zlacker

Out of curiosity do they bring any functionality that this device does not?

>>Bnshsy+(OP)
The most interesting stuff is generally:

-Remotely mounting images (ISO/FS/IMG/etc) on the host for bare-metal installs or any other purpose

-Hard power options for unresponsive servers or emergencies

-Heavily integrated diagnostics (fan RPMs, thermals, RAID status, etc etc) with eg. snmp output

>>Bnshsy+(OP)
It can one-click update all firmware for bios, network cards, storage controller etc

>>DrPhis+Q2
Cool, I assume with enough willpower those first two could be solved with a pi too ;)

>>Bnshsy+iT
If we go that route, all three of them could (for example via fan sensors). Whether it's worth it is a different question :)

>>DrPhis+Q2
> -Remotely mounting images (ISO/FS/IMG/etc) on the host for bare-metal installs or any other purpose

For what it's worth, that stuff has always been incredibly unreliable for me. Enough so that old school PXE booting was the only way to maintain a server pool, couldn't get them to consistently reimage through the proprietary stuff.

The remote power control is very nice, and I didn't see anything on this page about that. (Though now I'm just imagining the "useless PC" [1] that just tells a smart power plug to turn itself off.)

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Useless_machine

>>yencab+xx2
I never had a single issue with it if I mounted it from an onsite drive. Mounting from home in my den is a bit more iffy and pretty slow. PXE is definitely better, but the iso method is nice for when that's not an option.

>>yencab+xx2
I use a RPi to control smart home components including wifi controlled smart plugs. You could use one as a hard power off, and WoL as a soft power on.