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Comments on Hardware for occasional direct control of personal server
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Hardware for occasional direct control of personal server
Sorry if the title is weird, please feel free to suggest a rephrase.
I have a personal server in my closet. I host various software on this for my family's use. The vast majority of the time I control it with SSH.
There are occasional times when SSH is not possible. For example, when the server is booting up (for security reasons, I set it up so that a manual password must be entered), the network is malfunctioning, or the system is so impaired that SSH server is broken (can happen when you accidentally fill your hard drive 100% or a buggy update).
Currently, I keep a keyboard and monitor in the same closet, that I connect to the server when I cannot use SSH. This is a bit annoying, because the monitor is bulky, there's a long delay when you first connect, the cables end up in a tangle, etc.
I've looked around and it sounds like the techs at data centers carry around a console that they connect to servers as needed. I've never worked such a job and don't know anyone who has, so it's all a mystery to me. The consoles seem like a laptop but without a computer inside, so just a screen/keyboard combo. However, these seem horrendously expensive ($400+ a few years ago) and I have no idea if they require a special enterprise server to work. My server is simply a regular desktop PC that I run headless. I've never worked such a job and don't know anyone who has, so it's all a mystery to me.
What is a practical way for occasionally managing a personal server, when remote control like SSH is not available?
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Since my previous answer, I've upgraded to an openterface Mini KVM You need a (free) client on the host, but it will let you control the other machine with the keyboard on your own system. It's about 130 USD for a full kit and will also let you plug in a device like storage to the KVM box that can be switched between the host and target.
It's not much bigger than a USB video capture device. The software client on some earlier versions got accidentally deleted by Windows, but seems ok on newer versions of the software
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