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Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

 
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Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

My description was probably not the best, but however, using a simple USB cable and the appropriate driver you get a serial connection from the client (PC) to the array. This probably means the USB to serial converter is inside the array controller, but it works just like any other USB to serial converter.


But there is not really a need for this, because you can do (almost) all configuration tasks over the network by using a browser, telnet or ssh session.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

> Torsten, that probably means the P2000 has
> a built-in USB-to-serial adapter.

No, it probably doesn't. I'd expect a
USB-to-serial adapter to present to the user
a serial port, not a USB port, and this thing
appears to have a (mini) USB port on its
panel, not a serial port.

My point here is that it pays to have a clear
concept of which hardware and software is
doing what in a case like this. (Otherwise,
you tend to connect a USB cable between two
pieces of equipment and then hope for magic
to occur, which tends to lead to
disappointment.)

> [...] If we're lucky, perhaps HP will
> support the adapters included in HP's own
> products, but I wouldn't hold my breath...

In fact, HP does support (or at least
tolerate) a few of then in VMS, but even if
it did support them in HP-UX, that still
wouldn't help in this case, because THERE IS
NO SERIAL PORT INVOLVED HERE. Really. There
isn't. And adding a serial port at one end
of the wire won't help you to communicate
with the not-a-serial-port at the other end.
Really. It won't. Adding some _software_ on
the HP-UX side might help, but adding
hardware (like a USB-to-serial adapter) can't
help you talk to a USB port. (Unless you can
persuade the other end to talk to another
USB-to-serial adapter, too, which seems
pretty unlikely. And then you'd need a
serial cable, not a USB cable.)

> [...] you get a serial connection [...]

You may get something which _looks_ like a
serial connection, but it's not a real serial
connection. Really. It's not.

> But there is not really a need for this,
> [...]

No argument there.
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

I don't know why you insist this is not a serial port or connection, but I already used it ...

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

> I don't know why you insist this is not a
> serial port or connection, [...]

Mostly because there is no actual serial port
or serial cable involved here.

It's similar to the way that there's no real
parallel port or parallel cable involved when
someone connects a printer with a USB
interface. Or the way that that there's no
real SCSI port or SCSI cable involved when
one connects a disk drive with a USB
interface. Or, ...

But you get the idea. (Or perhaps not.)
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

It's called the USB serial console, basically the same if I connect my PC to a server serial console via an usb to serial converter, but this converter is part of the array

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

> [...] but this converter is part of the
> array

Yes, exactly, except that there is no such
converter in the array. (I find this fact to
be significant, while some people apparently
do not.)

One advantage of having an accurate mental
model of this stuff is that it doesn't lead
one to imagine the existence of nonexistent
hardware. But if you insist on believing in
miracles, then there's probably nothing I can
do about it.
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

The manual is calling this "USB console port
(serial, out of band)", has a chapter about "USB Serial Console Connected PC", I'm corious about Steven's theory of operation of this connection, but last but not least this doesn't really help the thread owner ...


@bigdaddy68, sorry for all this, but please consider to use the web interface or better the CLI via ssh.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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bigdaddy68
Advisor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

Thanks Torsten,

This is certainly a good debate.

Can any of you can tell me if tty0p0 and tty1p0 are the USB ports special device files ??

if they are the I was at least able to cu to them even if they didn't answer back.

I get that they can't be used and I am OK with that.

For the setup of this P2000 array I need to do it from the host HP-UX system and I was having a hard time using Virtual IP address on lan0:1 trying to ping/telnet/connect to 10.0.0.2 and .3 (the array controllers). Not sure where I went wrong but I will investigate.

thx again
bigdaddy68
BigDaddy68
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

It's important to use the management LAN connectors on the array, the iSCSI connection (if present) don't provide the management interface.

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

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Steven Schweda
Honored Contributor

Re: USB Serial ports cu on rx2800

> Can any of you can tell me if tty0p0 and
> tty1p0 are the USB ports special device
> files ??

SAM/SMH probably can. On my rx2600, for
example:

Tools -> Peripheral Devices -> Manage Peripheral Devices

I see a few things in the Class "tty":

PCI SimpleComm /dev/tty0p0 (...)
PCI Serial /dev/tty1p0 (...)
Built-in RS232C /dev/tty2p0 (...)
Built-in RS232C /dev/tty3p0 (...)

And there are two actual serial ports on the
rear panel, but I don't know which device
corresponds to which serial port.

The "PCI SerialBus" things in the Class "OO"
look to me like the USB devices. (Which are,
of course, distinct from the serial ports.)

> if they are the I was at least able to cu
> to them even if they didn't answer back.

I would expect "cu" to work with a serial
port, not with a USB port. I'd be astounded
if you were dealing with any USB ports.

Note that a USB port is rather like a SCSI
adapter. It's hardware, but you normally
talk not to it but to a device which is
connected to it (like, say, a disk drive).
So, even if you found a USB adapter device in
"/dev", it probably wouldn't be the thing
with which you'd want to deal.

> For the setup of this P2000 array [...]

My brief search for documents suggested that
there is more than one type of "P2000 array",
and I have no idea which you have. I also
have no information on what the default IP
address for a P2000 might be.

> [...] I was having a hard time using
> Virtual IP address on lan0:1 trying to
> ping/telnet/connect to 10.0.0.2 and .3 (the
> array controllers).

With my weak psychic powers, I also have no
idea how you set up this "Virtual IP
address", or why you expected those other IP
addresses to work. Or if you connected the
Ethernet properly, or much else, really.