HP serial console switch 16 AF101A

[johndalton]

WE configured the console switch and connected a sun v100 using a rj45 cat 5 cable
from its serial port
to port 1 of the switch and tried to connect
using both the cli and the serial session
viewer. No output is seen after hitting return. WE tried multible settings - to no avail. We tried a seperate emulation program
to test the v100 console connection and we can get on the console.
Anyone know why we cannot get any output from the console switch for this connection?

[Wayde Nie]

A lot of the serial ports on Sun boxes use a null modem connection. You might try getting a null modem adapter or cable between the serial console and sun boxes...

[Matti_Kurkela]

Both the serial console switch and the Sun V100 have RJ45 connectors for serial ports, so the issue is not quite as simple as that.

The RJ45 serial port pin-outs of the Serial Console Switch 16 and the Sun V100 are different and incompatible. An adapter is required.

You'll find the pin-out of the SCS 16 from page 79 of this document:
http://bizsupport2.austin.hp.com/bc/docs/support/SupportManual/c00552984/c00552984.pdf

The Sun V100 RJ45 serial port pin-out can be found here:
http://www.sunhelp.org/unix-serial-port-resources/serial-pinouts/

Putting the pin-outs together, the "ideal" RJ45-to-RJ45 cable between the SCS 16 and Sun V100 would have to be wired like this:

HP Sun
1 8
2 2
3 (not connected)
4 3
5 6
6 4 (or 5; both are ground pins on Sun)
7 7
8 1

The Cisco RJ-45 serial port pin-out almost matches Sun's, but RTS/CTS are reversed. So if you don't need RTS/CTS handshaking, I think the HP adapter cable AF104A *might* work.
(Disclaimer: As the HP SCS 16 manual does not list the wiring of AF104A, I cannot verify this.)

If you need RTS/CTS and cannot wire your own cable, you'll have to connect it like this:

HP CSC 16 - RJ-45 - HP serial adapter - Sun serial adapter - RJ-45 - Sun V100.

If the adapter that came with the Sun system is 9-pin (Sun part# 530-3100-xx), the correct HP adapter is AF105A. If the Sun adapter is 25-pin (Sun part# 530-2889-01), you'll need HP adapter AF107A.

MK

[johndalton]

The problem was that a spcial cable was needed from the hpconsole switch to the sun adapter.