Back in an old job we had a 19" rack mounted monitor and keyboard/mouse on a sliding drawer. It was only connected to 1x server.
Fast forward and although we now have alot of our data and applications running on VMs in Azure, in M365 or in other cloud based SaaS, we do still have a handful of 'servers' in the rack. Mainly these are Dell Optiplex Micros and are doing simple jobs e.g. running the TV presentations around the building or the NET2 door access server (don't worry they are backed up!).
What options do I have for connecting say 5 of them up to a single screen, keyboard and mouse - e.g. via a KVM, but keeping the screen mounted in the rack. They have HDMI, DP or VGA outputs.
What do you recommend?
Thanks
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KVM switch like these:
https://buy.hpe.com/us/en/rack-power-infrastructure-products/it-access-control/kvm-switches/c/1010886631
I used this. It works.
https://tripplite.eaton.com/netcommander-8-port-cat5-kvm-switch-1u-rack-mount~B0720081
Traditional enterprise KVM options include Raritan, Avocent, Tripp-lite.
Recently, Level 1 Techs has been making some KVMs worth considering.
The big advance since USB, has been "IP KVM", or KVMs that are remotely accessible over the network. Old ones tended to use Java clients or Flash to work, but everything modern is standards-based HTML5. There are some startups making these as well as the traditional enterprise vendors.
IP-KVMs are a thing, but you're likely to spend almost as much on them as simply replacing the desktop PCs with some cheap 1U servers with proper BMCs (IPMI, iDRAC, etc).