We are setting up a new collo facility with 8 HP servers and we would like to use the HP iLO remote options.

Any idea what would be the best switch or KVM to work with iLO?
Do I need to use Vlans?

Any recommendation as to best deployment?

This is my firs time using iLO features and suggestions would be apprecitaed.

What OS are you using on the servers?  If you haven't already purchase the Advanced Pack for it, the iLO will only work in a text mode; no gui.  We are using Raritan Paragon 42-port KVM with Cisco 3524 switches.  Previously we had our servers connected to a Compaq KVM and a Cybex.  Both KVMs worked with the iLO.

VLANs are not a requirement of the iLO.  However, depending on how your environment is configured you may have to use them.

When the server boots, the default settings for the iLO is to get a DHCP addresss and auto negotiate for speed and duplex.  Hard code the ip address.  This is how you access the iLO.  If you let it pull from DHCP and it gets a new address, you can't connect to it...unless you know what the new address is.  Also, fix the speed and duplex.  Auto negotiation is okay for workstations, but anything on a server should be fixed on both ends...the server and the switch.

The only issues I've run into is with the RIB-LOE (non-integrated cards) and a 4-port Belkin OmniView.  Once the server was accessed via the RIB-LOE, the console no longer had mouse control (even after the RIB user logged out).  A reboot of the server would resolve the issue.  Currently we do not have any of our windows servers with iLO/RIB-LOE connected to the Belkin 4-port KVMs.

As far as VLANs ara concerned, some people tend to have a Management VLAN where things like iLOs are placed.  The simple reason for this is if your server is in a DMZ or behind a firewall for some reason, you still want your iLO to be accessible without the need to open up firewall ports, hence the Management VLAN.

An iLO behind a firewall would require ports 80, 443 and in some cases 23 to be opened.

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Thanks for the great info.
The servers OS are all Windows 2003 STD R2.

just to make it clear the iLO can be plugged into the same switch as the LAN and provided it with static LAN IP?

So, with a Windows OS you will want to have the Advanced Pack.  Without it, the iLO interface will have limited functionality.  I know you can remote into the windows servers to manage them.  That is how we do most of our remote management, as well.  However, when you need to reboot, you are basically blind (and crossing your fingers) until the server comes back up to a point where you can, again, remote console into it.  With the Advanced Pack you can watch the server go down, count memeory, restart, pretty much everything.

Yes, you can plug the iLO and the NIC into the same switch.

Before moving to a management VLAN, like TheLad mentions above, we had our RIB-LOE/iLO ip address one number above the server NIC.  ie.  server = xxx.xxx.xxx.100 and iLO = xxx.xxx.xxx.101