Six strokes teach you to distinguish between high-end and low-end KVM products

Whether it is a digital KVM switch, or an analog KVM switch, whether it is easy to use, whether it is worthwhile, there is always a certain standard of judgment, as the saying goes Divide the money. So if you distinguish KVM products from different brands, which brands are really worth choosing? Here I recommend to you the six technical points that I need to compare the products.

I. Product Compatibility

KVM products are a tool for unified management of IT equipment. Whether the product has good compatibility during use is of great concern because of its own data center. In a heterogeneous computer room environment, equipment brands are messy, and new and old equipment coexist. If the KVM product does not have a good compatibility as a basic management tool, it will result in simultaneous control of 7,8 devices, and finally one device cannot be managed. The compatibility issue is especially important in digital KVM products. It is concentrated on whether digital KVM can manage different brands of blade service areas, whether it can manage virtual machines in servers such as VMWARE clients, and whether it can be SUN servers. Can I support serial devices? A test is made for whether the product line of the manufacturer is complete, and it is also a problem that the manager needs to consider when selecting the KVM device.

Second, the integrity of the product line

The integrity of the product line referred to in this article is mainly the number of ports of the KVM product. As far as the analog KVM products are concerned, how many devices can be controlled by a single device, if the customer is now 64 services, and a single KVM product supports only 16 KVMs, even if the brand's devices support cascading Function, but if other brands can get things done with the brand, it has to add multiple devices. First, it increases management complexity. Second, it increases the failure point of the device. Finally, the overall cost must be increased. It also increases the burden of energy consumption. Therefore, the rich product line is a powerful guarantee for customers to choose the right solution according to their own network environment. The application of the information center is changeable. Therefore, choosing a vendor with a complete product line is also a priority for system integrators. At least not to be dominated by the opponent on the issue of the program. Whether the product line of the final product supports the needs of large-scale data center equipment applications. For example, when there are about 1000 servers, whether a centralized management platform is used in the product line for unified management of all devices.

III. Product Stability

The stability of the product depends on the quality, process and design of the product. As far as product technology is concerned, whether the manufacturer has international certification such as ISO9001, whether the product work is fine, whether the raw materials of the product are just raw materials, especially the KVM LED console and the cabinet, is not a good material largely determines the product price. Whether KVM products are designed with dual NICs, dual power supplies, dual redundant design considerations, hot swap support, and support for technologies such as Keeplive. Whether KVM products are prone to crashes under high load conditions. Our previous partner in Shanxi helped a university's information center to do product testing, selected several different brands of KVM products, and when opening multiple management screens on KVM devices at the same time, one of the products with a very large domestic market share, Directly crash twice. When customers look at the product brand, the only technology that can be trusted is the technology. I believe that no customer wants to buy a flashy product to go home.

The stability of the product is also reflected in the transmission, such as the simulated KVM. When the KVM extension cable is pulled to 300 meters, the quality of your transmission picture can still guarantee high quality, because the customer is in use. In the case of transforming the machine room and changing the control platform, there are many situations in which the KVM product can still be responsible for smooth management in the case of a long distance. As for the digital KVM, because of the KVM over ip technology, in the case of multiple administrators and large network traffic, it is not easy to manage the related devices if the screen is not smooth and the operation is not flexible. Especially when applying digital KVM, if the transmission is unstable, the customer's misoperation is not worth the loss.

For another example, we used to have a high-end customer who originally used a brand of centralized management software + KVM product solutions. In the process of time, after the brand centralized management system generates a system failure, the KVM products connected under it can only lose all the simple KVM management functions, such as virtual media and functions managed by the blade server.

In this case, there are mainly two problems. First, the centralized control platform recommends selecting a full hardware solution, which is relatively high-speed and stable. Second, after the failure of the centralized management platform, KVM should still be independent and complete. Operation, does not delay the normal function of the customer's full function.

The stability of the system is also reflected in the fact that when KVM is operating at the same time, it is reasonable to ensure that multiple administrators can operate the same server at the same time without error. For example, Raritan's digital KVM products use a competitive mechanism when multiple administrators manage them at the same time, ensuring that administrators do not perform write operations at the same time. Caused a system error.

