Dell M1000E manual Using the Avocent iKVM switch, Blade Servers

Blade Servers

By Stephen M. Hahn

Chad Fenner

Managing Dell PowerEdge M1000e Blade Servers with the Avocent iKVM Switch

The Avocent® iKVM (integrated keyboard, video, mouse) switch, an analog KVM switch integrated into the Dell™ PowerEdge™ M1000e modular blade enclosure, is designed to simplify administrative tasks by letting IT staff easily view, monitor, and manage server blades and by providing access to the remote management and power control functions of the PowerEdge M1000e Chassis Management Controller.

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In data center environments, simple, flexible server monitoring and management tools can be critical to maintaining efficient operations. The Avocent

iKVM (integrated keyboard, video, mouse) switch, an analog KVM switch integrated into the Dell PowerEdge M1000e modular blade enclosure,1 is designed to let administrators easily view, monitor, and manage each of the 16 server blades in the PowerEdge M1000e and provide access to the Dell Chassis Management Controller (CMC) for management and power control. Key features of the Avocent iKVM switch include local access to each server blade, one-to-one administra- tion for up to 16 administrators accessing each of the

16blades, integration with the Avocent On-Screen Configuration and Reporting (OSCAR®) graphical user interface for configuration and to work with existing Avocent KVM infrastructures, integration with the Microsoft® Active Directory® directory service, and access to the integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) on each blade.

The Avocent iKVM switch is compatible with stan- dard USB keyboards and pointing devices as well as with VGA monitors that support Display Data Channel (DDC). Its video connections support display resolution ranges from 640 × 480 at 60 Hz up to 1,600 × 1,200 at

75Hz. When necessary, administrators can update the

Avocent iKVM switch firmware through the CMC firm- ware update utility.

Using the Avocent iKVM switch

The Avocent iKVM switch provides traditional KVM switching between server blades in the Dell PowerEdge M1000e enclosure as well as a scanning feature, which allows administrators to scan through preselected blades while pausing for a specific time at each blade. They can also select a specific blade through the OSCAR main dialog box, as shown in Figure 1. In addi- tion to the blade names (which administrators can set themselves or pull from the CMC automatically during setup) and chassis slot numbers, the OSCAR interface provides status information for each blade: a green circle, for example, indicates that the blade is online and functioning properly, while a red X means the blade is offline or not functioning properly. A yellow circle indicates that a blade is online but unavailable—for example, because another user is controlling it remotely. The letters in the right column provide additional infor- mation, such as whether a blade is being accessed by a user panel (a green letter) or blocked by a specific user channel (a black letter), and whether the blade is being accessed through the rear panel (the letter A) or the front panel (the letter B). When administrators

1For more information on the PowerEdge M1000e, see “The Next-Generation Dell PowerEdge M1000e Modular Blade Enclosure,” by Chad Fenner, in Dell Power Solutions, February 2008, DELL.COM/Downloads/Global/Power/ps1q08-20080206-Fenner.pdf.

60 DELL POWER SOLUTIONS February 2008 Reprinted from Dell Power Solutions, February 2008. Copyright © 2008 Dell Inc. All rights reserved.