Appendix D: FAQs
328
Ethernet and IP Networking
Does the KSX II offer dual gigabit Ethernet ports to provide
redundant fail-over, or load balancing?
Yes. The KSX II features dual gigabit Ethernet ports to provide
redundant failover capabilities. Should the primary Ethernet port (or the
switch/router to which it is connected) fail, the KSX II will failover to the
secondary network port with the same IP address, ensuring that server
operations are not disrupted. Note that automatic failover must be
enabled by the administrator.
How much bandwidth does the KSX II require?
The KSX II offers next generation KVM-over-IP technology - the very
best video compression available. Raritan has received numerous
technical awards confirming its high video quality transmissions and the
low bandwidth utilization.
Raritan pioneered the KVM-over-IP functionality that allows users to
tailor their video parameters to conserve network bandwidth. For
instance, when connecting to the KSX II through a dial-up modem
connection, video transmissions can be scaled to grayscale - allowing
users to be fully productive while ensuring high performance.
With that in mind, the following data refers to the KSX II at its default
video settings - again, these settings can be tailored to a specific
environment. They can be increased to provide even higher quality video
(color depth), or decreased to optimize for low-speed connections.
As a general rule, a conservative estimate for bandwidth utilization (at
the KSX II's default settings) is approximately 0.5Mbit/second per active
KVM user (connected to and using a server), with very occasional spikes
up to 2MBit/second. This is a very conservative estimate because
bandwidth utilization will typically be even lower.
Bandwidth required by each video transmission depends on what task is
being performed on the managed server. The more the screen changes,
the more bandwidth is utilized. The table below summarizes some use
cases and the required bandwidth utilization at the KSX II's default
settings on a 10Mbit/s network:
Use case
Required
bandwidth
Idle Windows Desktop
0 Mbps
Move Cursor Around Desktop
0.18Mbps