Here are two clues that will help you plan for installing the new Dell server families.
They seem to be great servers... lots of capacity for RAM, lots of CPU strength, and I love the rack mounting rail system. I also like the iDRAC service processors.
What's not to like? The back of the chassis is too thick (or the DE9 console port is recessed too far). Either way, most of the serial console adapters (DE9 to RJ45) won't fit well, and provide reliable connections, unless you grind down the cases of the adapters. And, since the adapter vendors don't offer to sell you a "trimmed" version, that job is going to cost you extra, somehow. Hey, maybe we can get the intern to do it? ;-)
I'm *really* glad that the serial consoles are still on the back of the servers, but if you are going to put them there, it seems to me that making the serial adapters fit should be part of the plan to have them on the server.
The one adapter I've found that works on the R620 series servers is from Cyclades (ADB0036). Yes, you can still get them from CDW. Fortunately, our latest batch went into racks with Cyclades TS2000. But, I did need to modify SO MANY of the Lantronix adapters that I made a custom jig for a Dremel router, to get consistent results.
Clue number two: On the R620, ttyS0 goes tot he iDRAC, and ttyS1 goes to the DE9 on the rear of the server. You will need to start an agetty for BOTH of these, if you want to be able to use both of them.
My other big projects are nearly done, and I plan to post much more often this summer. Thanks for reading.
20111102
My first impressions of the Redpark serial cable and Get Console
I'm reviewing them together, as I don't see an easy way to use the cable with another app (yet).
My first attempts were hampered by some Bluetooth weirdness between my iPad 1 and my ZAGGmate keyboard. A hard-reset of the iPad seemed to straighten that out. Since then, I have had good luck using the ZAGGmate with Get Console in both portrait and landscape modes. I'm a bit let down that the top speed is 'only' 57.6 Kbps, as I have a handful of console ports running at 115.2 Kbps. That said, it does perform well at those speeds which it does support.
There is no built-in method to email your log files, but you can copy them to the cut-and-paste buffer,and then paste it into the email app of your choice.
It makes the Escape key sequences visible! This is a BIG plus in my book! If you are working with conserver, this will help you spot devices which are prone to fill your logs with extra characters.
The earlier assertion that the application will only work with Cisco devices seems to be incorrect! That is, with a proper adapter, you can connect the cable to almost any device. Using a CFDTE92 adapter, I can connect to the DE9M com port on most Intel-based servers. (Check my Cisco console connection guide page for more clues, http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Cisco/ciscocons.html )
The cable is about 6' long, with a slender cable. The jacket feels a bit like Teflon, and the RJ45M connector has a molded strain relief, which will likely improve the service life. (That would be great, given the cost of the cable!) It is lightweight, and it looks like a high-quality part. The folks at Redpark have been known for the high quality of their products in the past, and I expect good things from this new product.
I have tried the combination with a variety of non-network devices as well, and I seem to be able to talk to them without needing to do any fussing with the signaling wires. I can't promise that it will work with anything, but the Get Console app running 'stand-alone' (without needing to connect to their website) seems to be a useful basic terminal emulator, if you need a wired serial connection. The cable has made a good addition to my iPad gear bag.
Testing the Get Console website service will need to wait for another post.
My first attempts were hampered by some Bluetooth weirdness between my iPad 1 and my ZAGGmate keyboard. A hard-reset of the iPad seemed to straighten that out. Since then, I have had good luck using the ZAGGmate with Get Console in both portrait and landscape modes. I'm a bit let down that the top speed is 'only' 57.6 Kbps, as I have a handful of console ports running at 115.2 Kbps. That said, it does perform well at those speeds which it does support.
There is no built-in method to email your log files, but you can copy them to the cut-and-paste buffer,and then paste it into the email app of your choice.
It makes the Escape key sequences visible! This is a BIG plus in my book! If you are working with conserver, this will help you spot devices which are prone to fill your logs with extra characters.
