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KACE KBOX 2000 Series
by Bob Kelly

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If you are like me, you probably thought the KBOX 2000 Series was simply the latest version of the previous KBOX I reviewed with some new functionality. However, it is actually a new product from KACE- a second appliance solution. This time, instead of attacking the problem of software deployment, inventory and other desktop maintenance tasks, the KBOX 2000 Series takes on the task of provisioning. It supports both unattended installations and drive imaging with a remarkably simple interface.

The server is 1U in height and is completely managed from a web interface (the unit itself runs FreeBSD). The model I have here is the 2100, which comes with 480 GB of drive space (four hot-swappable 160 GB drives in a RAID5 configuration), 2 GB RAM and dual Intel 3.0GHz Xeon processors. A heftier version is also available in the form of the KBOX 2200, which offers 1.5 TB of drive space, 4 GB RAM and two 3.4GHz Xeon processors. Which you need depends upon the number of concurrent connections you will be supporting, the 2100 and 2200 are designed to manage a capacity of 10-20 and 40-60 concurrent connections respectively. This will not be the quietest chunk of technology in your server room due to the fan noise generated in order to cool those two processors in one U of rack space. Physical installation of the unit was a breeze as it was not very heavy and came with mounting brackets.

Configuration of the KBOX 2000 series requires you create a DNS entry and update DHCP to point any PXE clients its way. You’ll need to provide it an IP address on your network and from there, every task is managed through its simple web interface. In fact, once set up, the server does not require a monitor or keyboard be attached at all. Setup was not difficult, but it was not something you’d want a junior administrator to attempt without some help. That help is provided by the company (KACE) personally; they will walk you through the setup and provide some simple instruction to help you understand how to operate it.

There is no client to deploy because KBOX relies on PXE to do its bidding. If you like, you may set a password for the PXE boot menu to protect users from themselves. However, you can configure computers to simply boot to the local hard drive without presenting a menu at all; and you can then make the effort to change that setting only on select systems when you have a task you wish to perform. Once configured to boot to PXE, the KBOX 2000 series will let you dictate what the PXE boot does (perform an unattended install, bring up the recovery console, upload or download an image). This is all configurable from the console and it is a very effective way of controlling how system startup operates on your managed clients.

So just what does it do?

  • Unattended Installations and Application Deployment – Scripted installations are supported by taking in Windows Installation CDs and building an unattended installation for the OS and even applications through a simple web interface.

  • Drive Imaging – Create binary images for quick deployment (like you may do with Symantec or Acronis products today).

  • Recovery Console – remote control, diagnostics and other helpful tools are provided using a Knoppix-based bootable image customized for KBOX.

While this is a very capable system, it was not without its problems. Inline with describing its excellent features, I'll also discuss those and places I see room for improvement as we go…

 

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