StarTech.com ECS0016 User Manual

Enhanced Console Server

ECS0016

FCC Compliance Statement

This equipment has been tested and found to comply with the limits for a Class B digital device, pursuant to part 15 of the FCC Rules. These limits are designed to provide reasonable protection against har mful interference in a residential installation. This equipment generates, uses and can radiate radio frequency energy and, if not installed and used in accordance with the instructions, may cause harmful interference to radio communications. However, there is no guarantee that interference will not occur in a particular installation. If this equipment does cause harmful interference to radio or television reception, which can be determined by turning the equipment off and on, the user is encouraged to try to correct the interference by one or more of the following measures:

Reorient or relocate the receiving antenna.•

Increase the separation between the equipment and receiver.•

Connect the equipment into an outlet on a circuit different from that to which the receiver •

is connected.

Consult the dealer or an experienced radio/TV technician for help.•

Use of Trademarks, Registered Trademarks, and other Protected Names and Symbols

This manual may make reference to trademarks, registered trademarks, and other protected names and/or symbols of third-party companies not related in any way to StarTech.com. Where they occur these references are for illustrative purposes only and do not represent an endorsement of a product or service by StarTech.com, or an endorsement of the product(s) to which this manual applies by the third-party company in question. Regardless of any direct acknowledgement elsewhere in the body of this document, StarTech.com hereby acknowledges that all trademarks, registered trademarks, service marks, and other protected names and/or symbols contained in this manual and related documents are the property of their respective holders.

Instruction Manual

Table of Contents

Introduction .................................................................................... 1

Features ......................................................................................1

Package Contents .......................................................................1

Initial Conﬁguration ....................................................................... 2

Power Connection .......................................................................2

Management Console Connection ............................................... 3

ARPPing IP Address Assignment................................................4

Administrator Password ............................................................... 6

Network IP address .....................................................................7

System Services ..........................................................................8

HTTPS .........................................................................................9

HTTP ...........................................................................................9

Telnet ........................................................................................... 9

SSH .............................................................................................9

SNMP ..........................................................................................10

Ping .............................................................................................10

Base ............................................................................................10

Communications Software ...........................................................11

MetaConnect ...............................................................................11

Applications & Database Servers ................................................11

Web Server ..................................................................................11

Desktop PCs................................................................................11

Network Appliance ......................................................................11

PuTTY .........................................................................................12

SSHTerm .....................................................................................13

Instruction Manual

Serial Port and Network Host Conﬁguration............................... 13

Conﬁguring Serial Ports ..............................................................13

Common Settings ........................................................................15

Console Server Mode ..................................................................16

SDT Mode ...................................................................................20

Power Strip Mode ........................................................................20

Terminal Server Mode ................................................................. 20

Serial Bridging Mode ...................................................................21

Syslog ..........................................................................................21

Add / Edit Users...........................................................................22

Authentication ..............................................................................24

Network Hosts .............................................................................25

Serial Port Cascading ..................................................................27

Remote Power Control (RPC) .................................................... 32

Uninterruptible Power Supply Control (UPS) ...............................36

Overview of Network UPS Tools (NUT) ......................................43

Environmental Monitoring ............................................................45

Failover and Out-of-Band Dial Access ........................................ 50

OoB Dial-In access ......................................................................50

Conﬁgure Dial In PPP..................................................................51

Using The MetaConnect client ....................................................53

Set up Windows XP/ 2003 client..................................................53

Set up earlier Windows clients ....................................................53

Set up Linux clients .....................................................................54

Secure Tunneling & MetaConnect ................................................ 56

Telnet or SSH connection to serially attached devices ................56

MetaConnect for OoB Connection to the Gateway ......................58

MetaConnect Public Key Authentication .....................................60

Instruction Manual

Setting up MetaConnect for Remote Desktop access ................61

Set up MetaConnect Serial Ports on ECS0016 ..........................62

SSH port forward over the ECS0016 Serial Port .........................63

Alerts and Logging ........................................................................ 64

Enable SMTP, SNMP and/or Nagios ...........................................64

Conﬁgure Alerts ...........................................................................65

Remote Log Storage ...................................................................67

Power Control ................................................................................ 68

Conﬁguring Serial Port Power Strips ...........................................70

Conﬁguring IPMI Power Management .........................................70

Conﬁguring Browser Controlled Power Strips ............................. 71

Nagios Integration ......................................................................... 72

Nagios overview ..........................................................................72

