[mythtv-users] Small backend server with IPMI (remote virtual console access)?

[Kenni Lund]

2013/7/17 Raymond Wagner <raymond at wagnerrp.com>:
> On 7/16/2013 4:23 PM, Tom Harris wrote:
>>
>> If I had virtual console access via IPMI (or iLO or similar), I could have
>> quickly remedied the issue
>
>
> Modern i5s and i7s, with a supporting chipset, have an integrated VNC-based
> IPKVM.
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_vPro#VNC-based_KVM_remote_control

Exactly, I would recommend the Intel vPro solution as well. I've been
running my backend on a vPro-compatible system for a couple of years,
and even though I've only needed the functionality once (to see why
the system didn't boot after a reset), then it's still nice to have
the functionality. My setup consists of a Intel motherboard with a
vPro-compatible chipset and an Core i5 with integrated GPU. The
motherboard runs a few network services which are available to the
LAN. One of the services is a webserver which gives you a simple
website that allows you to power on, power off or (hard) reset the
system. Another service gives you the VNC-based KVM, which allows you
to get low-level KVM access and - if using a compatible client -
allows you to mount ISO files over the network and boot from them.
That's useful if you don't want to put an optical drive in your
server, as you're likely only going to use it to install the OS once
when setting up the server.

I've been looking into upgrading the system to a Haswell-based one, so
I can just as well share some of my findings:

Out of the new Intel 8 Series desktop chipsets for Haswell, only one
chipset supports vPro - and that's "Intel Q87":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGA_1150#Original_Haswell_chipsets

Intel currently only has one desktop motherboard with Q87 chipset -
"Intel DQ87PQ" (the manual of the motherboard confirms that the
motherboard supports vPro, including AMT/KVM):
http://ark.intel.com/products/series/75550/Intel-Desktop-Boards-with-Intel-Q87-Chipset

In terms of CPU, any of the Haswell Core i5 or i7 models above 45xx
which are NOT "K" or "R" models will support vPro.
You can see a comparison table of the CPUs here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haswell_(microarchitecture)#Desktop_processors

Even though I'm fairly sure that the above rules applies to all
current Haswell CPUs, please check vPro compatibility of the CPU at
http://ark.intel.com/ before buying.

Best regards
Kenni