Avocent ACS v6000 Virtual Serial Port Concentrator

Products

• VMware vSphere ESXi

Issue/Introduction

Virtual Serial Port Concentrator enables you to communicate between virtual machines and IP-enabled serial devices. Also, you can connect to the virtual machine's serial port over the network using telnet or SSH.

 

This article lists the requirements and steps to configure Avocent ACS v6000 Virtual Serial Port Concentrator.

Environment

VMware ESX 4.1.x
VMware vSphere ESXi 7.0.0
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Installable
VMware ESXi 4.1.x Embedded
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.7
VMware vSphere ESXi 6.5

Resolution

The following list describes the requirements for configuring Avocent ACS v6000 Virtual Serial Port Concentrator:

• The ACS v6000 console server runs as a virtual machine and it requires VMWare ESX running version 4.1 or newer.
• A machine running the vSphere Client.
• Minimum system requirements of the ACS v6000 virtual machine:
  • 2GB hard drive space
  • 512MB memory
  • Network adaptor
  • Access to the ACS v6000 console server VM ISO file

Note: For more information about downloading and installing ACS v6000, see ACS v6000 Virtual Advanced Console Server.

To configure network parameters:

1. Log in to the ACS v6000 console server as administrator.
2. At the command prompt, enter wiz to view the current IP configuration.
3. To change the IP configuration, press Enter to move through the parameters, accepting the current values.
4. Type the new value for the selected parameter or press CTRL + E to edit the current value.
5. After editing the parameters, click Yes. This updates the parameters with new values.

To configure ACS v6000 console server:

1. Open a web browser and enter the IP address of the console server in the address field.
2. Log in to the ACS v6000 console server as administrator.
3. Click the Expert tab and go to System > License.
4. Add the license and click Save.
5. On the Expert tab, click the Ports folder and click Serial Ports. By Default, all the Serial Ports are disabled.
6. Select the ports that you want to enable and click Enable.
7. Click the Wizard tab. The Security screen appears.
8. Select the desired Security Profile and click Next.
9. Set the desired network parameters and click Next. The default CAS Profile configuration is applied to all serial ports.
10. Check the box to enable all ports and set the desired CAS Profile parameters. Click Next.
11. Click the root link in the Users table.
12. Enter the new password in the password field and confirm it.
13. Click Next.
14. Click the admin link.
15. Enter the new password in the password field and confirm it.
16. Click Next and click Save.

To Configure virtual ports on the virtual machine:

1. Click Edit Virtual Machine Settings from the Getting Started tab.
2. Click Add.
   
   Note: Ensure that the virtual machine is turned off.
    
3. Click Serial Port and click Next in the pop-up window.
4. Click Connect Via Network and click Next.
5. Ensure that Project is selected.
6. Click Use Virtual Serial Port Concentrator.
7. Type ACSID://ttySxx in the Port URI.
   
   Where xx is between 1 to 48. It defines the virtual serial port from the ACS console server this serial port will connect to.
    
8. Type telnet://<IP_address> or the DNS of ACS v6000 virtual machine an port in the vSPC URI.
   
   For example:
   
   telnet://192.168.1.1:8801
    
9. Click Finish.

To configure serial port as the system console:

• Use options in /etc/grub.conf to redirect console output to one of your serial ports. This enables you to see all of the bootup and shutdown messages from your terminal.
• Add this kernel line in the grub.conf file:
  
  console=ttyS0,9600