Never Pay For IPMI Again - BliKVM Review

[@JeffGeerling]

I'm getting strong Dr. Claw vibes here... you just need to position the camera behind you 😂

[@YvanDaSilva]

Yes! 🤣

[@BrandonGracyalny]

I'll get you next time server. NEXT TIME!

[@billkillernic]

I am getting disgusted on how a sub $50 card gets sold for almost $200 and nobody cares to regulate this sh1t yet despite this same BS "shortage" strategy (aka artificially limiting supply to drive prices high to make more profit per unit and lower production expenses due to smaller logistical needs) has infected every cocaine addicted CEO on every market from desktop gaming PC (Which is the birthplace of this cancer) to automotive, hobby,server heck I wont be surprised if I see bicycles raising in price cause of the shortage in chips on their speedometers lol

[@Catzzye]

Hope you’re feeling better, good to see you here

[@bugdozer314]

The thumbnail is an homage to your earlier work. Yo dawg. Well done both of you.

[@NiceAesth]

Haha, I was just looking into building a low power server but the lack of IPMI was a complete dealbreaker for me. Amazing timing, really useful video!

[@extectic]

Supermicro makes some really nice Mini-ITX motherboards with built-in IPMI, and built in Atom 3000 series processors. They're not speed monsters, but they do sip power, and are passively cooled (I mean, you do need to arrange some airflow over the board or it will roast or throttle, but no tiny noisy fan on it at least.) The boards with CPU (but no memory) are in the ballpark of $4-500 and up, and this single KVM thing is half of that already - and the Supermicro boards come with a complete IPMI 2.0.

[@TankErdin]

It's worth noting as well that PiKVM, the actual project, has their second Kickstarter live right now. While it may be some time before the device arrives, it is always good to support the original creators. Their first Kickstarter went very well, and I have no doubt that their second run will be as successful.

[@gjermundification]

Link?

[@TJMartinek]

Yea, the first project doesn't fit nicely in my PCIE slot, and to be honest has a really poor form factor and connectors as compared to this one.

[@TJMartinek]

I got this a few months ago and absolutely love it for my homelab. I had a minor hiccup because I used my own CM4, but Jeff helped me get through it with some quick advice.

[@raven4k998]

that kitty wants the best linux IPMI for kde plasma

[@Thats_Mr_Random_Person_to_you]

Great to see this becoming more affordable. The place I work for uses PCoIP cards like this from Teradici/HP for secure workstation access (more complex solution than this for secure access management). But yh, great to see much lower cost solutions that beat the iDrac/IPMI license/extortion etc.. Would be cool to see if they could use the PCIe to do the usb emulation instead of an external USB pass through (save the cabling). With lots of servers only having a VGA out it might be helpful if they had a 1st party solution to deal with that. Its definitely great to see these solutions growing!!

[@paulbrooks4395]

You know what’s funny, I was trying to find something exactly like this for my two computers before I went to my parents house for Christmas and couldn’t. Thanks man!

[@vomytdaug]

I like how the cat got bored and left . It’s like when I talk about tech and I look around and find everyone either gone or staring at their phones .

[@breademoji]

Happy New Year Jeff! I've been following Pi KVM projects with great interest. I was a Tiny Pilot early adopter, then when they started charging for basic features I switched to the earlier version of Bli KVM. The Tiny Pilot still comes in handy for I/O on my testbench, but for server management nothing beats the Bli, I love the ATX power management! I have mine hooked up to a hotkeyed KVM switch to handle multiple servers at once, which works way better than paying a premium for IPMI on each if you get the right brand of switch. I do miss out on ATX power control over more than one, but a networked power strip+AC Back in BIOS is a decent fallback.

[@BrokeBeardedGuy]

this is actually my plan with one. was looking that the rackmount poe version. did you have any issues with your switch? mine uses the scroll lock key to open the switch menu i wasnt sure if the pikvmn gave you all keyboard commands

[@gorrestfump1237]

props for wearing different shirts in the video vs in the sponsor segment. Also, that cat is adorable

[@audreydavis6533]

Great review! BliKVM is one of the best projects I've ever seen. The developer is not only incredibly talented, but a super nice guy. He really goes out of his way to help you out, and even add custom features! There is so much you can do with this software, it truly is mind-blowing!

[@Elemental-IT]

one of these with an HDMI KVM switch (and a way to remotely switch inputs on said switch) would allow IPMI access to an entire rack from a single interface.

