A systems administrator receives an alert that a critical production server is offline. Standard network monitoring tools confirm the server is not responding to pings or remote session requests to its primary OS. The administrator is working remotely and needs to access the server's console to observe the boot process and interact with the pre-boot environment. Which of the following tools is BEST suited for this task?
The correct answer is IP KVM. IP KVM (Internet Protocol Keyboard-Video-Mouse) is a feature of out-of-band management (OOBM) systems that provides direct, BIOS-level access to a server remotely. This allows an administrator to see the server's video output and use their keyboard and mouse as if they were physically present, which is essential for observing the boot process or troubleshooting when the operating system is unresponsive.
A crash cart is incorrect because it is a physical cart with a monitor and keyboard for local, on-site administration, whereas the administrator in the scenario is remote.
An SSH client is incorrect because it is an in-band management tool that requires a functioning network connection and a responsive operating system on the target server.
While Serial-over-LAN (SOL) is a form of out-of-band management, it typically provides a text-based command-line interface. IP KVM is the better choice because it provides a full graphical interface, which is more suitable for interacting with modern graphical BIOS/UEFI environments.