Avocent DSR 2010 - KVM switch - 16 ports

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The Avocent DSR 2010 is what's known as a digital KVM, or Keyboard, Video and Mouse. It's a black box, which is about 43cm long (Without mounting brackets, 48cm with them) into which you plug a mouse, monitor and keyboard. For the techies out there it's 1U. Along the front are 17 green lights and 17 orange lights and the name of the box (ASR 2010) to the far right. Nothing too exciting.

Round the back is ...
.../> Depending on the model you have bought you can have up to 16 ports in two rows. Each port represents a connection to a server. These ports look very much lie a phone jack. Just don't plug a phone into them!

As well as these there is a power inlet (Normal three prong, kettle style), a small rocker power switch and connectors for a mouse, keyboard and monitor.

Once you have all of the above (Along with some power) ... more

Sorry, I know this is a bit of an odd one and that most people probably won't have a clue as to what this thing is, or what it does, but I was bored and hadn't written a review in a while so I thought I would put my time to good use at work and write this op!

What is it?
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The Avocent DSR 2010 is what's known as a digital KVM, or Keyboard, Video and Mouse. It's a black box, which is about 43cm long (Without mounting brackets, 48cm with them) into which you plug a mouse, monitor and keyboard. For the techies out there it's 1U. Along the front are 17 green lights and 17 orange lights and the name of the box (ASR 2010) to the far right. Nothing too exciting.

Round the back is a little more interesting, but no better looking.

Depending on the model you have bought you can have up to 16 ports in two rows. Each port represents a connection to a server. These ports look very much lie a phone jack. Just don't plug a phone into them!

As well as these there is a power inlet (Normal three prong, kettle style), a small rocker power switch and connectors for a mouse, keyboard and monitor.

Once you have all of the above (Along with some power) plugged into the back of the unit you can attach some network cables (Cat 5), run them to the nearest computer (Normally a server) plug it into a dongle (More of these shortly) which is then plugged into the back of the server in place of the mouse, keyboard and monitor. You are now ready(ish) to "remote view" your server from a PC.

Whoops; forgot one major thing. There is another port at the back (Same as the others but set apart) which you connect the DSR box into the network with. This is a network cable which goes to a network port or switch and allows it to communicate with the rest of the network. Knew I had forgotten something!

What can you do with it?
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Imagine you have a number of servers (Up to 16 in this case) and you need to keep an eye on them. You have three options

1) Put a monitor, keyboard and mouse on each…. that would be A) expensive and B) it would take up a huge amount of room.

2) Use one monitor, keyboard and mouse and each time you need to look at another server swap the cables over.

3) Use a KVM. Like this.

Which seems easier? Aside from this you can also connect to said 16 PCs/Servers from a remote server which has the correct software installed (Called DSView). This allows you to remote the server as if you were sitting at the machine.

I know…. How lazy can you be? Well, in my case very. But sometimes these things are a lifesaver. These things come in very handy if you are not in the building where your servers are (Which is a common occurrence in data centres etc).

What else do I need?
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The problem with these is that the box alone is no good. It doesn't do anything. It doesn't even look nice. To make the box do anything useful you need A) Software (Called DSView and DSAdmin) B) More hardware in the form of dongles and cables.

Dongles:
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Is it just me or does this word just sound inherently iffy? Sorry to lower the tone of the review!

A dongle is a small piece of plastic (About 8cms long by 3cms wide) with a cable coming from one end and a port, which looks like a phone jack at the other.

The cable splits into three parts, a mouse, keyboard and monitor connector. All look the same as normal connectors and are coloured in the now standard manner of Blue for the monitor, green for the mouse and violet for the keyboard.

These plug into the back of the server and the end that looks like a phone jack… plug a network cable into it and run it back to the KVM. Look at the front of the KVM and a small orange light will have appeared. This shows that you have a live connection on that port.

Software:
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Two bits of software are needed. One is called DSAdmin and the other is DSView. This is by no-means a full review of the software. I could write a review on the software alone and as such the below will give the basics of what the software is used for.

View:
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DSView does pretty much what is says; it allows you to view the server. Launching DSView will give you a logon box asking for a username, domain and password (All set by the administrator in DSAdmin). When you first launch it you will be shown a "topographical" view. Simply put this will allow you to see all the KVMs you are allowed to see in alphabetical order.

You can change this view to Server, which shows all the servers you are allowed to view, again in alphabetical order. Double click on a server name and in roughly three seconds (Depending on how fast your network is) you will be connected to the remote server.

Admin:
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DSAdmin is installed on one computer, which then becomes your Authentication server. This is the server that the client (DSView) connects to in order to retrieve a list of KVMs/Servers available to the user.

DSAdmin is used to name the KVMs (Often along the lines of Office1KVM1) and also to control who can see what KVMs. For security reasons you can set passwords and restrict access depending on the username. This allows you to have one KVM for many servers without having to worry about who can look at what server.

Installation:
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If you know how to use a screwdriver and can click a mouse button you can install a DSR 2010. Attach the brackets to the side of it and screw them into the cabinet (If you want it rack mounted; it is small enough to put on a desk. Just don't put a monitor on-top of it), install your software on the server and the PC and done. It really is that simple.

Pros:
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Still lost with me? Good, good.

As I've already said; these can be a lifesaver. There will be times that you are just simply unable to get to a machine (Such as being on call), which needs to be rebooted. That's where a digital KVM comes in handy.

Reboot the server in the normal manner (Start|Shutdown for Windows and XyZD -15 Y -t -T +"=olnk34 for Unix servers). Then just sit back and wait. The joy of this kit is that unlike most remote software you can view the whole boot process. You will see the POST (Power On Self Test) right up to Windows loading.

Once you are onto the server you can simply control it like you would if you were sitting at it.

Cons:
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The bad bits.

Cost. These things cost a fortune. Around £2500 for the KVM alone. Then you need to buy a dongle for each server and a licence for DSAdmin (Just the one copy) and a license for each copy of DSView (One for each PC you want to remote from). Add onto that sundries such as network cables and you're looking at a tidy amount.

You can get bundles which lower the cost but not by much. Shop around is my advice. Trust me; your boss will love you for it.

Quality. Quality will vary depending on how fast your network is and how long the network cable is from the server to the KVM. The longer the cable the worse the picture quality. The slower your network the worse the quality and vice-versa.

The biggest problem though is that you can't power the machine up/down. For this you still need to be in front of the server. If you have a blue screen or the server won't respond to the keyboard you will have to go to the server and power it down and back up. This is a huge failing in my eyes, especially for the cost.

Overall:
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It's expensive for what it is but the DSR 2010 has saved me so much time over the last two years that I feel it has more than made it's money back up. But then it wasn't my money. ;-)

I would say that if your company can afford this and you think you might have a need for it get one. If you can get by with a normal analogue KVM then save the money and get one of them instead.

Hope I've not baffled anyone too much. If I have drop me a note and I'll try to explain better.

Cheers,

Dean 

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