Using a laptop as an external monitor and keyboard for a server?

Is there a way to use an old laptop as an external keyboard and monitor for my rack servers?

From serverfault Jason

• There are a couple of pieces of hardware around like this:

  http://www.iogear.com/product/GCS661U/

  But I haven't seen one wholely accepted solution. I've thought about this many, many times while cursing a crash cart that was locked in someone else's cage at my colo.

  Matt : This appears to be a Windows (2000, XP, Vista) only solution.
  From Matt Simmons

• You could use Remote Desktop with the \console switch if they're both on the same network.

  From veggiemexicalidog

• I wonder if you could leverage the mirror support in Maxivista for this?

  http://www.maxivista.com/

  From tomfanning

• There is a KVM from Epiphan Systems that connects your laptop to the monitor/keyboard/mouse of another system using a USB based VGA framebuffer. At $399 the price may be a bit steep though.

  http://www.epiphan.com/products/frame-grabbers/kvm2usb/

  From Matt

• If it's a Linux server, you can connect to X remotely, or tunnel it through SSH, if security is concern.

  Javier : of course, if it's a Linux server, it shouldn't use X

  Slartibartfast : well, there is no reason for it to have X started all the time, but you can, ssh to it, and then start X to do whatever you want, then turn X off (I know it's hard to imagine, but some people may prefere GUI over console, shocking, I know :) )
  From Slartibartfast

• From a hardware perspective, there is no straightforward way to do that. The video ports on most laptops are outputs, not inputs, and you can't reverse that. The keyboard/mouse ports are inputs, not outputs. Most USB controllers inside your server and laptop will fight over devices connected to the same bus, so attaching them via a hub is also not practical.

  1. Use some remote desktop/vnc/X-terminal (but of course, why do you even need to be in the server room?)
  2. If your system has a serial port and a boot management processor (like iLO) you can connect directly to the BSP, which will then generally let you get a terminal session on the server. This is true for both *nix-ish and Windows systems. HP Integrity servers tend to have this capability.
  Matt : See my answer below for a method in which you can connect directly to the server using a special type of KVM.
  From Christopher

• Use servers with "lights out" modules. This way network is all you need and your notebook will be a nice terminal.

  From slovon

• You could also use a software KVM with an adapter. They're few and far between.

  One such product from epiphan (Never heard of them before today's google) Product Page

  From davenpcj