Central management and setting up MetaConnect for Nagios ....73

Central Site ..................................................................................75

NagiosServer ...............................................................................75

Network .......................................................................................75

ECS0016 .....................................................................................75

Remote Site .................................................................................75

Serial ...........................................................................................75

Managed Hosts ...........................................................................75

Remote ECS0016 Gateway .........................................................78

System Management ..................................................................... 82

System Administration and Reset ...............................................82

Firmware Upgrades .....................................................................83

Conﬁgure Date and Time ............................................................84

iii

Instruction Manual

Status Reports ............................................................................... 85

Port Access and Active Users ..................................................... 85

Statistics ......................................................................................86

Support Reports ..........................................................................86

Syslog ..........................................................................................86

Device Management ....................................................................88

Port Log Management .................................................................88

Power Management ...................................................................88

Serial Port Terminal Connection .................................................. 89

Basic Conﬁguration - Linux Commands ..................................... 90

The Linux Command line .............................................................91

Administration Conﬁguration .......................................................93

Date and Time Conﬁguration .......................................................94

Network Conﬁguration .................................................................95

Serial Port Conﬁguration .............................................................99

Users ...........................................................................................100

Trusted Networks .........................................................................101

Event Logging Conﬁguration .......................................................102

MetaConnect Host Conﬁguration ................................................104

Advanced Conﬁguration ............................................................... 105

Advanced Portmanager ...............................................................105

pmshell ........................................................................................105

pmchat .........................................................................................106

pmusers .......................................................................................106

Portmanager Daemon .................................................................107

Signals .........................................................................................108

External Scripts and Alerts ..........................................................108

Instruction Manual

Raw Access to Serial Ports ......................................................... 110

Access to Serial Ports .................................................................110

Accessing the Console Port ........................................................110

IP - Filtering .................................................................................111

Customizing the IP-Filter: ............................................................ 112

Modifying SNMP Conﬁguration ...................................................113

Power Strip Control .....................................................................115

Glossary of Terms Used ..............................................................121

TERM ..........................................................................................121

MEANING ....................................................................................121

Technical Speciﬁcations ..............................................................129

Technical Support ......................................................................... 132

Warranty Information .................................................................... 132

Instruction Manual

Introduction

Thank you for purchasing a StarTech.com Conyx ECS0016 Enhanced Console Server. This innovative remote service management solution enables system administrators and network managers to affordably monitor and control their computers, networks and connected serial devices remotely, from anywhere in the world (using an Internet connection).

Features

DHCP client for dynamic IP assignment•

Ofﬂine data logging (Syslog, NFS, CIFS)•

Out-of-band access (external dial-up modem)•

Port triggers with SMNP and email alerts•

SSH tunneled serial bridging•

Strong Encryption (3DES, Blowﬁsh, AES, Arcfour)•

SUN / Solaris ready•

Telnet/SSH/Raw TCP connect•

Unlimited user accounts•

Package Contents

1 x DCE Connector•

1 x DTE Connector•

1 x ECS0016 Enhanced Console Server•

1 x Power Cable•

1 x Software/User Manual CD•

1 x Quick Start Guide•

2 x CAT5 Cables•

2 x Mounting Brackets•

Instruction Manual

Initial Conguration

Unpack the ECS0016 kit and verify you have all of the par ts indicated in the Package Contents list shown on the previous page, and that they all appear in good working order.

If you are installing your ECS0016 in a rack, you will need to attach the rack-mounting brackets supplied with the unit, and install the unit in the rack. Following this, proceed to connect your ECS0016 to the network, as well as to the serial ports of the controlled devices, and to an power outlet as outlined below.

Power Connection

The ECS0016 and CM4148 models have a built-in universal autoswitching AC power supply. This power supply accepts AC input voltage between 100 and 240 VAC with a frequency of 50 or 60 Hz and the power consumption is less than 20W.

AC power socket

The ECS0016 has an IEC AC power socket located at the rear of the metal case, which uses a conventional IEC AC power cord. The North American power cord is provided by default.

There is a warning notice printed on the back of each unit:

Instruction Manual

Management Console Connection

The ECS0016 is pre-conﬁgured with a default IP Address: 192.168.0.1 and Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0 .