The earlier assertion that the application will only work with Cisco devices seems to be incorrect! That is, with a proper adapter, you can connect the cable to almost any device. Using a CFDTE92 adapter, I can connect to the DE9M com port on most Intel-based servers. (Check my Cisco console connection guide page for more clues, http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Cisco/ciscocons.html )
The cable is about 6' long, with a slender cable. The jacket feels a bit like Teflon, and the RJ45M connector has a molded strain relief, which will likely improve the service life. (That would be great, given the cost of the cable!) It is lightweight, and it looks like a high-quality part. The folks at Redpark have been known for the high quality of their products in the past, and I expect good things from this new product.
I have tried the combination with a variety of non-network devices as well, and I seem to be able to talk to them without needing to do any fussing with the signaling wires. I can't promise that it will work with anything, but the Get Console app running 'stand-alone' (without needing to connect to their website) seems to be a useful basic terminal emulator, if you need a wired serial connection. The cable has made a good addition to my iPad gear bag.
Testing the Get Console website service will need to wait for another post.
20111013
October Double-header! Two new useful apps!
I finally got a Redpark serial cable, and the Get Console app, and it's almost everything I wanted to make my iPad a quick tool for accessing all sorts of serial consoles!
But, I also finally found the Blogger app, which will make it easier to update my blog when I've got stuff to say. AND, I'll be able to do it from my older, pre-3g iPhone! Thank you Google!
The Blogger app also pointed out that I had yet to actually publish a couple older blog articles! That was easy to fix! Now I can get back to testing the Get Console app and the Redpark cable.
UPDATE, Spring 2012: The Get Console app has been handy on the iPad, and the Redpark cable has been reliable, so far. However, I've run into bluetooth reliability issues when using the Zagg keyboard with the iPad. When the keyboard is working, this threesome is a GREAT combination for field work.
But, I also finally found the Blogger app, which will make it easier to update my blog when I've got stuff to say. AND, I'll be able to do it from my older, pre-3g iPhone! Thank you Google!
The Blogger app also pointed out that I had yet to actually publish a couple older blog articles! That was easy to fix! Now I can get back to testing the Get Console app and the Redpark cable.
UPDATE, Spring 2012: The Get Console app has been handy on the iPad, and the Redpark cable has been reliable, so far. However, I've run into bluetooth reliability issues when using the Zagg keyboard with the iPad. When the keyboard is working, this threesome is a GREAT combination for field work.
20110810
Finally, a serial cable for my ipad!
More precisely, there is a hardware cable (cost is about $60 US) from Redpark, which plugs into the 30-pin ipod/iphone/ipad docking connector, and does all the right stuff to provide an RS-232 serial connection. But, to make practical use of it, you also need the GetConsole iPad application. And it all works without jailbreaking your device!
The application should work on the iPhone as well, but I don't have a cable yet to play with the application. I expect to get them both next month, but I have been tracking the progress getting the cable to the market for a few months!
The Redpark folks have a long history of development for Apple systems, and their legacy includes the Keyspan RS-232 serial adapters, another favorite of mine from many years ago.
The GetConsole application is part of a larger project, though, which may become a great field service tool! I'm a big fan of secure remote access to serial consoles (especially the Conserver console server management application). While the GetConsole application will let you attach your IOS device to the serial console of some other device for local interaction, the application also has the ability to be accessed via the GetConsole website. In this way, a field engineer could use his phone to connect to a serial console, but a senior engineer could then use that the phone network to reach through the phone to interact with the serial port.
I look forward to the chance to play with the cable and the application. I'll likely get the Cisco RJ45 version, since I have a large collection of adapters for them (or you can build your own with these adapter schematics). I'm curious if the application will work on my V2 iPhone (which is limited to running IOS 3.x), or if the application requires IOS 4.x. Either way, I remain excited, and I'll post an update in a month or so.
The application should work on the iPhone as well, but I don't have a cable yet to play with the application. I expect to get them both next month, but I have been tracking the progress getting the cable to the market for a few months!
The Redpark folks have a long history of development for Apple systems, and their legacy includes the Keyspan RS-232 serial adapters, another favorite of mine from many years ago.
