I’ve got a client using Portserver2 devices that has a problem I am at a loss to explain, let alone correct. They have 4 Portsever2 connected to an RS6000 AIX machine. These devices are all connected on a serial port to PCs which are connected to some other measurement equipment.
Things will wokr fine for some time…it varies as to the amount of time, and then connectivity will be lost between AIX and the terminal (PC). Ethernet connectivity is fine between the two devices, ie RS6000 and the Portserver, and the processes are active on the RS6000, but the terminal cannot connect. The web interface will show some of the status lights as active but not all. No reboot of terminal server or PC wil help anyting. However, if the Portserver is replaced with another one, things will come back up with no problem. The portserver that was taken out can be tested in the shop and work fine. It will take some time but it will happen again, and the same action taken, replace and it will work.
There’s some questions I’d have about this configuration before I can give a better answer. How do the terminals connect to the AIX server? Do you connect via auto-connection/native mode or do you run Realport on the AIX host and get your login that way? On the Portserver TS itself, what is the device type in the “show ports” listing?
Make sure ‘dev’ type is set to ‘prn’ on PortServer II. #>set port will display settings. To change them
#>set port ra=x-xx dev=prn and reboot the PortServer
we are running realport (ncxd) on the RS-6000 running AIX 5. We don’t get a login in the classic sense, ie getty, it is a captured terminal that supplies data to an application that processes it.
They have also noted that they need to do all of this via a serial connection…doing things over the network does not seem to have any affect.
The connection to the terminal is done with a custom RJ45 -> DB9 cable. I believe this is the same cable that they used with the RAN box that the portserver replaced. Do you know if the RJ45 pinout on the portserver is the same as the one of the RAN box? (By RAN i mean the digi multiport terminal boxes that we used to use).
The device will work without a problem, then eventually communications will be lost…
The web interface will show no status lights at all, ie like the computer is not connected. Rebooting the PC will not do anything, nor will resetting the portserver. What will fix it is taking the portserver out of the circuit and resetting the configuration again via a serial port…not through the network connection…
I’m looking for something in the environment that could be causing the problem and should be checked…ie grounding??
It almost sounds like some sort of network issue if rebooting either server or Portserver doesn’t make a difference. The Realport driver talks on TCP port 771, so maybe something is blocking that port but you’d think it would be all or nothing then, not intermittently working and non-working. This might be a good time to call into Technical Support.