[geeks] 1U rackmount KVM switch

[Andrew Jones]

On 04/22/2012 06:09 PM, Mouse wrote:
>> The basic Intel standard for this is IPMI, which is extremely similar
>> to a Sun ALOM.  It gets you remote serial console, remote power
>> state/status, virtual media, and a few diagnostics.
>
> Do you really get serial console, or do you get a serialization of a
> video console?  The difference is important, especially when trying to
> automate interaction with it, or trying to interact with a serialized
> video console when you don't have a sufficiently good emulation of
> whatever it's expecting to be talking to.
>

For the system firmware, the BIOS menus, it's usually (but not always) a 
serialization of video, exactly what you get when you turn on serial 
console access over a physical port.

The OS perceives the IPMI serial-over-IP as a physical serial port.