The GetConsole application is part of a larger project, though, which may become a great field service tool! I'm a big fan of secure remote access to serial consoles (especially the Conserver console server management application). While the GetConsole application will let you attach your IOS device to the serial console of some other device for local interaction, the application also has the ability to be accessed via the GetConsole website. In this way, a field engineer could use his phone to connect to a serial console, but a senior engineer could then use that the phone network to reach through the phone to interact with the serial port.
I look forward to the chance to play with the cable and the application. I'll likely get the Cisco RJ45 version, since I have a large collection of adapters for them (or you can build your own with these adapter schematics). I'm curious if the application will work on my V2 iPhone (which is limited to running IOS 3.x), or if the application requires IOS 4.x. Either way, I remain excited, and I'll post an update in a month or so.
20101231
Ring out the old? Serial Consoles STILL going strong!
The last couple of weeks have been very busy, helping acquire a small company for a customer. The majority of my role included assessing, and then upgrading the network gear, as well as helping with the various server gear.
After the initial assessment, I installed Conserver on a local host, and I re-deployed a Cisco 3640 with a pair of NM-32A asynch modules. The serial consoles were VITAL to take over network gear for which the previous administrator could offer no admin credentials. Some of the network gear was also equipment with older operating software, which I had little experience with, so I needed to engage technical help from the equipment vendor. The first two questions were always "Can we do a remote desktop conference?" and "Do you have access to the serial console?" It's always nice to be able to answer "yes" to both questions. There is also some comfort in knowing that Conserver will be logging the session, so you can look back over the logs after the fact to review what happened.
During this session, I was also working with some Juniper gear, and I'm REALLY happy that Juniper also use the RJ45 wiring schema that Cisco uses. I'm a big fan of that symmetrical wiring format.
It's worth noting that SUN Microsystems newer machines (starting back with the Netra T-1) have also used this wiring schema for their TTYs0, and some Lantronix console servers have also used the wiring schema. Opengear has made this wiring schema an option for many of their products, and it is becoming the primary wiring format for some of their newest products. This makes hooking up the majority of the equipment that I work simple, AND it gives me some flexibility to choose different hardware vendors with confidence that they will drop into my existing infrastructure nicely.
Finally, I wanted to point out that serial port capability is also still being built into embedded processors! I've had some time to hack with the ATMEL processors used in the Arduino family of development boards. One port is normally integrated with a bootloader and connected to a USB interface (typically with an FTDI interface chip) to make it easy to talk to the processor. However, these 3.3-to-5 volt "TTL" interfaces can also be tied to an RS-232 interface chip when the ATMEL chip is plugged into an embedded system. (As an alternative, there is another pair of pins which can be a data-only 9600 bps (max) serial port to communicate between the ATMEL chip an another device. And the larger ATMEGA actually has 3 extra serial ports available!) My newest project is to make a small processor which can communicate via a serial interface to another system.
As we enter 2011, the venerable RS-232 serial interface lives on. I wish you all health and happiness, and hopefully a bit of prosperity as well.
-Z-
After the initial assessment, I installed Conserver on a local host, and I re-deployed a Cisco 3640 with a pair of NM-32A asynch modules. The serial consoles were VITAL to take over network gear for which the previous administrator could offer no admin credentials. Some of the network gear was also equipment with older operating software, which I had little experience with, so I needed to engage technical help from the equipment vendor. The first two questions were always "Can we do a remote desktop conference?" and "Do you have access to the serial console?" It's always nice to be able to answer "yes" to both questions. There is also some comfort in knowing that Conserver will be logging the session, so you can look back over the logs after the fact to review what happened.
During this session, I was also working with some Juniper gear, and I'm REALLY happy that Juniper also use the RJ45 wiring schema that Cisco uses. I'm a big fan of that symmetrical wiring format.
