Raritan Dominion KX-II KVM

[JonathanT]

Hi everyone. I got a Raritan KX-II KVM and I hooked up the DVUSB CIM module to the Onboard Administrator. I'm happy to report that the virtual media DVD drive is recognized by the OA and can be successfully connected to the blade. It runs substantially faster than the virtual media that comes with the OA (1.5MB/sec vs 200-300KB/sec on the OA). It's able to boot installation ISOs, etc. Since I needed a KVM for other non-blade servers that will be in the rack... this looks like it's going to be a good solution compared to licensing the advanced ILO at $550/blade. Just thought I would share this solution with the community in case anyone else is trying to solve this problem.

[Dan Robinson_4]

COUGH - $550 per Blade? Your Reseller must have needed a new boat or something.

http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=512488-B21&oe=utf-8&cid=4107276451304175966&sa=button#p

Runs like $210

PS: Basic Virtual Media support (though the Integrated Remote Console for example) is free on the c-Class blades. I just tested it on a BL460c G1 with no Advanced License.
Advanced Virtual media support, like booting from a web hosted ISO, does still require the iLO Advanced.

[JonathanT]

I'm not necessarily complaining about the price of the iLO advanced, etc. I've just heard a lot of whining of the ITRC forum about the slowness of the default OA virtual media as it comes out of the box. Given we needed a KVM with virtual media for other purposes that also worked out to be compatible with the C7000 chassis in a number of ways... I figured I would post about it to contribute to the collective knowledge of the forum.

And for pricing on VARs on different things... I always competitively shop all my components. You never know when you're going to find a public company that is desperate at end of quarter to make their revenue numbers.