Redundant TS Port Servers

Serial Servers & Infrastructure Mangement Portserver TS
1

Hello,

I currently have a device with one serial out which is connected to my Digi Port Server TS 2 MEI, which is connected to our ethernet.

I would like to make this device redundant. Meaning, I would like to have two port servers connected in some fashion to the data coming out of the device w/ one serial out. I don’t know if that can be accomplished in any way with daisy chaining, some type of Y cable etc… I have attached a PDF showing what I would like to achieve. If anyone could weight in on how we could get the devices to be redundant I would appreciate that greatly.

If possible, I would like to be able to switch these either via software or have it auto switch if one serial port server goes down.

Thank You,
-Chris

2

Hi Chris,

Redundancy 2 won’t work at all.

Redundancy 1 may work, though I would not recommned this. I have seen a few customers try Y cables. They sort of work. If you keep the entire serial cable length to very short distants, your attached rs232 device provides strong enough voltage levels and if you use low enough baud rates you may get this working, but, not necesarily very reliably. These serial ports simply were not designed for redundancy. You can try it and see if it works for you.
Otherwise, a self-powered product made for this purpose may be a better solution. However, then this product becomes the single point of failure, so you have really solved the main goal of redundancy.