Directly connect a PC or workstation to the ECS0016. To conﬁgure the ECS0016 with a browser, the connected PC or workstation should have an IP address in the same range as the ECS0016 (e.g. 192.168.0.100)

Please note: For initial conﬁguration, it is recommended that the ECS0016 be connected directly to a single PC or workstation. If you choose to connect your LAN before completing the initial setup steps:

Ensure there are • no other devices on the LAN with an IP Address of

192.168.0.1

Ensure the Console Server and the PC/workstation are on the • same

LAN segment, with no interposed router appliances

To conﬁgure the IP Address of your Linux or Unix PC/workstation simply run ipconﬁg. For Windows PCs (Win9x/Me/2000/XP/ NT):

Click 1. Start > Settings, then select Control Panel and double-click

Network Connections (for 95/98/Me, double click Network).

Right-click on 2. Local Area Connection and select Properties.

Select 3. Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) and click Properties.

Select 4. Use the following IP address and enter the following details:

IP address: 192.168.0.100 Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0.

If you wish to retain your existing IP settings for this network connection, click Advanced and add the above as a secondary IP connection.

Instruction Manual

ARPPing IP Address Assignment

If it is not convenient to change the PC/workstation network address, you can use the ARP-Ping command to reset the ECS0016 IP address. To do this from a Windows PC:

Click 1. Start > Run

Type 2. cmd in the text box provided and click OK to open the command

line

Type 3. arp –d to ﬂush the ARP cache:

Type 4. arp –a to view the current ARP cache which should now be

empty.

Now, add a static entry to the ARP table and ping the ECS0016 to prompt it to assume the IP address.

The following example illustrates an ECS0016 with a MAC Address 00:13:C6:00:02:0F (designated on the label on the bottom of the unit), and we are setting its IP address to 192.168.100.23. Also, the PC/work station issuing the arp command must be on the same network segment as the ECS0016 (i.e. have an IP address of 192.168.100.xxx).

Type 5. arp -s 192.168.100.23 00-13-C6-00-02-0F (Note for UNIX the

syntax is: arp -s 192.168.100.23 00:13:C6:00:02:0F)

Type 6. ping -t 192.18.100.23 to start a continuous ping to the new IP

Address.

Turn on the ECS0016 and wait for it to conﬁgure itself with the new IP 7.

Address. It will start replying to the ping at this point.

Type 8. arp –d to ﬂush the ARP cache again.

Activate your preferred browser on the connected PC/ workstation and 9.

enter https://192.168.0.1 in the URL ﬁeld.

Instruction Manual

You will be prompted to log in. Enter the default administration username and administration password:

Username: root Password: default

Please note: The ECS0016 is factory conﬁgured with HTTP disabled and HTTPS enabled appliances

Please note: Note If you are not able to connect to the Management Console at 192.168.0.1 or if the default Username / Password were not accepted then reset your ECS0016

A Welcome screen will appear , listing the four basic installation conﬁguration steps:

After completing each of the steps listed, you can return to the conﬁguration list by clicking in the top left corner of the screen on the StarTech.com logo.

As you complete each step, the conﬁguration list will be updated (e.g. after you have conﬁgured the serial ports it will display this step as Done.

Instruction Manual

Administrator Password

For security reasons, only the Administrator (the administration user named root) can initially log into your gateway; only those people who know the root password can access and reconﬁgure the ECS0016 gateway itself.

As such, it is important that you enter and conﬁrm a new password before giving the ECS0016 any access to, or control of, your computers and network appliances. To do so:

Select 1. System: Administration

Enter a new System Password then re-enter it in the ﬁeld marked 2. conﬁrm System Password. This is the new password for root, the main administrative user account, so it is important that you choose a complex password, and keep it safe.

(Optional)At this stage you may also wish to enter a 3. System Name and System Description for the ECS0016 gateway to give it a unique ID and make it simple to identify.

Click 4. Apply. As you have changed the password you will be prompted to log in again. This time use the new password.

Instruction Manual

Network IP address

You now must enter an IP address for the principal Ethernet (LAN/Network/Network1) port on the ECS0016 gateway, or enable its DHCP client so that it automatically obtains an IP address from a DHCP server on the network to which it is connected.

On the System: IP menu:

Select the 1. Network page then check DHCP or Static for the Conﬁguration Method

If you selected 2. Static you must manually enter the new IP Address, Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS server details. This selection automatically disables the DHCP client.

If you selected DHCP, the ECS0016 will look for conﬁguration details 3. from a DHCP server on your management LAN. This selection automatically disables any static address. The ECS0016 MAC address can be found on a label on the base plate of the unit.