It's worth noting that SUN Microsystems newer machines (starting back with the Netra T-1) have also used this wiring schema for their TTYs0, and some Lantronix console servers have also used the wiring schema. Opengear has made this wiring schema an option for many of their products, and it is becoming the primary wiring format for some of their newest products. This makes hooking up the majority of the equipment that I work simple, AND it gives me some flexibility to choose different hardware vendors with confidence that they will drop into my existing infrastructure nicely.
Finally, I wanted to point out that serial port capability is also still being built into embedded processors! I've had some time to hack with the ATMEL processors used in the Arduino family of development boards. One port is normally integrated with a bootloader and connected to a USB interface (typically with an FTDI interface chip) to make it easy to talk to the processor. However, these 3.3-to-5 volt "TTL" interfaces can also be tied to an RS-232 interface chip when the ATMEL chip is plugged into an embedded system. (As an alternative, there is another pair of pins which can be a data-only 9600 bps (max) serial port to communicate between the ATMEL chip an another device. And the larger ATMEGA actually has 3 extra serial ports available!) My newest project is to make a small processor which can communicate via a serial interface to another system.
As we enter 2011, the venerable RS-232 serial interface lives on. I wish you all health and happiness, and hopefully a bit of prosperity as well.
-Z-
20101113
New info about OpenGear from the USENIX LISA '10 conference
I'm just back from the USENIX LISA '10 conference (San Jose, CA). OpenGear was there (for their third year), but they were the only Console Server vendor in the hall. As a result, they got a significant amount of mindshare from the attendees. I spent a good deal of time asking questions, and I'm happy to say that they had sent some technically-deep folks to staff the booth. (They also have a lot of Conserver experience, which qualifies for extra points in my book. ;-) I wish more vendors would have come to the LISA conference. With a great international draw, the LISA attendees have significant technical depth and come from some very large corporations. It would seem to be a fertile ground to collect contact info, and provide information to be carried back to universities and big corporations. We'll see you next year in Boston, right?
It's another example of Moore's Law... even in the last year, there are fewer Console Server vendors (Emerson acquired Avocent (who had acquired Cyclades...)), and OpenGear has made many significant improvements in their hardware and software. But, more important to me, is that OpenGear has continued to be attentive and responsive to their customers, not only for me!
What's in it for you, as a Console Server user/customer? Plenty! Customer needs have driven them to provide some really interesting new hardware this year, and they have also given customers the option to use the OpenGear RJ-45 wiring scheme, or order hardware matching the Cisco/Lantronix/Sun symmetrical RJ-45 scheme. Thanks to Jared Mallett and Todd Rychecky for sharing good info with booth visitors, here's some of what I heard;
They have upgraded the CPU and storage in their smaller devices!
They have a 4-port model, running on DC power...
Some smaller units have 2 network connections (dual Ethernet, or Eth and G3 cell modem!)
They have also made provisions for external FLASH for logging, etc.
Security improvements include Single Sign-On, and FIPS 140-2 Crypto module
Participating in the RSA Secured Partner Program SecurID integration
Two weeks ago, I learned of a project that wanted a 4-port device... last week, OpenGear showed me their Dual Ethernet 4-port device, shipping by default with Cisco RJ-45 wiring. Problem solved!
As we approach the holiday season, the daylight gets shorter, and (with the holidays, and folks taking extra time off) the calendar itself seems to get shorter, and deadlines start to loom large. If you need console servers, take a look at OpenGear, and see if you can find what you need quickly.
Happy holidays! -Zonker-
It's another example of Moore's Law... even in the last year, there are fewer Console Server vendors (Emerson acquired Avocent (who had acquired Cyclades...)), and OpenGear has made many significant improvements in their hardware and software. But, more important to me, is that OpenGear has continued to be attentive and responsive to their customers, not only for me!
What's in it for you, as a Console Server user/customer? Plenty! Customer needs have driven them to provide some really interesting new hardware this year, and they have also given customers the option to use the OpenGear RJ-45 wiring scheme, or order hardware matching the Cisco/Lantronix/Sun symmetrical RJ-45 scheme. Thanks to Jared Mallett and Todd Rychecky for sharing good info with booth visitors, here's some of what I heard;
They have upgraded the CPU and storage in their smaller devices!
