[SOLVED] Console connection to V240

UNIX Solaris
1

My apologies if this is posted/answered elsewhere.

I have recently been tasked with getting 2 Sun V240's running Solaris 10 up and working. I should mention I come from the programming side of life with a small amount of networking on Windows 2003 servers.

They boot, no error lights, hd's are working fine. I cannot for the life of me get a console connection to see what's going on. No ALOM, no boot, nadda.

I am trying to go through the serial management port to a dell server which has a Centerpoint KVM. Yes, I do have the adapter from the kit (have tried 4, at least 2 are known working). To the knowledge of the office, no one has reset default for the serial connection.

Before I make an assumption that the setting s have been messed with and remove the battery, is there something I am missing?

Thanks much,

~Kuriosity

2

I'm not sure that I understand everything you've said but I'll hopefully write a few things that may help.

The box has a "network management port" and a "serial/console port" both of which are RJ45. The serial port is just that, a conventional RS232 only on a RJ45. The light blue coloured CISCO cables used for managing network switches work perfectly for this. The cable has RJ45 one end, and a DB9 the other. Just use an old PC or notebook with a plain old 9-pin serial port and use something like Hyperterminal. No flow control or anything like that. Power the system up from cold and if you get garbage on the PC terminal emulator then the baud rate is wrong. Set it 8-N-1.

You can't use the network management port until you've configured it; IP address, etc.

Post back any more questions.

2 Likes
3

Thanks for the tip. I'm going to give that a try and I'll write back with a yea or nay. I'm not going through Net management as it's not set up yet.

~K

4

I think most important is to power up the machine (Sun box) from cold on each time you're trying to get the console communication. These ports often seem difficult to "wake up" after a failed attempt.

If your machine doesn't have anything on it yet then there's no filesystem to get corrupted, etc. Therefore (you probably already know) you can power down the machine by holding in the power button for 4 seconds. Just keep trying until it talks sense.

5

I "found" the cable and we are good to go on this issue.

Thanks so much!

~K

1 Like
6

That's a good result!!!

Now you have a known good working position you can try connecting it through your KVM. Then you can put the cable back before the network support team know that its gone.

Stealing from the network boys can land you in jail!!

7

I'm married to him, so he'd better let me keep the cable :slight_smile:

We're running the console connection from the v240 to a dell server and rdping in from there. all seems to be well now, I hope.