Testing serial (and Ethernet) port connection status

Port connection status

You can verify that devices are attached correctly to ports by navigating to the web interface and selecting Status: Statistics. For example the Serial Ports panel will then show you the status of each serial port. 

Alternately you can get this serail port status information from the command line by typing pmshell –signals –l port1 

Hardware loopback testing the ports 

Each console server has Loopback Test facilities built in. When undertaking a Loopback Test, each of the serial ports loop data transmitted to data received, RTS to CTS, and DTR to DSR + DCD. The loopback program senses that data sent is received properly and that signals set and received properly. The Loopback Test also undertakes an Ethernet loopback that senses the data transmitted is received properly. This test enables you to test the console server serial ports and your serial cabling. To undertake these tests you'll need to have at hand:

• the console server
• a terminal device (e.g. Windows PC and HyperTerminal program)
• serial console cabling e.g. UTP Cat5 cable (#440016), DB-9 to RJ45 DTE adapter (#319000) and DB-9 to RJ45 DCE adapter (#319001)
• custom made R-45 serial loopback plugs (the SLB section at end of this faq shows the SLB required for a console server with Opengear classic pinout)
• custom made RJ-45 Ethernet loopback plug (refer the ELB section at end of this faq)

General Test Procedure

• Power up the console server and configure the serial connection of the "terminal" device/program you are using to 9600bps, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit
• Plug a serial cable between the console server local DB-9 port and terminal device. If you are using "HyperTerminal" or a similar program running on a Windows PC as the terminal device, then the cable is made up from a Cat5 UTP (440016) cable and two DB-9 to RJ-45 adapters (319000 and 319001)
• Log on to the console server by pressing 'return' a few times. The console server will request a username and password. Enter username 'root' and password 'default'. You should now see the command line prompt which is a hash (#)
• Enter an appropriate loopback command

Sample of test - for a CM4116/48

• Install the ELB on the Ethernet RJ45 socket and an SLB plug onto each serial RJ-45 sockets 
  
   
  
  
• To invoke the inbuilt loopback diagnostics type in loopback -e eth0 /dev/port0[1-9] then press 'return'. The screen will show 9 columns for serial loopback and one for Ethernet: 
  
   
  This will test port 1 through 9
  
  
• To test ports 10 through 16 on the CM4116 you need to type loopback -e eth0 /dev/port1[0-6]. The screen will then show 7 columns for ports 10 through 16 and one for Ethernet
  
  
• As the CM4148 has 48 ports you need to test ports, 1-9, 10-19, 20-29, 30-39, 40-48 in separate blocks
  
  
  • For ports 10 through 19, type in loopback -e eth0 /dev/port1[0-9]
  • For ports 20 through 29, type in loopback -e eth0 /dev/port2[0-9]
  • For ports 30 through 39, type in loopback -e eth0 /dev/port3[0-9]
  • For ports 40 through 48, type in loopback -e eth0 /dev/port4[0-8]
  • The test will repeat indefinitely. The test can be terminated by pressing Ctrl C
  • A successful test must have 'L' active in each column