If anyone wants to add remote access capability to machines without IPMI you can try with something like the $30 RISC-V NanoKVM[1][2]. It provides HDMI capture (and encoding), Ethernet/Wifi, ATX power control, and runs a normal linux distribution.
I'm playing with one now (the full kit) attached to my toy mini PC. It's a little RISC-V device consuming a couple watts. No WiFi yet, but it attaches to PC and emulates 4 things in addition to capturing HDMI output to a web UI:
1. A USB keyboard.
2. A USB mouse.
3. A USB flash drive (using a partition on its internal SD card) for storing bootable ISO to install/rescure systems.
4. A USB NIC which is very neat. I can use it on the PC to expose management SSH port just on that instead of the primary NIC, so that the PC has a sorta dedicated IPMI interface.
Newer versions of the device software come with WireGuard and Tailscale support, so I can just connect to it over VPN.
Still have some minor issues, but the developers are working fast to fix them.
Notably, you need the $60 “full” version to get the ATX power control breakout that attaches to the perverse physically-USB-C connector that has the ATX signals (why? why did they make this abomination?..). Or make your own, I guess, that’s always an option (if only USB-C connectors weren’t absolute ass to solder).
Probably because USBC connectors are really cheap. If this was 5 years ago, they probably would be doing something terrible with a usb 3 A connector instead.
A closed source $30 external network KVM is less expensive (and less featureful) than closed source onboard IPMI which typically increases board price by $100-$200.
I think there are some open source IPMI products, but that involves talking to an ODM about a run of thousands of boards which is a bit much for me; I just want two servers at home. I'm tempted by the Gigabyte MC12-LE0 boards that are low cost in Germany right now, but getting dedicated server boards disrupts my pattern of upgrade a desktop, and give the old board to my oldest server.
riobard|1 year ago
1. A USB keyboard.
2. A USB mouse.
3. A USB flash drive (using a partition on its internal SD card) for storing bootable ISO to install/rescure systems.
4. A USB NIC which is very neat. I can use it on the PC to expose management SSH port just on that instead of the primary NIC, so that the PC has a sorta dedicated IPMI interface.
Newer versions of the device software come with WireGuard and Tailscale support, so I can just connect to it over VPN.
Still have some minor issues, but the developers are working fast to fix them.
mananaysiempre|1 year ago
jdboyd|1 year ago
riobard|1 year ago
Ir0nMan|1 year ago
snvzz|1 year ago
Yet another KVM that cannot be trusted.
justinclift|1 year ago
https://github.com/sipeed/NanoKVM
Link copied from another comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41432060
toast0|1 year ago
I think there are some open source IPMI products, but that involves talking to an ODM about a run of thousands of boards which is a bit much for me; I just want two servers at home. I'm tempted by the Gigabyte MC12-LE0 boards that are low cost in Germany right now, but getting dedicated server boards disrupts my pattern of upgrade a desktop, and give the old board to my oldest server.
TMWNN|1 year ago