computers running on the installation one-by-one.
