Devices with only USB console port - Need a Console Server Solution

Jared Mauch jared at puck.Nether.net
Tue Feb 2 14:11:48 UTC 2016


On Mon, Dec 07, 2015 at 10:15:28PM +0000, Erik Sundberg wrote:
> We have one of these nice new and fancy Cisco ASR920-24SZ, just realized it doesn't have an RJ45 Console port only USB. When we deploy devices at our pop we wire the console port to a terminal\console server, well that doesn't work for a usb console device.
> 
> So what is everyone doing for out of band management via the console when it's a usb only device?
> Is there something I am missing?

	Likely not.  I've seen most equipment makers start to ignore serial console.
The default these appears to be moving to a uBoot/PXE style network setup
where you push an image and such via TFTP/DHCP into the device.

> Is there a console server for USB?

	I've not seen one show up, but there are other devices like this
which the DIY industry has started to build:

	http://freetserv.github.io/

	I have a side business i'm tinkering with and these are open source
hardware.  If there is interest, I'd be willing to build these in volume and
drive the cost down.

	It would not be difficult to do a giant USB hub that was similar.

> Does cisco make an USB to RJ45 Jack adapter?

	Yes, but I'm always concerned about what boot messages are lost
or things you can't quite do properly (like send break, etc) to get into
the device as you're waiting for the USB to initalize, driver to present
to OS, etc..  Maybe they spent more time thinking about this than I
am aware, but it's something I've not had a proper solution explained to me
for.

	- Jared

-- 
Jared Mauch  | pgp key available via finger from jared at puck.nether.net
clue++;      | http://puck.nether.net/~jared/  My statements are only mine.



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