[@petermuller608]

Finally a sane hardware implementation of a great software

[@OneBiOzZ]

If it is not using the PCIE connector i dont think it should include the connector by default but instead use a plastic slot if you particularly care about possibly bending it. This way you can opt to install it in a blank slot without fouling on any chips or headers I would also like some GPIO or at least i2c so its easy to install temperature or humidity monitors. A proper datasheet on their website would be nice as well.

[@GearSeekers]

Instant Buy for me

[@shadowflash8519]

This is really cool. I'm constantly pay walled behind HP old servers.

[@hollowknut9473]

Maybe I missed the explanation, but if it doesn't get power or data over pcie, what's the reason for the pcie connector? Is it just a dummy connector to add structural support or can it also be used to power the card instead of POE or USB-c?

[@reecesoan8138]

Im curious of this too. This could be perfect for me to fit into a 1u mini itx server build with ryzen that is out of pcie slots. I could bury it elsewhere in the case somewhere and passthrough hdmi and type c through the back of the case and mount a rj45 jack to the back aswell

[@jowdyboy]

They're literally dummy pins. They don't connect to anything in this revision of the product. Mostly for structural support.

[@aboron_]

I got a 16 port Avocent MPU2032 from ebay for about $130 - and that can cover ipkvm for everything in my rack. Just add about $20 each for the dongles as you add servers. The latest freely available software for the MPU series does HTML5 just fine - so no need to go all "ancient ie/java secret". A much cheaper solution - although I have to go to a network controllable PDU for a hard server reset.

[@MartinBogomolni]

We invented this at VA Linux Systems back in 1999 calling it a "nanoprobe" module on PCI, and it supported TCP/IP over PCI. Funny!

[@joshuaboniface]

I'm still holding out hope for one of these with a low-end GPU on them that does connect over the PCIe bus, so that an inbound HDMI isn't needed. That would be a huge win for servers that don't have an integrated GPU.

[@brycedavey1252]

I'm sorry but that cat!!! One very happy and relaxed kitty for sure 😊

[@DavidSiebert]

That is a pain. It uses a PCI-e slot but does not use it for power. PCI-e offers a 3,3.v pin that is standby power so it might be possible to use that for power. If not then just make it an SSD-sized card and use an SSD mount or double-sided tape in a free area.

[@TT3Dxyz]

The problem is you can't start your computer from ATX commands if your pi has no pcie power. It must be entirely self sufficient to work at full capacity

[@markskinner2950]

I got the card, but didn't order it with the compute module. Doh! And I am not paying $100+ from Ali Express.. monitoring rpilocator for a reasonable 4102000 CM4. Can I use a rock CM3?

[@edwardfletcher7790]

Your gorgeous cat breaks your continuity really badly ! LOL 😆👍

[@laomivip]

Why not just an Asrock Paul card? I got that for less than $200, which I used on my zen2 server (no GPU attached) which otherwise wouldn't have a video output (BliKVM captures the video output, while the ASPEED chip on the Paul card can directly work as a video output device and capture the frame buffer directly). If there are some use for the actual PCIe connection, e.g. internally two PCIe to ethernet chip for both the Pi and the host, and have the two ethernet connection directly wired on the board then I might be interested, but at this current state I really don't see any favours of this over the Asrock Paul at similar price.

[@gankutsuou01]

Paul is just an OEM solution. Even if you manage to get one of them, it's hard to expect any after-sales support from Asrock.

[@bartgrefte]

Just out of curiosity, is there a noticeable difference in power consumption between BliKVM and IPMI? From what I know about IPMI is that those controllers can draw around 10 watts. I have several computers (from Intel's 8th gen era) that each draw less than that idling....

[@bebopboppityboo9158]

One other negative for the BliKVM PCIe - whatever your use case is, the $120 version comes with at least $20 of "stuff" you won't need. This should sell for under $100. Instead it ships with a fan that doesn't work, or when it does, barely cools. Radial fan is a neat idea, this one is under-powered - watch the temps with it on and off to see. Do you need a powered VGA adapter? No? Well it comes with. And with cables you won't use. And it has an OLED that you are supposed to mount between two slivers of weak plastic and then affix to the outside of your computer case. My OLED broke as I tightened the goofy plastic front/back mount. Let's face it: OLED is kind of delicate, probably deserves a better frame than plastic so thin that it deforms when you screw the plates together. The other BliKVM products are superior to the PCIe version. And the manual is incomplete and an afterthought, leaving many steps out.

[@Prophes0r]

I wish we had a minimal cost option for these. That HDMI input is probably the biggest cost. Everything else can probably be done over GPIO and/or USB host. I know many servers can still output to a serial terminal. Including the BIOs. I wonder how low cost we could go if we were just serving up a remote serial terminal, with some clickable buttons to use the client-side UI stuff. All you would need is Ethernet, USB, some GPIO, and just enough grunt to manage the networking overhead. I'd bet you could cost-optimize it down to $15 or less.

