Comment American Megatrends MegaRAC G2/G3 (Score 4, Interesting) 67
I have an AMI MegaRAC G2 installed in one of my co-lo servers at The Planet (Dallas, TX).
It is a standard half-length PCI card that is a looks like a ATI Rage XL graphics card to the host operating system with a VGA connector on the back of the card in case you really need to hook a monitor up to it.
(you do need to be able to disable the onboard VGA on the server - if it has it)
The real magic is with the cards' mini USB connector - cable it up to any USB port on the server and the card will emulate a USB keyboard, USB mouse and a USB CD-ROM (great for operating system re-installs if you prefer Windows!).
On the internal side, the card has a feature connector that allows 'pass-thru' to the servers' reset and power jumper pins.
Because of the feature connector, the card can perform a proper hardware reset and power-cycle via 'pass-thru' to the server PWR_ON/RESET pins if the server manufacturer actually has bothered to put standard pins on their server board like most OEM motherboards have - the card can survive short power outages with the aid of its' dinky onboard battery that can last 30 minutes without power.
My only bugbear with the G2 is that it has a horrible tendency to fall over if it is 'unprotected' from the Internet - if you can protect it from unwanted traffic by ACLs on an upstream router, I can heartily recommend it.
The G3 is meant to have an onboard firewall but my e-mails to American Megatrends over the last few days have been rudely ignored.
Another thing...
The firmware for both cards is based on uClinux and various other GPL'd softwares... no mention of any source on American Megatrend's website although they do quote the GPL license on their download page.
So to sum up:
High-quality card.
Average firmware.
Manufacturer has piss-poor GPL attitude.
Manufacturer has tendency not to reply to e-mails.
I hope this information is helpful to at least some readers.
It is a standard half-length PCI card that is a looks like a ATI Rage XL graphics card to the host operating system with a VGA connector on the back of the card in case you really need to hook a monitor up to it.
(you do need to be able to disable the onboard VGA on the server - if it has it)
The real magic is with the cards' mini USB connector - cable it up to any USB port on the server and the card will emulate a USB keyboard, USB mouse and a USB CD-ROM (great for operating system re-installs if you prefer Windows!).
On the internal side, the card has a feature connector that allows 'pass-thru' to the servers' reset and power jumper pins.
Because of the feature connector, the card can perform a proper hardware reset and power-cycle via 'pass-thru' to the server PWR_ON/RESET pins if the server manufacturer actually has bothered to put standard pins on their server board like most OEM motherboards have - the card can survive short power outages with the aid of its' dinky onboard battery that can last 30 minutes without power.
My only bugbear with the G2 is that it has a horrible tendency to fall over if it is 'unprotected' from the Internet - if you can protect it from unwanted traffic by ACLs on an upstream router, I can heartily recommend it.
The G3 is meant to have an onboard firewall but my e-mails to American Megatrends over the last few days have been rudely ignored.
Another thing...
The firmware for both cards is based on uClinux and various other GPL'd softwares... no mention of any source on American Megatrend's website although they do quote the GPL license on their download page.
So to sum up:
High-quality card.
Average firmware.
Manufacturer has piss-poor GPL attitude.
Manufacturer has tendency not to reply to e-mails.
I hope this information is helpful to at least some readers.