setting up a new server while riding in a car

By Jason Sherrill
Posted on Jun 10, 2007

Today I'm in my car traveling to Kalamazoo for a graduation party. As I'm writing this, we're driving past mile marker 122 on I-69 (my wife is driving). But the fact that I'm posting this live while in the car isn't even the cool part.

While we've been driving, I've updated the bios and latest firmware on a new Intel server that's sitting in a rack in our Utica office. I've also just started installing the operating system. I've done this all without having to be in the same room, or even the same county, as the server.

Remotely controlling a computer is nothing to write home about anymore. Products like GoToMyPC.com, VNC and pcAnywhere have been around for years, but those applications all require that the computer be turned on, with the operating system running. So remotely installing your operating system or interacting with the boot process is impossible with those appliations. Also, if you reboot the remote computer, you lose your connection, and when you do reboot, you endure one to three minutes of uncertainty while you wait to see if the computer starts successfully.

With the new generation of KVM over IP hardware, like Intel's Remote Management Module, now I can remotely control the computer from power on through shutdown, including the entire boot process.

Remotely controlling the POST and boot process

The Intel solution also allows me to use "virtual media", which means I can make my notebook's floppy drive and CD-ROM drive available to the remote computer to load drivers or software without having to put the CD into the computer I'm controlling.

Intel RMM virtual media selection

With redundant power supplies, RAID hard drive configurations with hot spares, redundant NICs, multiple processors and memory fail-over, there is virtually no need for me to be in the same physical location as our servers to fully manage them.

This post was made possible by Intel's Remote Management technology, a Verizon broadband wireless card and my ever dependable IBM ThinkPad.

Disclosure: InetSolution is an Intel Product Dealer, which means that not only do we use these servers, but we also sell and manage them for our clients. It's probably clear though why we recommend and sell them.

Even more disclosure: InetSolution is also an IBM Partner, which means that not only do I love my IBM ThinkPad, but we also sell ThinkPads and IBM xSeries servers.