[@TheAnoniemo]

You can get esp32's with a camera for under $10, so that should also be capable of capturing a video signal and transmitting it. Other USB functions can be done by any simple controller.

[@CraftComputing]

Cool. Go develop one. I'm sure your end cost to sell it commercially will be less than $10/unit.

[@TheAnoniemo]

@@CraftComputing for sure, it was just to show what kind of hardware you would need, it could be done with much less than a Pi, but the experience would probably also be minimal. Btw, have you ever taken a look at Intel vPro or the AMD equivalent? I believe they have some similar functions to a KVM.

[@axtran]

I recommend a PiKVM and the use of an HDMI KVM which let's you have a remote KVM for four different machines. You don't have the passthrough ATX pins but for one of the systems, but it is much more cost-effective 😁

[@dorion9111]

I am not sure what you were on about.. sure would have been nice to see you set it up and use it..

[@zzaretube]

Thank you for this review. There's only one thing I don't understand. If you connect your motherboard ATX pins (reset, power, hdd led..) to BliKVM, how can you turn the computer on or reset it with the actual case buttons? Is there some passthrough cable for connecting both BliKVM and front panel buttons?

[@whistler2000]

Bit on the expensive side with the Enterprise iDRAC licenses we typically pay around ~200USD, foir Ilo pretty much the same, bit the BliKVM is still an cool solution for render farms that are using normal hihg end Computers for rendering or calculations, where the machines typically resides in the server room, but arent real "server hardware"

[@NMY556L]

Rambo got in on the action! Now you can legitimately add hashtags to attract all the cat lovers to your video.

[@javabeanz8549]

some of us are already here! And Louis Rossmann says his videos with cats are some of his most watched.

[@GYTCommnts]

Nice Klingon t-shirt! 💪 And great vid, of course! Thanks!

[@schrummy14]

How was this used? Seeing pictures of the device, it states that it has a video in. Will this only work for servers that have video output?

[@JamieStuff]

That is correct.

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

I have the Geekworm PiKVM-A8 which imo is better because while it uses a pcie slot on your case like the BliKVM, it doesnt actually connect to any pcie slot on your motherboard. And it's only $99 (excl. Pi and SD card).

[@Phynix72]

Talking about PiKVM... Is Jeff Geerling your brother ?? 😆

[@Its-Just-Zip]

I'm a bit envious of your sysadmin setup there, you have all the requirements, hardware, beer, and a mildly amused deity who seems to accept pets and food as worship.

[@msilkjr]

I can not find a link on their site to buy. Where can I buy one??

[@self-hoster]

The Geekworm KVM-A8 is also great if you want a similar form factor but find it easier to get a regular Pi 4B (I've had better luck getting those)

[@pr0jectSkyneT]

I also have one and it's fantastic

[@josephpalmer5997]

Your cat alone is going to make this a very great video. Thank you!

[@skaltura]

I wish software would be supported for alternative SBC models too since RPi is in scarce supply

[@HomelifePractical]

I would like to buy this BliKVM PCIe but I can not for the life of me find it on Amazon or anywhere on the inter webs! Please provide a link or a website thanks!

[@juliettaylorswift]

2:22 paying licensing for hardware you already own...is that where the idea for the crap some electric car companies are doing now came from (paid subscriptions like to use heated seats [bmw] or self driving feature after you buy upgraded head unit [tesla])

[@Ghennesph]

I want one I wonder if this would work fine with just any consumer board. I can't imagine why not, but I don't have a very big imagination.

[@subrezon]

Regular consumer boards actually have the best chances of it working, because they all have standardized front panel connectors for power / reset. Fully integrated servers often have weird proprietary front panel connectors. Also, many servers' onboard graphics output only to VGA, no HDMI.

[@RowanHawkins]

Supermicro just includes IPMI on all of their systems with full I2C access. The only thing that paying for the license gives you is remote bios upgrade capability. everything back to their 8th generation systems use html5 interfaces, and mounting of multiple ISO images with some mountable from network shares. The better boards have a discreet network interface although some of the other boards support piggyback. Any of the older boards with a '-F' in the model have IPMI 2.0 support. They stopped using the model modifier on newer systems because they all have I2C and its also accessible from inside linux using ipmitools. They do have a utility to reset ipmi IP and Password from the command line on the system.

