| Product: |
Raritan Dominion KX101 |
| Date: |
02.05.08 (43 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Makes remote support of machines much easier
Disadvantages: A few little quirks that can be worked around
The following is a review of the Raritan Dominion DX2-101. Throughout this review I will discuss the device as the "Dominion".
What we wanted
I think firstly it would be handy to describe the product I was looking for when I purchased the Dominion and what I was looking to achieve. This is not be the only use as I will describe but may help to understand what I was looking for and why.
A big part of my work is to diagnose computer (PC or laptop) problems. A lot of this work has to be done remotely in offices connected to our network via "remote control" software and could be anywhere in the world. This tends to be done with applications such as Dameware, PCAnywhere or perhaps more well known to home users the Remote Assistance and Desktop built into Windows XP. In other words you are controlling the keyboard, mouse and screen of the PC or laptop.
The above system works fine if the Windows operating system itself is working but not if Windows itself is corrupt and you need to work at a much lower level such as having to reinstall the operating system itself. For a number of years this facility has been around for servers, such as the DRAC system available from Dell. Even on PC's themselves you can have this using Intel vPro Technology available on newer Dell models however this means buying the product on every machine and no use for older machines.
In essence the Dominion is a KVM-over-IP device. A standard KVM (Keyboard, Video, Mouse) is a device that you can plug multiple servers into one keyboard, mouse and display. The IP signifies this is done over a network rather than stood at a console.
What I was after was a cost effective device that could be plugged into the network at a remote site (even at the other side of the world) that I could plug a corrupted PC or laptop into and remote control at this level. The answer to my problem was the Dominion.
What you get
The Dominion itself is a nice portable size. About the size of a cigarette packet. Connected is a lead with a display adaptor and a PS/2 (that's the old fashioned) mouse and keyboard connector. For a newer machines without the old connectors a USB cable is included also. A power cable is also included along with an admin cable which will be discussed later.
Configuring the Dominion
Initial configuration of the Dominion is achieved by one of two methods - via a web interface or using the admin port.
By default the Dominion is given an IP (that is network) address of 192.168.0.192. Therefore if you want to use the web interface method to "talk" to the device you have to temporarily set an address on your own machine that can connect over the network. So I set my laptop to 192.168.0.1 and then typed the address in my web browser to enter the "console".
At this point I changed the Dominion to receive a DHCP address which means it would automatically be given a network address at any sites that had that service running. Alternately you could give the device a fixed address.
Perhaps easier for initially setting up the Dominion is to use the admin port. Using this method you plug the admin lead in a small port on the device and into the serial port on your computer. At that point you talk to the Dominion through a terminal application such as HyperTerminal in Windows. You then simple type a couple of commands to set the IP address and from that point you can connect to it on the network and use the more user friendly web interface.
Working in practice
To remote control a machine all I now have to do is open the Dominion web console and click on a link. At this point a Java console is opened showing you exactly what is happening on the screen. At this point I am using the keyboard and mouse on the remote machine. Obviously its hard to judge because all networks are not made similar but so far I have found performance to good even over fairly slow links.
So my Dominion is now sat in a location thousands of miles away plugged into our network at a remote city. If we have a major problem with any PC or laptop we have instructions for users to plug the machine into the device. From that point we can fix the problem or if we have too totally reinstall the full Windows operating system. Without having to pay for a flight or sending a machine back to use the Dominion has paid for itself already.
Quirks
As with other similar products we have found you do have to tweak some of the options for best performance. You sometimes find the mouse doesn't exactly follow the pointer on the actual screen without choosing certain settings.
Another quirk is not so much a problem with the Dominion but how certain laptops work. Because the Dominion is in fact an external monitor as far as a laptop is concerned a user may have to press a certain hot key to send output to the Dominion rather than the local screen - a bit like you would have to do if the laptop was plugged into say a projector.
Other features
One very nice feature is "Virtual Media". With this option you can connect a drive or CD on your local machine to the remote PC. In theory this would allow you to install say software from a CD remotely. In theory the amount of data that may have to be sent can take too much time. Perhaps more useful is the option to mount an ISO image of a CD. This can be anywhere in theory so you could store ISO images of certain CD's at your remote site. For reference this only works in Windows as such so you cant actually boot from a CD attached to your own machine on the remote device.
Other uses
As I said at the beginning my use if for plugging in various machine. However it is just as useful for one server that did not come installed via any low level remote control such as DRAC. If you have numerous servers then you are more likely to want to look at a higher end system with multiple ports. A rack mount kit is included.
Conclusion
The Dominion has done pretty much everything I wanted. We are still finding little quirks which we then find a work around for. As I said it has already saved us money and have even found features (such as the Virtual Media) which has increased our uses for it.
Summary: Has done everything I wanted and more
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