They have a 4-port model, running on DC power...
Some smaller units have 2 network connections (dual Ethernet, or Eth and G3 cell modem!)
They have also made provisions for external FLASH for logging, etc.
Security improvements include Single Sign-On, and FIPS 140-2 Crypto module
Participating in the RSA Secured Partner Program SecurID integration
Two weeks ago, I learned of a project that wanted a 4-port device... last week, OpenGear showed me their Dual Ethernet 4-port device, shipping by default with Cisco RJ-45 wiring. Problem solved!
As we approach the holiday season, the daylight gets shorter, and (with the holidays, and folks taking extra time off) the calendar itself seems to get shorter, and deadlines start to loom large. If you need console servers, take a look at OpenGear, and see if you can find what you need quickly.
Happy holidays! -Zonker-
20100711
Assiging DHCP addresses to APC Power Strips
This is certainly a post related to serial consoles. But, you are limited in the amount of useful monitoring data that you can pull via the CLI, so folks often want to use SNMP or SYSLOG to monitor these devices. Usually, that's where they want CLI access.
In my case, we are re-numbering the management subnet, and we've decided to try to make this job easier for the next time a re-number is required. We're telling the devices to use DHCP addressing, and using MAC Address reservations for all of the devices that we care about. Two complications arose; How to connect to the serial CLI, and how to set the device to use DHCP.
The complication with using DHCP addressing on the AP-7868 PDU (and likely many other APC devices), is that their default configuration REQUIRES that your DHCP server set option 43 to a specific vendor code. If you don't do this, the PDU will not accept the DHCP Offer from your server.
APC AP-7868 Smart PDU Serial Pinouts
On your Conserver host
This section includes what you need to type on the CLI console, to configure the PDU to ignore Option 43 and accept the DHCP Offer. I use the spare port on one of my console servers to do this, and I always name my unused ports in my Conserver deployments, so that I can use them at a moments notice. In this case, I'm using port 30, on Console Server 5...
NOTE: the CLI is not good about sanitizing user input, or detecting errors! You can type commas (or TEXT!) in an IP address field, and non-standard TLDs in the domain field! Be very careful about your typing, and visually check your data before accepting the changes!
When you log out of the PDU, the device will reload the TCP stack, and in a few minutes, your PDU should accept the new IP address via DHCP.
Configuring your DHCP Server for Option 43
You need to define you option 43. How (or IF) you can do this will depend on your DHCP server software. But, this section includes the particular HEX characters that the APC PDU expects to see (or it will refuse the DHCP Offer).
These clues are for the Internet Software Consortium (ISC) DHCP server. See the dhcp-options man page - this describes all the standard DHCP options. Look for the section titled "VENDOR ENCAPSULATED OPTIONS", which is option 43. If you already have a class for APC units, then that would be a good place to define option 43 as it will be defined for all devices that match the class. The simplest way to define the value is something like this:
option vendor-encapsulated-options 01:04:31:41:50:43;
DHCP option names and numbers are listed in RFC1533, and in the ISC DHCPd source file common/tables.c
(Explanation: I forget the first character (01), but I believe that it designates to expect HEX characters. The second says there are (4) characters in the field. The last three characters are ASCII for "APC". I don't know why the "31" is there...)
NOTE: All APC PDU's should be protected by UPS power.
In an unprotected environment, if the utility power flickers off and on quickly, the onboard network card may not power back on. In these instances, the PDU may power on but the LED display will be blank and any type of access (web, telnet, console) to the PDU will be disabled. In this case, you must power cycle the PDU again, by pulling the power cord, waiting at least 5 seconds, and re-applying power.
The on-board network card was not designed for quick off/on scenarios. Customers protecting their PDU with a UPS, as designed, will not have this problem.
