SERVSWITCH™ MULTI
2.6.5DESCRIPTION OF THE SERVSWITCH MULTI HUB AND ITS COMPONENTS
The ServSwitch Multi Hub (KV170RA) is a cube that fits in 9U (15.75", 40 cm) of vertical rack space. Internally, it will contain two power supplies and two fan assemblies (for redundancy) once you install them—they’re shipped uninstalled to lessen the chance that they might be damaged in transit. The most prominent features of the Hub’s front panel, as shown in Figure 2-14, are a 4-x-20-character LCD panel and four associated buttons with which you can control and configure the Hub through an internal menu system. The Hub’s front panel also has POWER and FAIL LEDs, as well as an RJ-45 serial port that currently has no function but might be enabled with future firmware upgrades. The front panel is controlled by a special internal Front-Panel Element. The Hub’s nine plug-in Module slots are “channel A” through “channel I.” For Flash-upgrading purposes only, the Front-Panel Element is “channel J”; that channel can’t be selected and is not recognized for any other purpose.
POWER
Figure 2-14. The front panel of a Hub.
The Hub isn’t like the other ServSwitch Multi models. No computers or user-station consoles can be directly attached to it. It’s not designed to accept Interface Cards, regular Expansion Cards, or any other type of Card that the other models support. Instead, it functions as a central housing for as many as nine Transmit or Receive Modules (KV1701C or KV1702C respectively), which each channel up to 16 sets of keyboard, monitor, and mouse signals between cascaded ServSwitch Multi units. You’ll run two CAT5 cables from the two ports of a CAT5 Expansion Card in some other ServSwitch Multi model to two of the ports on one of the Hub’s Modules. This centralized distribution through the Hub makes it possible to assemble very large KVM-switching systems using fewer Expansion Cards, fewer cables, and often fewer Switch units. For more information, see Chapter 7.
