I’m going to be putting some servers into a data centre and manage them remotely. That means power control and optionally an IP KVM. Does anyone know the best way to do this? Do I need an IP KVM? What do they do that would mean I use an IP KVM rather than a normal KVM, both if I had to visit or if I worked from home?

The options I’m looking at at the moment are either some kind of remote power control device, using servers like Sun X2100s with either ” Optional System Management Daughter Cards” or “Standard Service Processor with embedded LOM” which use IPMI. Or maybe regular Dell or other servers, with the same kind of cards.

Are these cards any good? Do they work with Linux. Will IPMI 1.5 do what I want or do I need IPMI 2? It’s a minefield I tell ya. Can anyone make recommendations for remote power control devices, or BMC manufacturers and suppliers? What is preferable? A card or a separate device? I don’t know.

Oh yes and all of these servers will be running Linux…