There are also some APC UPS clues on my console site, http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Clues/cons-apc.html
Regards,
-Zonker-
In my case, we are re-numbering the management subnet, and we've decided to try to make this job easier for the next time a re-number is required. We're telling the devices to use DHCP addressing, and using MAC Address reservations for all of the devices that we care about. Two complications arose; How to connect to the serial CLI, and how to set the device to use DHCP.
The complication with using DHCP addressing on the AP-7868 PDU (and likely many other APC devices), is that their default configuration REQUIRES that your DHCP server set option 43 to a specific vendor code. If you don't do this, the PDU will not accept the DHCP Offer from your server.
APC AP-7868 Smart PDU Serial Pinouts
APC RJ-13 serial console, 4-wire, data-only connection APC Console Lantronix TS (Cisco, Opengear with Cisco wiring, etc.) (RJ-13) (RJ-45) 1 ---(???) nc default settings: 9600-8-N-1 2 ---(GND)--- 5 3 ---(TxD)--> 6 default username: apc 4 <--(RxD)--- 3 default password: apc 5 ---(GND)--- 6 ---(???) nc ( nc = No Connection )
NOTE: You must configure a default gateway for these devices (APC-7868), even if you are only talking on your own subnet!
On your Conserver host
This section includes what you need to type on the CLI console, to configure the PDU to ignore Option 43 and accept the DHCP Offer. I use the spare port on one of my console servers to do this, and I always name my unused ports in my Conserver deployments, so that I can use them at a moments notice. In this case, I'm using port 30, on Console Server 5...
NOTE: the CLI is not good about sanitizing user input, or detecting errors! You can type commas (or TEXT!) in an IP address field, and non-standard TLDs in the domain field! Be very careful about your typing, and visually check your data before accepting the changes!
console unused-cs5-30 (this is the port I picked...) [Enter] [Enter] (twice, to wake-up the CLI interface) apc [Enter] (default login name: apc case-sensitive!) apc [Enter] (default password: apc case-sensitive!) 2 [Enter] (Network) 1 [Enter] (TCP/IP) (If you need the MAC address, you'll find it here) 4 [Enter] (Boot Mode only if currently set for Manual...) 2 [Enter] (DHCP Only) 2 [Enter] (Advanced) 1 [Enter] (Device Name) ps-6.12i [Enter] 2 [Enter> (Domain Name garage.com [Enter] 8 [Enter] (DHCP Cookie Is: ...) 1 [Enter] (Not Required to accept offer) 9 [Enter] (Accept the pending changes) [Esc] (go to the previous menu) [Esc] (go to the previous menu) [Esc] (go to the previous menu) 4 [Enter] (logout)
When you log out of the PDU, the device will reload the TCP stack, and in a few minutes, your PDU should accept the new IP address via DHCP.
Configuring your DHCP Server for Option 43
You need to define you option 43. How (or IF) you can do this will depend on your DHCP server software. But, this section includes the particular HEX characters that the APC PDU expects to see (or it will refuse the DHCP Offer).
These clues are for the Internet Software Consortium (ISC) DHCP server. See the dhcp-options man page - this describes all the standard DHCP options. Look for the section titled "VENDOR ENCAPSULATED OPTIONS", which is option 43. If you already have a class for APC units, then that would be a good place to define option 43 as it will be defined for all devices that match the class. The simplest way to define the value is something like this:
option vendor-encapsulated-options 01:04:31:41:50:43;
DHCP option names and numbers are listed in RFC1533, and in the ISC DHCPd source file common/tables.c
NOTE: All APC PDU's should be protected by UPS power.
In an unprotected environment, if the utility power flickers off and on quickly, the onboard network card may not power back on. In these instances, the PDU may power on but the LED display will be blank and any type of access (web, telnet, console) to the PDU will be disabled. In this case, you must power cycle the PDU again, by pulling the power cord, waiting at least 5 seconds, and re-applying power.
The on-board network card was not designed for quick off/on scenarios. Customers protecting their PDU with a UPS, as designed, will not have this problem.
There are also some APC UPS clues on my console site, http://www.conserver.com/consoles/Clues/cons-apc.html
Regards,
-Zonker-
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