Hi all,

can anybody explain me the trade off between a KVM switch and the use of a Desktop sharing software such as VNC viewer ?

Why would there be a tradeoff? They do completely different things (and they can both be used at the same time).

For better help, tell us the context of your question.

is there any situation where kvm switch is a must or a situation that can't be done using VNC and can be done using KVM switch ?

I'll try to GUESS what you are doing....

You have 2 computers and you want to know the difference between:

A) Connecting to #1 from #2 using VNC

B) Connecting to #1 directly using a keyboard and mouse (regardless of whether you have a KVM switch)

If that's your question, then the first thing that comes to mind is that the behavior of control keys might be different.

Have you tried it?

A kvm (keyboard, video, mouse) switch is used to connect a single keyboard, video display, and mouse to 1 or more computers, switching between computers.

VNC would require a virtual OS (operating system) operating on a host computer through a virtualization program such as Xen, VirtualBox, or VMware (or others).

Not sure how trade offs would apply in this case. If you wanted to have several OSs running at the same time, virtual machines would obviously run more slowly due to having to share the same resources (cpu, memory, etc.)

Hope this helps you understand the concepts. If you need more help, please post information about your hardware environment and what OSs your wanting to use.

Tom

One takes the I/O from the system hardware output/input. The other takes the I/O via software.

Trade off may be quite a few. Security, speed, features (printing usb etc), resolution, TCO, maybe others.