UNIMAX Houseware KVM Switch operation manual Cascading, Limitations

NTI UNIMUX MULTI-USER KVM SWITCH

CASCADING

The UNIMUX USB Matrix switch can be expanded to access up to 1024 CPUs by cascading multiple units together. As many switches as there are CPU ports may be connected to a UNIMUX USB Matrix switch. (See Figure 36) All downstream switches are referred to as "slaves" in a cascaded system. The only additional hardware required to cascade switches is a set of device and monitor cables for each “SLAVE UNIT” (see MATERIALS on page 2). All CPUs and switches can then be controlled by users using OSD commands with Command Mode.

Limitations

The front panel keypad is only used to operate standalone switches. To control a cascaded network of switches, only the OSD commands within Command Mode will be recognized.

The Matrix Switcher's Control Program (page 32) cannot be used to control cascaded switches. It can only be used with a standalone switch.

RS232 control (page 29) cannot be used between cascaded switches. RS232 control can only be used between standalone switches.

Users connected to accessible ports on downstream slaves (i.e. ports not connected to the master) will not be able to control switches or CPUs connected upstream. Only control over CPUs and slaves downstream from a user's connection point will be enabled. (See Figure 36)

Slaves connected downstream from a master must be switches with at least as many user ports as the master. I.e. If the master is UNIMUX-4X32, connected slaves can be any switch with 4 or more user ports.

Exception: If the master is a single user UNIMUX switch, slaves connected downstream can be any size multi-user UNIMUX switch (see Figure 37).

	USER 1 USER 2 USER 3		USER 4		Users 5-8 only have access to CPUs 9-24.
					Users 1-4 have access to all CPUs
		USER PORTS
		UNIMUX-4X8
		MASTER
		CPU PORTS			USER 5 USER 6 USER 7 USER 8
USBVEXT-xx-MM
	USER PORTS				USER PORTS
	UNIMUX-4X8				UNIMUX-8X16
	SLAVE				SLAVE
	CPU PORTS				CPU PORTS
	USBVEXT-xx-MM			USBVEXT-xx-MM
	(8 CABLES)				(16 CABLES)

CPU1 CPU 8 CPU 9 CPU 24

Figure 36- Cascading with only multi-user units

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