[@kronos2611]

seems like a good idea but with availability of CM4s being essentially 0 I'm guessing the same is true of these devices.... Be nice to see a solution that isn't using RPI as for me it's a product that is now purely for commercial and industrial purposes and I guess this comes under commercial so maybe RPI are actually giving them stock but if you were to try and build something yourself - bad luck.

[@NickPaul41]

I've always thought these KVMs would be better attached to a rack mount kvm, allowing you to change inputs and pcs.

[@self-hoster]

Yep, there's a whole section of the PiKVM wiki dedicated to that and how a lot of people use it, myself included.

[@Wyld1one]

remember the NIC card that was also a full hardware firewall? hm. a addon. 'make it a dual bios with secure update' need cable with eeprom plugin end, and ziff socket for original bios chip.... no more bricking hardware.

[@Wyld1one]

from the just how expensive is your companies downtime?

[@Daniel15au]

If it doesn't connect to the PC via PCIe, what are the PCIe traces for?

[@aschmitt89]

Cat. Cat. Camera cut. Cat. Pet cat to keep cat happy. Cat. Wait, we’re talking ipmi? Lol. Kidding! Love this video! And this product looks sick!

[@oddball_the_blue]

Regarding the HP iLO 1/2 guff on Java, I've found it's much better to rummage for HP's telenet commands so that you can iLO via SSH. Lock out the onboard Java stack and just run it through a secured SSH key. Not perfect but still works pretty well just so long as you've got the right doc and can remember the right commands. Just a nice FYI from someone with a DL380 G6 in the basement (and 16 hard disks... and at some point I will get the pair of Fibre channel HBA's working... maybe).

[@masterdam79]

I didn't figure out your mastodon account, couldn't find it in your bio or description either

[@bluephreakr]

I appreciate the effort that BliKVM put into this unit, but… no PCI power? _C'mon._ No headers to interface with the FP connectors on a motherboard? _Why?_ Hopefully a second revision provides a modified PiKVM binary so this can be a _true_ KVM. Even some basic GPIO assignments to those things would be better than nothing.

[@TheCreaperHead]

I really need this for my server for my college dorm when I'm away!!!

[@Leeous_]

Only slightly cheating because I found your video very interesting because I was watching the kitty the entire time. That is a good thing.

[@johndelabretonne2373]

Nice review! I'd love to see a review of the Asrock Rack Paul., if you can get a hold of one.

[@DocNo27]

Hmm - wonder if I could get these to work with my Qnap NAS. EDIT: the mention of iDRAC gave me a cold shiver - ugh!

[@reinekewf7987]

uhhh fluffy little creature and so peaceful. i hope it is fluffy from the inside too because having a feisty devil seems not that appealing to me ^^

[@edwardallenthree]

Heck, it's worth it just to get the CM4.

[@d00dEEE]

Yeah, that was my thought. I haven't seen a CM4 in the wild for like two years now. (I did get a 2G Pi 4b at Microcenter in June for list - $45, so the regular Pis are starting to reappear.)

[@carbongrip2108]

Doesn't include a CM4... am I missing something?

[@blendpinexus1416]

you know what? i need of these. the remote desktop function i'm trying to do on my linux machine is just falling flat on it's face.

[@SlevinKalevera]

"Let's see ventoy do that" "SIR, THEY'RE FIRING RIGHT ACROSS THE BOW, SIR!!!!"

[@fromonhigh891]

Thanks for showing a video about something no one can get!

[@Thee_Dr_Evil]

I still have a NIB Compaq RILO, PCI card with external PSU and mouse/kb... Those were the early days of IPMI.

[@ScottGrammer]

OK, this is driving me nuts. I KNOW that music, but I can't think of the name or artist. Somebody help me out here???

[@KenJones1961]

I never could understand describing beer or whiskey. I apparently just don't have the palate. The other day the wife and I were out at a wine store, and I tried some different meads. I picked up a bottle of Viking Blod. Trying to describe what came to mind was meat marinade. (WTF?) Not something I thought I'd want to drink, but it is definitely better, to me, than the overly sweet Chaucer's she likes. I can't describe the palate of the drinks I drink. I just know what I like. For now, Viking Blod is going to have a place on my shelves.

[@ilaserbia]

Hope this and similar solutions come down in price with time.

[@theJonnymac]

why do they have pcie if the device doesn’t use it?

[@DearNoobs]

Have you ever looked at getting onto floatplane too? good video, look forward to your future work!

[@CraftComputing]

.....I'm on floatplane.

[@lorenzo42p]

why does it need to take up a slot if it's not using it?

[@Altimicus]

This is the first time I actually care about the advertiser on a YT video and not only not skip it, use the link and create an account to test their API.

[@pratikpramanik7782]

Omg I want that shirt to match my ds9 mug!

