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Crash Cart KVM Use/Set Up

By @toco
    2021-12-11 13:20:29.740Z

    Is it possible to use TinyPilot as a crash cart kvm if need be? I am looking for an alternative for the poor crash cart KVMs on the market. Would I be able to connect the Ethernet cable straight to my laptop from the TinyPilot or does it always require a router to obtain an IP? My ideal set up if this works is one of the following:

    1. TinyPilot connected to server, with a network cable connected from the TinyPilot to my laptop. Or
    2. TinyPilot connected to a server, and it’s network cable to a 4 port unmanaged switch that also has my laptop connected to it.
    Reply
    • 7 replies
    1. Michael Lynch @michael2021-12-13 21:07:12.652Z

      I haven't tried that, but either option should be possible. For option (1), I believe you'd need a crossover cable instead of a standard Ethernet cable, but option (2) should work with standard Ethernet cables.

      TinyPilot runs a Debian-based OS, and you have SSH access with root privileges, so the process would be the same as connecting your laptop to any other Debian or Ubuntu-based system without a router in the mix.

      Reply
      1. T@toco
          2021-12-13 21:16:38.128Z

          Okay great! I will try both ways and post on here for future users looking for something similar.

          Regardless, I have multiple use cases for the TinyPilot. My order actually just shipped and I’m excited to test it out. Thank you for the info!

          Reply
          1. Michael Lynch @michael2021-12-13 21:44:39.251Z

            Sounds great. Thanks for your order!

            Reply
            1. T@toco
                2021-12-17 22:13:56.900Z

                Works perfectly as a crash cart kvm and functions way better than the ones I have worked with. This is exactly what I was looking for and plan to incorporate these into my techs toolkits. I will be using mine a lot more in the next few weeks so I can follow up with an update. Just wanted to share my initial thoughts because of how perfectly it fits my needs.

                Reply
                1. Michael Lynch @michael2021-12-17 22:14:50.354Z

                  Awesome! Glad to hear it!

                  Reply
          2. A
            In reply totoco⬆:
            Alan Sill @alansill
              2021-12-15 22:06:12.974Z

              Our use case is similar, but we operate a modestly large machine room with about 750 nodes and for this reason have purchased more than one Voyager 2. We have a private control Ethernet that can provide the network connectivity, so our question is how to set up more than one TinyPilot at once. Can we assign DHCP addresses to their MAC interface IDs, for example, and if so, how can we best retrieve these without plugging them in yet? (They are brand new and have not yet been used.)

              Reply
              1. Michael Lynch @michael2021-12-16 20:30:16.896Z

                Yes, you can assign DHCP addresses to their MAC addresses. The TinyPilot for the most part just behaves like a normal Debian-based server.

                To have multiple TinyPilots on the same network, you should give them unique hostnames through System > Hostname.

                It's unfortunately not possible to retrieve the MAC address without connecting the drives to a network. You can SSH in and check the MAC address by running ifconfig or you can check at your router which device is announcing itself under the hostname tinypilot.

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