RS232 port and ioscan

[Hasan_9]

Hello everybody,

I have one rp3440 and one rp3410 servers. I want to use their serial port with RS232 cable.However I cannot find any port on the server’s backend. There is a port named "Console/Remote/UPS" on the server. Also there are two extra RS232 ports that labled "for use in factory" Should I use "Remote" port for this issue? Here is the list of tty on the servers:
# ioscan -knfC tty
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
==================================================================
tty 0 0/7/1/0 asio0 CLAIMED INTERFACE PCI SimpleComm (103c1290)
/dev/diag/mux0 /dev/mux0 /dev/tty0p0
tty 1 0/7/1/1 asio0 CLAIMED INTERFACE PCI Serial (103c1048)
/dev/GSPdiag1 /dev/mux1 /dev/tty1p2
/dev/diag/mux1 /dev/tty1p0 /dev/tty1p4

I cannot understand which one is Remote port. What are the above ports?
please advice.

[Torsten.]

You will need the special black "W" cable with 3 9-pin connectors delivered with the system. The connectors are labeled console, remote, ups.

[Hasan_9]

Thank you,

I have the cable. Should I use "Remote" port? Which device address does belong to "Remote" port? (I sent ioscan result with prevoius post). I want to use it as cluster heartbeat.

[Darrel Louis]

Hasan,

http://docs.hp.com/en/B3936-90079/B3936-90079.pdf
Read the following document, start at page 41.
You are much better of having 2 or more Lans and having multiple heartbeat paths.

Serial (RS232) lines are inherently unreliable compared to network
cards which run the TCP/IP protocol, such as Ethernet or FDDI. Unlike
TCP/IP, the serial line protocol has no error correction or retry
mechanism.

Darrel

[Darrel Louis]

Hasan,

Read the following thread:
http://forums1.itrc.hp.com/service/forums/bizsupport/questionanswer.do?threadId=999387

Darrel

[Mridul Shrivastava]

The device file for Console/Remote/UPS is tty 0 0/7/1/0 asio0 CLAIMED INTERFACE PCI SimpleComm (103c1290)
/dev/diag/mux0 /dev/mux0 /dev/tty0p0.

This is used for getting console access this can't be used for heartbeat purpose. If you want to use serial port for heartbeat purpose you have install additional PCI card for that.
The other serial device files are of GSP card's.

[Ninad_1]

Hi,

I agree with Mridul. You should add another serial IO card to be used for heartbeat. But again - also read the NOTE in the manual for SG -
The use of a serial (RS232) heartbeat line is supported only in a two-node
cluster configuration. A serial heartbeat line is required in a two-node
cluster that has only one heartbeat LAN. If you have at least two
heartbeat LANs, or one heartbeat LAN and one standby LAN, a serial
(RS232) heartbeat should not be used.


http://docs.hp.com/en/B3936-90079/ch02s02.html#d0e1110

Regards,
Ninad

[Hasan_9]

Thank you,

This is a two nodes cluster and I have just one lan per server, so I have to use RS232 connection as heartbeat.

What is 0/7/1/1 ? As mirdul said 0/7/1/0 is device file for "console/remote/ups" so what is the other device?

Is it possible to use "remote" port as a serial port?

Do you mean, rp3440 and rp3410 do not have serial port by default?

Hasan

[Ninad_1]

Hi Hasan.

Please refer to the manuals http://docs.hp.com/en/A7137-96002/A7137-96002.pdf page 137
and
http://docs.hp.com/en/A7137-96003/A7137-96003.pdf page 16
What I can conclude is
The 25 pin serial port can be used as console or remote console or connected to UPS - it cannot be used as serial communication with other server.
The other 2 9 pin serial ports- Serial A and B do not have any device path attached with them and are for internal use only.

What I would suggest to you in this case is to go for a 2 or 4 port Lan card in each server

Regards,
Ninad

[Mridul Shrivastava]

As said earlier the other devices is of GSP which is also used for accesing console and collect console logs etc from a PC. So those ports can't be used for heartbeat purpose.
I would suggest u to install one more LAN card as ethernet is always recommended then serial as communication will be faster and many other advantages.