System information

1 Introduction
one. A separate network environment has the advantage to provide a secure remote interface
to the Internet, while the servers are only accessible via the local network.
Internet
Remote Management Card
Connection
Local Network Adapter
Connection
Management
Computer
Server
Figure 1.3: Remote management of computer systems.
Currently on the market there are several remote management cards as Peppercon eRIC
II [29], AMI MegaRAC
R

G4 [30] and TYAN SMDC M329 [31]. They differ in functionality
and functioning. The next paragraphs explain these cards more precisely.
Peppercon eRIC II The eRIC II is a KVM-over-IP PCI card that provides browser-based
remote access and control to any server [29]. It has an onboard VGA controller which
replace the primary graphic card of the host computer. The screen content is accessible
via an embedded web server running on the card. However, this card has no POST
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code analyzer. Furthermore, eRIC II does not provide own monitoring sensors to measure
temperature or fan speed.
AMI MegaRAC
R

G4 The MegaRAC G4 manufactured by American Megatrends Inc. is
a PCI card that can be installed onto regular server platforms or into blade servers [30]. It
implements KVM over LAN
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. The display screen is redirected from the VGA interface of
the host computer to a remote PC. The MegaRac G4 has similar features as the eRIC II
card, but it differs in that it does not have an onboard VGA chip. All monitoring features
of the card requires an IPMI
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connection to the motherboard.
TYAN SMDC M3291 In contrast to the MegaRAC and the eRIC express which serve
for a wide range of types of mainboards, the SMDC M3291 card was especially developed
for TYAN mainboards [31]. TYAN’s Server Management Daughter Card (SMDC) is no
peripheral card. The connections between the card and the mainboards are established by
ribbon cables instead of the card’s edge connector [32]. The card has no physical connection
to the graphic card. Instead it uses the console redirection feature of the BIOS to provide
remote console access. The SMDC provides remote system monitoring and controlling via
the IPMI over LAN interface.
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Power On Self Test. It is explained in section 6.1.
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Local Area Network.
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Intelligent Platform Management Interface.
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