Please note: In its factory default state (with no Conﬁguration Method selected) the ECS0016 has its DHCP client enabled, so it automatically accepts any network IP address assigned by a DHCP server on your network. In this initial state, the ECS0016 will then respond to both its Static address (192.168.0.1) and its newly assigned DHCP address.

Instruction Manual

By default the ECS0016 LAN port auto detects the Ethernet connection speed. However you can use the Media menu to lock the Ethernet to 10 Mb/s or 100Mb/s and to Full Duplex (FD) or Half Duplex (HD).

Please note: If you have changed the ECS0016 IP address, you may need to reconﬁgure your PC/workstation so it has an IP address that is in the same network range as this new address (as detailed in an earlier note in this chapter).

Click 4. Apply. You will need to reconnect the browser on the PC / workstation that is connected to the ECS0016, by entering http://new IP address .

System Services

The Administrator can access and conﬁgure the ECS0016 gateway using a range of access protocols. The factory default enables HTTPS and SSH access and disables HTTP and Telnet. The Administrator can simply disable any of the services, or enable others.

Select the System: Services option then select /deselect for the service to be enabled /disabled. The following access protocol options are available:

Instruction Manual

HTTPS

This ensures secure browser access to all of the Management Console menus. It also allows appropriately conﬁgured Users secure browser access to selected Management Console Manage menus.

If you enable HTTPS, the Administrator will be able to use a secure browser connection to the ECS0016 gateway’s Management Console. By default HTTPS is enabled, and it is recommended that only HTTPS access be used if the gateway is to be managed over any public network (e.g. the Internet).

HTTP

The HTTP service allows the Administrator basic browser access to the Management Console. It is recommended that the HTTP service be disabled if the ECS0016 gateway is to be remotely accessed over the Internet.

Telnet

This gives the Administrator telnet access to the system command line shell (Linux commands). While this may be suitable for a local direct connection over a management LAN, it is recommended this service be disabled if the ECS0016 is to be remotely administered.

SSH

This service provides secure SSH access to the Linux command line shell. It is recommended you choose SSH as the protocol where the Administrator connects to the gateway over the Internet or any other public network. This will provide authenticated communications between the SSH client program on the remote PC/workstation and the SSH server in the gateway.

Instruction Manual

There are also a number of related service options that can be conﬁgured at this stage:

SNMP

This will enable netsnmp in the gateway, which will keep a remote log of all posted information. SNMP is disabled by default. To modify the default SNMP settings, the Administrator must make the edits at the command line.

Ping

This allows the ECS0016 to respond to incoming ICMP echo requests. Ping is enabled by default, however for security reasons this service should generally be disabled following initial conﬁguration.

And there are some serial port access parameters that can be conﬁgured on this menu:

Base

The ECS0016 uses speciﬁc default ranges for the TCP/IP ports for the various access services that Users and Administrators can use to access devices attached to serial ports. The Administrator can also set alternate ranges for these services, and these secondary ports will then be used in addition to the defaults.

The default TCP/IP base port address for telnet access is 2000, and the range for telnet is IP Address: Port (2000 + serial port #) i.e. 2001 – 2048. If the Administrator were to set 8000 as a secondary base for telnet, serial port #2 on the gateway can be telnet accessed at IP Address:2002 and at IP Address:8002.

The default base for SSH is 3000; for Raw TCP is 4000; and for RFC2217, 5000.

Once you’ve made the appropriate selections, click Apply.

Instruction Manual

Communications Software

You have conﬁgured access protocols for the Administrator client to use when connecting to the ECS0016. User clients (who you may set up later) will also use these protocols when accessing ECS0016 serial attached devices and network attached hosts.

You will need to have appropriate communications software tools set up on the Administrator (and User) client’s PC/workstation. ECS0016 includes MetaConnect as the recommended client software tool, however other generic tools such as PuTTY and SSHTerm may be used, and these are all described below:

MetaConnect

StarTech.com recommends using the MetaConnect communications software tool for all communications with ECS0016 gateways, to ensure these communications are secure. Each ECS0016 is supplied with an unlimited number of MetaConnect licenses to use with that gateway.

MetaConnect is a lightweight tool that enables Users and Administrators to securely access the ECS0016 gateway, and the various computers, network devices and appliances that may be serially or network connected to the gateway.

Applications &

MetaConnect

(RDP/VNC/Telnet/

HTTP Client)

SSH Encrypted

LAN

Tunnel

Database Servers

Web Server

RDP/VNC/Telnet/HTTP Sessions forwarded to devices/

service processors on the

LAN

Desktop PCs

Network Appliance

Instruction Manual

MetaConnect is a Java client program that couples the SSH tunneling protocol with popular access tools such as Telnet, SSH, HTTP, HTTPS, VNC, RDP, to provide point-and-click secure remote management access to all the systems and devices being managed.

