One the many things that comes along with putting together and setting up multiple servers, is the keyboard and mouse requirement. There are many situations when you can’t remote into a machine and you need to work at the server itself. The problem is, you don’t want dozens of different mice and keyboards lieing around to get tangled and to confuse you as to what is connected to what. That’s where our old friend the KVM switch comes in.
However instead of using multiple mice and keyboards, why not use the great open source product, called Synergy. Synergy allows you to share one, mouse and keyboard, with several different PCs, on several different monitors. So, this really doesn’t replace an entire KVM switch, as you’ll still need some type of viewing for the other PCs/Servers. The amazing part about it, is it’s cross platform compatibility. It works with Windows, Linux, Unix and Mac OS X. Here is a quote from Synergy on what it’s true power is:
Synergy lets you easily share a single mouse and keyboard between multiple computers with different operating systems, each with its own display, without special hardware. It’s intended for users with multiple computers on their desk since each system uses its own monitor(s).
Redirecting the mouse and keyboard is as simple as moving the mouse off the edge of your screen. Synergy also merges the clipboards of all the systems into one, allowing cut-and-paste between systems.
And here is an amazing video, displaying its full potential:
Related posts:
Thu, Oct 16, 2008
Linux, Windows