KVM simply means Keyboard, Mouse, Monitor. To add that to your EX495 you would need to install whats known as a DEBUG Cable aka DEBUG Board which gets its name from the motherboard connector refered to as the DEBUG Port.

Adding a debug cable to your server will make troubleshooting it much easier and elliminate the need to perform blind installs. For more information on the debug cable/board please check out the link below:

viewtopic.php?t=8066

This is how I installed mine: viewtopic.php?p=70165#p70165

If you install one of these Gen3 Debug Cables then attach a Keyboard, Video, and Mouse to your server then add and external USB DVD Drive to your server you can install WHS2011 easily but it costs more than using the USB. To shave off some of the cost you can add a KVM Switch which would allow you to share 1 keyboard, mouse and monitor with 2 or more units. I have 4 servers all sharing the same keyboard, mouse and monitor. Most KVM Switches allow 2 computers to share these devices but there are a wide range of them available some have cables already attached others do not.

Good luck with your installation, keep in mind that installing WHS2011 will cause your LED's not to function because it does not come with driver support for them nor does HP appear to have any intentions to create such a driver. However some people have been working on this so please check out the link below.

http://www.mediasmartserver.net/2011/06 ... rver-2011/

By all means read through the forum posts to see what the experience other have with installing WHS2011 on their HP MSS regardless of the model. While performance between the models will be different the experiences will all be similar.

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Exploring the possibilities!

Migrated from WHS2011 to WS2012E: HIGHLANDER

~ Norco 4220 Enclosure
~ Gigabyte GA-990FXA-UD5
~ AMD Phenom II X4 995 3.2 GHz
~ 8 GB Corsair Vengeance DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800)
~ 3 Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8

FWIW, I followed the directions to make a USB stick bootable, copied the DVD to the 8 GB USB drive, added the file for the unattended install, and then installed it onto my EX495 without issue. All I had to buy was the 8 GB USB drive (I had already upgraded my CPU and RAM).

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- Tom

It stands for Keyboard/Video/Mouse... It's a piece of hardware that you add to your EX495 to allow you to hook up a keyboard, monitor and mouse so you can see what it is doing and respond (in my case) during the WHS 2011 install.

You can find more information on it here:

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=3980

Kevin

I couldn't get the USB method to work as my EX495 never seemed to notice the USB drive (Corsair Flash Voyager) - the light on the thumb drive never came on. So I did the old bait and switch of starting the install in one computer and letting it finish in the 495. It seems to be working okay, but I am seeing an unusable device in the Server Manager:

Under Other Devices there is a Mass Storage Controller (PCI Bus 2, Device 0, Function 0) and I can't get it to load any drivers as it can't identify the device. Hmmm... Looks like it's the ESATA controller.

Found it. You need the 1.5.20.1 64-bit drivers from Silicon Graphics: http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=80&cat=3 (Driver says it's for RAID, but it works).