How to "RDP" without an OS?

Not trying to crack a system or anything like that.

For now I image a lot of systems for various clients but I would like the opportunity to create a potential scenario where I can configure the machine remotely without additional configuration beyond making sure the Network Stack is enabled.

I know there are methods for this but require at the very least, an IP address so you know what you need to hook into.

Assuming I have a static IP route for each machine on the line (so no DHCP) from the server, I would then be able to remotely configure the machines set up on the line, assuming I have VPN access to the server of course.

My main question is what enables you to do this? If there are some key words that I am ignorant of, please enlighten so I can dive further into this. I have a Precision 7810 that I may have acting as my "server" and various SFF or Tiny PC's that I would like to tinker with without the need for a KVM.

What do you guys think?

 

IMHO such OS-less RDP on bare metal is impossible on standard PCs without additional hardware I never heard of. The hypothetical device would need to plug in to USB ports of the target host, pretend to be a keyboard, mouse and a graphics adapter and provide some sort of RDP protocol for you.

 

I continued looking over some things and it seems that IP-KVM's are the function that I desire, I had thought it was a function that a server could provide (which could still be , who knows lol) but I think it boils down to IP-KVM.

Too expensive for my tastes

 

You could avoid physical KVM if you have computers/servers that have motherboards with a BMC (Baseboard Management Controller) chip like for example the common ARM CPU based ASPEED AST2400/2500 found on most SuperMicro and Asrock Rack boards/servers/small boxes. They allow you to do virtual KVM and do OS installs off the network, these usually have a separate dedicated IPMI LAN port for just this use. The BMC is “on” even when the server is off so you can even do power cycles, bios updates, bios management etc and so on remotely.

If your clients don’t have BMCs you could use RasberryPIs as BMCs but it’s a lot more work:
https://forums.unraid.net/topic/97460-selfmade-ipmibmc-with-raspberry-pi/

I have a SuperMicro server that I initially bought to run VM s on ESXi along with pFsense, I manage it remotely via virtual KVM and it supports using remote images up to 4.5 GB for installs for which I use a folder on my NAS as the image source.

Let me know if you want me to post a demo of virtual KVM in use...

 

Oh wow thanks a lot, I tend to ask unreasonable things so I didnt think there would be anything that actually could connect those dots.

Yeah I got a bunch of 9020's (SFF) and a single 7810 that I could build more into but right now I have no idea what I am doing and just looking for things of interest, figured I would start with alternate methods of what I do for work and I do like the idea of turning the 7810 into an ESXi system with pfSense just for the adblockers and VPN modules which will help me get into the networking aspect of IT, since right now I am generally (much to the surprise of people that know me) am better at handling clients face to face but with COVID-19, have to adapt or die as the saying goes...

With that said I doubt my systems have the BMC you mentioned above so if I do go down that route I would need to use that PiKVM, IP-KVM, or just use a standard KVM. KVM and PiKVM are about the same price but one would make me think for a change and I have yet to use a Pi for anything.

At work I use about 12x 16 port KVM's for the amount of volume I can handle but Iwant to experiment at home, and also while at work (VPN to home server).

Thank you very much