[@xznmusic]

This card's web interface reminds me a lot of the Sun Microsystems iLOM.

[@vollhorst140]

What’s wrong with ventoy?

[@IncendiarySolution]

I'd like to see some cm4 alternatives that would work with this.

[@TBirdMcCloy]

The most ancient java runtime with the security flatlined out and internet explorer 9. I have a windows 10 LTSC VM just for this. my soul. Why would you call me out like this? How else am I supposed to change fiber channel domains on EOL ATTO FibreConnect 1600? lol. great video.

[@trashmann3809]

Anyone test this and/or other IP KVM projects using a SOQuartz from Pine64 in place of the RP CM4? With the status of RP stock still unknown I’d like to see if alternatives can be used currently.

[@shaunlavoie6183]

Complete side note, are you doing Mixology March this year?

[@CraftComputing]

Planning on it!

[@shaunlavoie6183]

@@CraftComputing awesome! Excellent video also! Love all your stuff. You got me starting my first Homelab and also into Mixology. Wife approval factor is high on both lol

[@JzJad]

Hey now I have a docker container for the old idracs and ilos! Lol

[@freespam9236]

legally binding digital signature... the question is... in witch jurisdictions....

[@CouchPotator]

Any digital signature can be legally binding, including a toggle box that says "Click Here to Sign".

[@freespam9236]

​@@CouchPotator yes... but as person that lives in EU with proper digital signature system, in country that witch digital signature is equal to paper signature... i find all those companies offerings very suspicious... especially this one as their EU digital signature info page is basically wall of text about EU digital signatures laws and then one paragraph that their offering is not the real deal...

[@TheRailroad99]

I wonder why they didn't use PCIe power and USB? Or maybe even an emulated PCIe video card... That would have made the card much nicer (Maybe power requirements? I think 5VSB should be exposed over the bus. Maybe the CM4 cannot act as a PCIe slave, only master?

[@terrorpup]

Jeff, where the link for BliKVM?

[@javabeanz8549]

in the description is the link

[@sinephase]

kinda weird since chipsets are basically their own computer anymore too. Probably has more to do with IP control rather than the difficulty of including it.

[@michaelloving8004]

Hi, Jeff what is breed of your cat Rambo

[@CraftComputing]

He's a Siberian 😸

[@FireBean8504]

Why Mastodon?

[@skaltura]

I have a Ubuntu 14, or maybe even older VM just for BMC on some servers X) Requires specific old version Java.

[@jasongrimshaw-smith8369]

Subscribed. You had me at ginger cat. Oh and ipmipm...

[@kylerossmannn]

Their website seems to be down

[@JoeVSvolcano]

DOH! The link doesn't let you buy it. I NEED THIS. TAKE MY MONEY!!!

[@joshhardin666]

it's great, but it's about 4x more expensive than it would need to be for full deployment to all the things in home and commercial... and I know that we're NOT going to see pi based devices for $50 that do the job, so i'm waiting for a cheap commercial solution within the next few years.

[@gjermundification]

It's not powered by the host PCIe?

[@CraftComputing]

Be kinda hard to power it when the host is off....

[@gjermundification]

@@CraftComputing Perhaps a battery in-between would be the way to go?

[@Jack-qj2pr]

PiKVM is so much nicer to use than the trash IPMI/IPKVM that comes on my WRX80 SAGE. The KVM on that board is so unreliable. Randomly logs me out, it's incredibly slow and CDROM emulation is completely busted. Would be great if I could install OpenBMC on it.

[@jaketus]

2:18 I feel personally attacked.

[@berndeckenfels]

More Videos on BMC would be good.

[@MultiYogibear]

This looks exactly like what I have been searching for. Now I don't have to keep my pc on when I go on holiday for steam link

[@oxyhyxo_dev]

upvoting for the cat

[@Brysonandmason320]

Craft Computing what do you think about the E5 2699 v3 cpu paired with a gtx 108o ftw3 do you think this would be a good build?? i have a few connections to get these very cheaply but in almost new condition. Thanks matt.

[@Cyber_Official]

The urge to pet the cat is strong

[@krillin63]

wheres twitter?

[@creed5248]

Isn't there a software solution for this now ???

[@creed5248]

An extra keyboard with a really long cord ? LoL !!

[@mdrake42]

I would have liked to see you install it. Since it’s third party, I want to see it installed in a machine. I’m having trouble seeing how you can integrate this in a live machine since front server panels mostly use proprietary connectors now. Maybe if your using a clone setup I can see how this might work. Also I would like to see how the video setup worked, so you have a monitor on-site as well as the remote capability