Raritan Engineering DOMINION KXII Switch User Manual


 
154 DOMINION KX II USER GUIDE
Ethernet and IP Networking
QUESTION ANSWER
Does the Dominion KX
II offer dual gigabit
Ethernet ports to provide
redundant fail-over, or
load balancing?
Yes. Dominion KX 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, Dominion KX 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 Dominion KX II
require?
Dominion KX 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 Dominion KX 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 Dominion KX 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
Dominion KX 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 Dominion KX II’s
default settings on a 10Mbit/s network:
Idle Windows Desktop 0 Mbps
Move Cursor Around Desktop 0.18Mbps
Move Static 400x600 Window/Dialog Box 0.35Mbps
Navigate Start Menu 0.49Mbps
Scroll an Entire Page of Text 1.23Mbps
Run 3D Maze Screensaver 1.55Mbps
What is the slowest
connection (lowest
bandwidth) over which
Dominion KX II can
operate?
33Kbps or above is recommended for acceptable KX performance over
a modem connection.
What is the speed of
Dominion KX II’s
Ethernet interfaces?
Dominion KX II supports Gigabit as well as 10/100 Ethernet. KX II
supports two 10/100/1000 speed Ethernet interfaces, with configurable
speed and duplex settings (either auto-detected or manually set).