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Opening a remote-control session for System x servers

You can open a remote-control session to managed System x servers as if you were at a local console. You can then use the remote-control session to perform power and reset operations, logically mount a local or network drive on the server, capture screen shots, and record video.

Before you begin

Review the security, performance, and keyboard considerations before opening a remote-control session. For more information about these considerations, see Remote control considerations.

You must be a member of a user group to which the predefined Supervisor or Hardware Administrator role is assigned.

The managed server must have a Normal health state and Online connectivity state. For more information about viewing the server status, see Viewing device details.

Use your Lenovo XClarity Orchestrator user account to log in to the remote-control session. The user account must have sufficient user authority to access and manage a server.

A Java Runtime Environment (JRE) with Java WebStart support (such as Adopt OpenJDK 8 with the IcedTea-Web v1.8 plugin) must be installed on the local server.

The Features on Demand key for remote presence must be installed and enabled on managed server. You can determine whether remote presence is enabled or disabled from the Servers page and clicking Filters > Remote Presence. If disabled:
  • Ensure that the server is in a Normal health status and Online connectivity state.
  • Ensure that the XClarity Controller Enterprise level or MM Advanced Upgrade for is enabled for servers that do not come with these features already activated by default.

The remote-control session uses the locale and display language settings that are defined for the operating system on your local system.

About this task

You can start multiple remote-control sessions. Each session can manage multiple servers.

Note
For Flex System x280, x480, and x880 server, you can start a remote-control session to only the primary node. If you attempt to start a remote-control session to a non-primary node in a multi-node system, the remote-control dialog starts, but no video is displayed.

Procedure

To open a remote-control session for a System x server, complete the following steps.

  1. From the XClarity Orchestrator menu, click Resources (Resources icon) > Servers. The Servers card is displayed with a tabular view of all managed servers.
  2. Optional: Select the server to remotely control.

    If you do not select a server, an untargeted remote-control session is opened.

  3. Click the Launch Remote Control icon (Launch Remote Control icon).
  4. Accept any security warnings from your web browser.
  5. When you are prompted, select one of the following connection modes:
    • Single-user mode. Establishes an exclusive remote-control session with the server. All other remote-control sessions to that server are blocked until you disconnect from the server. This option is available only if there are no other remote-control sessions established to the server.
    • Multi-user mode. Allows multiple remote-control sessions to be established with the same server. XClarity Orchestrator supports up to six concurrent remote-control sessions to a single server.
  6. Click Launch remote control.
  7. When you are prompted, choose whether to save a shortcut to the remote-control session on your local system. You can use this shortcut to launch a remote-control session without logging in to the XClarity Orchestrator web interface. The shortcut contains a link that opens an empty remote-control session to which you can manually add servers.
    Note
    Your local system must have access to XClarity Orchestrator to validate the user account with the XClarity Orchestrator authentication server.

After you finish

The remote-control session has a thumbnail (icon) for each server that is currently managed through the session.


Remote Control Viewer window

If the remote-control session does not open successfully, see Troubleshooting remote-control issues.

You can perform the following actions from the remote-control session.

  • Display multiple server consoles and move between server consoles by clicking a thumbnail. The server console is displayed in the video session area. If you are accessing more servers than fit in the icon area, click the Scroll right icon (Scroll right icon) and Scroll left icon (Scroll left icon) to scroll to additional server thumbnails. Click the All sessions icon (Server sessions icon) to see a list of all open server sessions.
  • Add a server console to the current remote-control session by clicking Add server icon (New server session icon).
  • Hide or show the thumbnail area by clicking the Toggle Thumbnails icon (Toggle thumbnails icon).
  • Display the remote-control session as a window or full screen by clicking the Screen icon (Screen icon) and then clicking Toggle on full screen or Toggle off full screen.
  • Use the sticky key buttons Ctrl, Alt, and Shift to send keystrokes directly to the server. When click a sticky key, the key remains active until you press a keyboard key or click the button again.

    To send a Ctrl or Alt key combinations, click Ctrl or Alt in the toolbar, place the cursor in the video session area, and press a key on the keyboard.

    Note
    If mouse-capture mode is enabled, press the left Alt key to move the cursor outside of the video session area. Although mouse-capture mode is disabled by default, you can enable it from the Toolbar page (see Setting remote-control preferences).
  • Define custom key sequences, known as softkeys, by clicking he Keyboard icon (Keyboard icon).

    Softkey definitions are stored on the system from which you started the remote-control session. Therefore, if you launch the remote-control session from another system, you have to define the softkeys again. You can export user settings, including softkeys, by clicking the Preference icon (Preferences icon), clicking the User Settings tab, and then clicking Import.

  • Take a screen capture of the currently selected server session and save that screen capture in a variety of formats by clicking the Screen icon (Screen icon), and then clicking Screenshot.
  • Mount remote media (such as CD, DVD, or USB device, disk image, or CD (ISO) image) to the selected server or move a mounted device to another server by clicking the Remote Media icon (Remote media icon).
  • Upload images to a server from remote media by clicking the Remote Media icon (Remote media icon), clicking Mount remote media., and then clicking Upload the image to the IMM.
  • Power the server on or off from a remote console by clicking the Power icon (Toggle thumbnails icon).
  • Change remote-control preferences, including how often the server icon are refreshed (see Setting remote-control preferences).