Select Blade Tasks → Remote Control to assign local KVM or Media Tray to specific blade servers, or to operate a blade server from a networked remote console.
The following illustration shows the remote-control page for an advanced management module.
To assign the local KVM or the media tray to a different blade server, select the blade server from the KVM owner list or Media tray owner list and click Refresh.
Click Start Remote Control to establish a remote console. The remote console launches in a stand-alone Java application window (see Using the remote console feature for more information).
On a remote console, you can control the blade server as if you were at the local console, including restarting the blade server and viewing the POST process, with full keyboard and mouse control. Remote console keyboard support includes all keys. Icons are provided for keys that might have special meanings to the blade server. For example, to transmit Ctrl+S to the blade server, click the Ctrl icon, click inside the video area, then press the S key on the keyboard.
Use the remote console to perform the following tasks:
- View and change the blade server that currently controls the Keyboard, Video, and Mouse (KVM) and the media tray in the BladeCenter unit. See the Installation and User's Guide for your blade server for more information about KVM and media tray switching.
- The operating system in the blade server must provide USB support for the blade server to recognize and use the keyboard and mouse, even if the keyboard and mouse have PS/2-style connectors.
- If the operating system in the blade server does not support USB Mass Storage, the remote disk feature is not available.
- If you install a supported Microsoft Windows operating system on the blade server while it is not the current owner of the KVM, a delay of up to 1 minute occurs the first time that you switch the KVM to the blade server. All subsequent switching takes place in the normal KVM switching time frame (up to 20 seconds).
- Select and access the drives in the media tray.
- Mount a drive or image, from the system that is acting as the remote console, onto a blade server. The mounted drive or image appears as a USB device that is attached to the blade server. See Using the remote disk feature for information and instructions.
- View the details of any currently active remote-control session (user ID, client IP address, start time).
- Enable or disable local switching of the KVM for blade
servers until it is explicitly enabled again. This prevents a local
user from switching the console to a different blade server while
you are performing remote-control tasks. Users with access to the
BladeCenter unit can use the KVM select button on a blade server to
switch KVM ownership. Unless you disable local access, they also can
use a keyboard that is attached directly to the management module
to switch KVM control between blade servers.
If a local user discovers that there is no response when the KVM select button is pressed, local control might have been disabled on the blade server by a remote user who is using the management module.
- Enable or disable local switching of the media tray for all blade servers until they are explicitly enabled again. This prevents other users from switching control of the media tray to a different blade server while you are performing a task. The media tray is used by one blade server at a time.
The following features are supported:
- Enable or disable remote switching of the media tray for all blade servers until they are explicitly enabled again.
- Enable or disable remote KVM switching for all blade servers until this feature is explicitly enabled again.
- Enable or disable multiple concurrent video sessions. If the sessions are enabled, up to four users can view the video of the same blade server concurrently through the remote console; otherwise, the video can be viewed by only one user.
The following illustration shows a remote-control session for an advanced management module.
- Use the Video icon to repaint, calibrate,
or adjust the horizontal position of the display.
- Select Toggle Full Screen to switch between display of the remote session in a sizable window and a view that takes up the entire screen. This feature is available only when viewing a concurrent video blade server.
- Select Repaint to update the remote console display and clean up display artifacts.
- Select Calibrate (does not apply to cKVM blade server sessions) to run a video calibration sequence that optimizes remote video session performance. Calibrate a session when the displayed colors are significantly different from what is expected.
- Select Horizontal Adjust to center the display.
- Select Screenshot to capture the current video screen and save it to the local disk drive in one of the supported image formats. This feature is available only when viewing a concurrent video blade server.
Note: These operations do not apply to cKVM video. - Use the Server Blade dropdown list to select the blade server to control.
- Use the Power Control icon to power-off the selected blade server, to restart it, to stop the operating system and power-off, or to restart it with an NMI.
- Use the KVM icon to assign the local KVM to a selected blade server.
- Use the Media tray icon to assign the Media tray to a selected blade server.
- Use the Sticky Key buttons to modify your next keystroke with the Ctrl, Alt, or Shift key.
- Use the Softkey icon to define or use custom keystroke sequences.
- Use the Remote Drive icon to open the Remote Drive window, which is used to mount and unmount virtual media. See Mounting a disk drive or image.
- Use the Preferences icon to set remote-control session preferences, to set KVM preferences, and to create custom key icons that represent common key combinations. You can also disable or enable the mouse capture feature that allows the local computer mouse to control either the remote session or the local computer, based on its screen position. When mouse capture is disabled, you also have the option of enabling or disabling the local mouse.
The timeout value for a remote-control session is the same as the timeout value that you set for the management-module web interface session when you logged in.
Click Concurrent KVM Configuration to view and configure the concurrent KVM (cKVM) status and settings for each blade server. The concurrent KVM feature requires optional hardware and a blade server that is concurrent KVM capable. See the documentation for your blade server for additional information.
When concurrent KVM is used, multiple remote-control sessions can access multiple blade servers simultaneously. Standard remote-console sessions (not using concurrent KVM) enable only one remote-console session for one blade server at a time. If multiple concurrent remote video sessions are enabled in the Remote Control Settings, up to four users can view the video of the same blade server concurrently through the remote console; otherwise, the video can be viewed by only one user. If the maximum number of active remote-control sessions has been reached, you must end one of the current sessions to start a new one.