So,
you got a bench of new Aruba AOS-CX switches, series 6300, and now you need to
connect them to your network...
There
are 2 ways to configure those, either using Aruba CX Bluetooth app or connecting
using the console port.
The
Aruba AOS-CX 63xx comes with USB type C console connector, which allow you to
use any USB type C cable to your PC, but what about console server?
There
are several USB type C console servers out there, but they are pretty expensive,
Here
I use console server, for less than 150$, using Raspberry Pi and some cables.
First
get a Raspberry Pi with all the required accessories (MicroSD with at least
8GB, power supply, case etc.)
You
will also need 5 USB cables type A (male) to type C, those can be found easily.
After
configuring the Raspberry Pi with all the basic settings (IP address, routes,
enable remote access etc.), which is out of the scope of this post, let’s start
the configuration of the console server functions.
Update and Install
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
-y
sudo apt-get
install minicom -y
sudo apt install
ser2net -y
|
Allow user to dialout
Taking ownership of the serial port is as easy as adding the group dialout to your login id. You do that with the following command:
In the line above pi is the user you want to add a group to. If you are logged in as a different user, you'll have to use that username instead on the line above.
sudo usermod -a -G
dialout pi
|
In the line above pi is the user you want to add a group to. If you are logged in as a different user, you'll have to use that username instead on the line above.
Serial Port discovery
Use this command to search for yours:
dmesg | grep tty
|
You’ll see something like this:
As you can see, I have my 1 port adapter plugged in, named ttyACM0.
With this information we can configure our ser2net.conf file.
Configuration
sudo mkdir
/var/log/ser2net
|
| sudo nano /etc/ser2net.conf |
Inside you will find some default configuration lines at the bottom of the config file. We can easily edit these to meet our needs.
Let’s edit the ser2net configuration to get things going. The following is my configuration for each serial connection:
Login banner:
| BANNER:aruba-b1:\r\nAruba Networks ERT Lab\r\n\r\nUNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE IS PROHIBITED\r\nYou must have explicit, authorized permission to access or configure this device.\r\nUnauthorized attempts and actions to access or use this system may result in civil and/or\r\ncriminal penalties.\r\nAll activities performed on this device are logged and monitored.\r\n\r\nYou are connected to port \p device \d [\s]\r\n\r\nHostname: AOS-CX 6300-06\r\n\r\n |
Serial connection with trace file:
| 192.168.10.145,3000:telnet:600:/dev/ttyACM0:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT aruba-b1 TRACEFILE:tr1:/var/log/ser2net/p-Y-M-D-H:i:s.U |
This should be configured for each serial connection, as the Raspberry Pi only got 4 USB ports, you will need to configure 4 of those.
Here is my ser2net.conf complete file:
| BANNER:aruba-b1:\r\nAruba Networks ERT Lab\r\n\r\nUNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE IS PROHIBITED\r\nYou must have explicit, authorized permission to access or configure this device.\r\nUnauthorized attempts and actions to access or use this system may result in civil and/or\r\ncriminal penalties.\r\nAll activities performed on this device are logged and monitored.\r\n\r\nYou are connected to port \p device \d [\s]\r\n\r\nHostname: AOS-CX 6300-01\r\n\r\n BANNER:aruba-b2:\r\nAruba Networks ERT Lab\r\n\r\nUNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE IS PROHIBITED\r\nYou must have explicit, authorized permission to access or configure this device.\r\nUnauthorized attempts and actions to access or use this system may result in civil and/or\r\ncriminal penalties.\r\nAll activities performed on this device are logged and monitored.\r\n\r\nYou are connected to port \p device \d [\s]\r\n\r\nHostname: AOS-CX 6300-02\r\n\r\n BANNER:aruba-b3:\r\nAruba Networks ERT Lab\r\n\r\nUNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE IS PROHIBITED\r\nYou must have explicit, authorized permission to access or configure this device.\r\nUnauthorized attempts and actions to access or use this system may result in civil and/or\r\ncriminal penalties.\r\nAll activities performed on this device are logged and monitored.\r\n\r\nYou are connected to port \p device \d [\s]\r\n\r\nHostname: AOS-CX 6300-03\r\n\r\n BANNER:aruba-b4:\r\nAruba Networks ERT Lab\r\n\r\nUNAUTHORIZED ACCESS TO THIS DEVICE IS PROHIBITED\r\nYou must have explicit, authorized permission to access or configure this device.\r\nUnauthorized attempts and actions to access or use this system may result in civil and/or\r\ncriminal penalties.\r\nAll activities performed on this device are logged and monitored.\r\n\r\nYou are connected to port \p device \d [\s]\r\n\r\nHostname: AOS-CX 6300-04\r\n\r\n TRACEFILE:tr1:/var/log/ser2net/usb-console-port1 192.168.10.145,3000:telnet:600:/dev/ttyACM0:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT aruba-b1 tr=tr1 TRACEFILE:tr2:/var/log/ser2net/usb-console-port2 192.168.10.145,3001:telnet:600:/dev/ttyACM1:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT aruba-b2 tr=tr2 TRACEFILE:tr3:/var/log/ser2net/usb-console-port3 192.168.10.145,3002:telnet:600:/dev/ttyACM2:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT aruba-b3 tr=tr3 TRACEFILE:tr4:/var/log/ser2net/usb-console-port4 192.168.10.145,3003:telnet:600:/dev/ttyACM3:115200 8DATABITS NONE 1STOPBIT aruba-b4 tr=tr4 |
| sudo nano /etc/rc.local |
Add the following above exit 0:
| /usr/local/sbin/ser2net -n -c /etc/ser2net.conf |
In order to stop/start ser2net use the following command:
| sudo /etc/init.d/ser2net [stop|start] |
Connect
And connect:
Summary
We can even power up the Raspberry Pi, using the auxiliary USB port, which can be found on the AOS-CX switch, if you run out of power outlets in your rack.
