A while back I asked (I think it was here) about the idea of server grade PC having video hardware that would support VNC, including mouse and keyboard. Someone suggested that IPMI would do this. I took note but the need did not come up until now. But now as I look through IMPI specs and documentation for IPMI software, I cannot find any such feature equivalent.

Does anyone know (especially used it) if IPMI can provide direct video console access, with mouse and keyboard?

Or do I need to fall back to a KVM switch that translates VGA output and the keyboard/mouse access via VNC?

KVM over IP is, strictly speaking, not part of the IPMI specs. However, I've yet to come across an IPMI implementation from a major vendor (HP, IBM, Intel, Dell) lacking this functionality.

In some cases an extra license may be required to access the KVM part once the OS boots. For instance, HP only allows you to access the startup screen and BIOS settings without an ILO license.

Know anything about systems build with OEM boards like SuperMicro? And does open source IPMI software handle this or is it done by enabling a VNC port?

I used to work for a company that used SuperMicro servers exclusively. I don't know about licensing, but I know this: We could browse to the IPMI webpage on one of the servers, and after autenticating the actual console was available through a Java applet, OS running or not.

That's certainly encouraging. I'm curious if this works with the open source IPMI tools, and what protocol it uses. VNC is simple enough and the base of code exists that should avoid having to duplicate the effort.