Fourth, product security

KVM products as the only interface to manage multiple servers, KVM product security is particularly important. The simulated KVM products are relatively better, provided that the division of labor is relatively clear, and that the console is not often accessed by strangers. Digital KVM products, because they are network-based products, can be accessed through the network as long as they know the IP address, so the security requirements for the device are increased.

When many people think that using digital KVM products may increase the risk of network security, I would like to remind you that you are replacing the remote management tools of multiple servers with one password of one device. The risks that come with it. For example, if you use Raritan's Dominion® KX II DKX2-464 product and manage 64 devices at the same time, you can cancel the remote management tools of the original 64 devices and use Raritan's KVM device to manage them uniformly. And the first thing you need to do now is to set up a sufficiently complex and strong password for the Dominion® KX II DKX2-464 KVM switch. But setting up complex passwords seems to be not very close to the security of the KVM device itself.

The KVM device itself is worthy of attention. The main points of the security access include: KVM device software or system manufacturer supports continuous version upgrade, this experience vendor's research and development capabilities and responsibility. Whether KVM devices can centralize a variety of commonly used solutions such as Radius, LDAP, AD, and TACACS+ (CC) security authentication, can KVM devices set up simple network rules to block illegal access. Specifically, whether there is an ACL function. Whether the KVM device can be multi-user group management and rights management. Whether the KVM device supports the VPN function. Whether the KVM device has enough powerful log auditing capabilities. Whether KVM can cooperate with third-party products can do better in identity authentication, security auditing, log playback, real-time alarms, etc. Of course, if the manufacturer is serious enough, functions such as anti-DDOS design should also be considered.

KVM Device Security Another area of ​​concern is whether to encrypt the transmitted data, including the operational data and whether the video data is strong enough and multiple choices of encryption. This is very important in many key industries. In addition, many high-end KVM products are now foreign products, using internationally accepted encryption algorithms. For such brands, the company's PL-SMS products are fully compatible with Raritan's full range of products, and its transmission data is re-encrypted with the national encryption standard algorithm to ensure data security. The company is a designated production unit for national cryptographic products.

V. Product usability

The KVM-related ease of use group should be reflected in the following aspects:

1. Is there a good operation management? Interface, whether it supports Chinese, the uniformity of the remote management interface and the local interface.

2, high-resolution support, many administrators say that the server does so with high resolution. When you are pleased, don't forget the need for a graphics workstation. Let me say another case. Some time ago, a customer proposed that his current KVM switch controls multiple HP graphics workstations. When the monitor is connected via KVM, a screen is blacked out as soon as it is switched. The main reason is whether KVM supports such high resolution and whether the display is good enough to automatically control the resolution change. Especially at a long distance, whether it still supports high resolution and whether there is a good enough user experience.

3, in some functions, such as Raritan's unified management platform, the above server can be customized attributes, such as add some description: "IBM 3250 database server second floor." And corresponding to the user group, support unlimited rating. Many products do not do this.

4, whether it can automatically identify the devices involved in KVM, for example, Raritan's digital KVM products are connected to the server through the network cable, if the server is turned on, the KVM device is the operating interface of the server Seeing is automatically recognized. It is convenient for the management of management personnel and improves work efficiency.

5, the last is to forget the password and other needs to restore the system, whether it is convenient, restore the settings is simple and so on.

Sixth, KVM products cost-effective considerations

Personally think that looking at the needs of customers to decide what kind of products to choose, but from the industry experience, in the high-end KVM products, whether it is domestic The prices of products in foreign countries are generally not much different, and the price of low-end KVM products is very low. But the function is relatively simple, and it can't meet the needs of data center management. Look at the customer's budget to make a choice. As for the brand, after learning the technical differences in detail, the customer will naturally make an informed choice. Finally, it is recommended that customers take the after-sales service into consideration, and choose a partner with sufficient experience and a company with sufficient technical support to do the service well. In fact, it is also a form of cost saving.

On the whole, I saw that many customers only believe in advertising when they choose products. I don’t think about the efficacy. I feel sorry for it. I hope to communicate with you through the article. A standard of judgment can be made when selecting such products. I welcome all of you to do more extensive and in-depth technical exchanges on IT infrastructure equipment through a management.