nate wrote:
Some management systems have additional options which include full VGA KVM abilities, I have a demo Dell box with DRAC 5 which has this ability though I haven't been able to get it to work. HP systems have this ability as well but require an additional ~$300 license add on(iLO Advanced), whereas remote serial console is free. That and the remote KVM stuff usually requires a browser or a special client, whereas remote serial console can be done in text mode (the before mentioned system running DRAC5 allows me to SSH into it and connect to the serial console that way).
DRAC 4 or 5 remote console shoudl work just fine, I've used it quite regularlly... the client needs a web browser with java 1.4 or 1.5 enabled as they use a java VNC implementation to 'remote' the ATI VGA. this gives you a remote CD and floppy as well as graphical VGA. the remote CD can either be the client systems actual CD drive, or it can be an ISO file.