Raritan KX II, Frequently Asked Questions Manual, Page: 1 / 20

Dominion KX II - FAQ
© 2010 Raritan Inc. Page 1 of 20 V1098 R2 January 2010
Dominion
®
KX II
Question Answer
General Questions
What is Dominion KX II? Dominion KX II is a second generation digital KVM (keyboard, video,
mouse) switch that enables one, two, four or eight IT administrators to
access and control 8, 16, 32 or 64 servers over the network with BIOS-
level functionality. Dominion KX II is completely hardware- and OS-
independent; users can troubleshoot and reconfigure servers even
when servers are down.
At the rack, Dominion KX II provides the same functionality,
convenience, space and cost savings as traditional analog KVM
switches. However, Dominion KX II also integrates the industry’s highest
performing KVM-over-IP technology, allowing multiple administrators to
access server KVM consoles from any networked workstation.
How does Dominion KX II
differ from remote control
software? When using Dominion KX II remotely, the interface, at first glance, may
seem similar to remote control software such as pcAnywhere
TM
,
Windows
®
Terminal Services/Remote Desktop, VNC, etc. However,
because Dominion KX II is not a software but a hardware solution, it’s
much more powerful:

Hardware- and OS-independent – Dominion KX II can be used
to manage servers running many popular OSs, including Intel
®
,
Sun
TM
, PowerPC running Windows, Linux
®
, Solaris
TM
, etc.

State-independent/Agentless – Dominion KX II does not require
the managed server OS to be up and running, nor does it
require any special software to be installed on the managed
server.

Out-of-band – Even if the managed server’s own network
connection is unavailable, it can still be managed through
Dominion KX II.

BIOS-level access – Even if the server is hung at boot up,
requires booting to safe mode, or requires system BIOS
parameters to be altered, Dominion KX II still works flawlessly to
enable these configurations to be made.