Intel vPro: Three Generations Of Remote Management

Features
By Patrick Kennedy
published

It's common to manage PCs remotely in today's business environment. Intel's vPro technology aims to simplify that task by giving IT professionals hardware-level tools to make remote management easier. Today we look at three generations of vPro.

KVM Remote Control: Adding RealVNC Plus To The Mix, Continued

You can also use RealVNC Viewer Plus and Intel AMT to remotely reboot the client machine.

Not only can you turn the machine off, power it back on, and perform a reset, but it's also possible to boot back up into the BIOS.

This option lets support staff troubleshoot in Windows then go directly to the machine’s BIOS, which can be a difficult task if you have a bit of KVM initialization lab and keep missing the prompt to press Delete or F2 during the boot process.

In the interest of transparency, RealVNC Viewer Plus does cost money. An individual license is priced at $100, which is a far cry from the many free VNC solutions out there. Also, many IPMI 2.0-based implementations for servers use a Java-based KVM, making them less hardware-dependent than Intel's solution. Here is an example of IPMI 2.0 management on a Supermicro server motherboard.

But there remain reasons to go with Intel's implementation. First, the server-based version is limited to 800x600. In applications that natively run at higher resolutions, that severely limits the amount of screen space you're able to see at any given time. Check out the screen shot above of Windows Server 2008 R2's Hyper-V manager. At such a low res, it's quite cramped. The 1920x1200 ceiling imposed by RealVNC Viewer Plus is great to work with since most desktop and notebooks employ screens with 1920x1080 resolutions or lower. Moreover, the vPro-based implementation is much more responsive thanks to its hardware foundation.

Patrick Kennedy
21 Comments Comment from the forums
  • cngledad
    Can I suggest an article comparing different remote access tools we can use? From the freeware TeamViewer, VNC Viewer to such things like WebEx? I think that would be a very good topic.
    Reply
  • ^^Don't forget Logmein Rescue which has vPro support.
    Reply
  • pro-gamer
    intel man please give me a job.
    Intels rock
    Reply
  • NirXY
    Glad to see you made it to publish day, was waiting for this piece.
    Looking great !
    Reply
  • One correction: DQ57TM *does* contain a v1.2 TPM, the same as found on DQ67SW and DQ67EP. It's required to be vPro compliant (necessary for Intel TXT).
    Reply
  • jhansonxi
    Nifty but I don't like the single-vendor lock-in. I can see real improvements in IT efficiency if this was combined with AoE. Would like to see SSH support, however.
    Reply
  • extremepcs
    Hopefully they have improved the activation mechanism. Kind of a PITA if you don't buy a certificate from a trusted CA. I used an internal cert and had to activate each machine by booting from a flash drive.
    Reply
  • chovav
    If my hard drive is encrypted using TrueCrypt pre-boot authentication, would I be able to fill in the password using Intels vPro?
    Reply
  • jowunger
    The voice of the guy in the video is bad. The guy talks like he is speedreading a book...
    Reply
  • cangelini
    cdw-vproOne correction: DQ57TM *does* contain a v1.2 TPM, the same as found on DQ67SW and DQ67EP. It's required to be vPro compliant (necessary for Intel TXT).
    Fixed, thanks!
    Reply