MetaConnect can be installed on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista™ PCs and on most Linux, UNIX and Solaris conﬁgurations

PuTTY

Communications packages like PuTTY can be also used to connect to the ECS0016 gateway command line.

PuTTY is a freeware implementation of Telnet and SSH for Win32 and UNIX platforms, that runs as an executable application without needing to be installed onto your system. PuTTY (the Telnet and SSH client itself) can be downloaded at http://www.tucows.com/preview/195286

To use PuTTY for an SSH terminal session from a Windows client, you • enter the gateway’s IP address as the ‘Host Name (or IP address)

To access the ECS0016 command line you select ‘SSH’ as the • protocol, and use the default IP Port 22

Click ‘Open’ and you will be presented with the ECS0016 login prompt. • (You may also receive a ‘Security Alert’ that the host’s key is not cached, you will need to choose ‘yes’ to continue.)

Using the • Telnet protocol is similarly simple but you use the default port 23

Instruction Manual

SSHTerm

Another common communications package that may be useful is SSHTerm, an open source package that can be downloaded from http://sourceforge.net/projects/sshtools

To use SSHTerm for an SSH terminal session from a Windows Client, you simply Select the File option and click on New Connection

A new dialog box will appear for your ‘Connection Proﬁle’ where you can type in the host name or IP address (for the ECS0016 unit) and the TCP port that the SSH session will use (port 22). Then, enter your username and choose password authentication and click Connect.

You may receive a message about the host key ﬁngerprint, and you will need to select ‘yes’ or ‘always’ to continue.

The next step is password authentication, where you will be prompted for your username and password from the remote system.

You will then be logged on to the ECS0016 gateway.

Serial Port and Network Host Conguration

The ECS0016 enables access and control of serially and network attached devices (hosts). The Administrator must conﬁgure the port access privileges for each of these devices, and specify the selection of services that can be used to control the devices. The Administrator must also set up Users and specify each User’s individual access and control privileges.

Instruction Manual

Conguring Serial Ports

To conﬁgure the serial port, you must ﬁrst set the protocols and the RS232 parameters that are to be used for the data connection to that port (e.g. baud rate).

Then you must select what mode the port is to operate in. Each port can be set to support one of ﬁve operating modes:

Console Server mode enables remote network access to the attached devices serial console port

I I

SDT mode enables graphical console (RDP, VNC, HTTPS etc) access to hosts that are serially connected

I I I

Power Device mode sets up the serial port to communicate with an intelligent serial controlled power strip

Terminal Server mode sets the serial port to await an incoming terminal login session

Serial Bridge mode enables the transparent interconnection of two serial port devices over a network

You can also conﬁgure the ECS0016 to support the remote syslog protocol on a per serial port basis.

Select • Serial & Network: Serial Port and you will see the current labels, modes, and RS232 protocol options that are currently set up for each serial port

If you wish to set the same protocol options for multiple serial ports at • once, click Edit Multiple Ports and select which ports you wish to conﬁgure as a group

By default each serial port is set in • Console Server mode. For the por t to be reconﬁgured, click Edit

Instruction Manual

When you have reconﬁgured the common settings and the mode for • each port, you set up any remote syslog, then click Apply

Common Settings

There are a number of common settings that can be set for each serial port, that are independent of the mode in which the port is being used.

These serial port parameters must be set so they match the port parameters of the devices you attach to that port:

Specify a label for the port •

Select the appropriate Baud Rate, Parity, Data Bits, Stop Bits and • Flow Control for each port. (Note that the RS485 ﬁeld is not relevant for ECS0016 gateways)

Instruction Manual

Before proceeding with further serial port conﬁguration, you should • connect the ports to the serial devices they will be controlling, and ensure they have matching settings

Please Note that the serial ports are all factory set to RS232 9600 baud, no parity, 8 data bits, 1 stop bit and Console Server Mode.

The baud rate can be changed to 2400 – 230400 baud using the management console. Lower baud rates (50, 75, 110, 134, 150, 200, 300, 600, 1200, 1800 baud) can be conﬁgured from the command line.

Console Server Mode

Select Console Server Mode to enable remote management access to the serial console that is attached to this serial port:

Logging Level - speciﬁes the level of information to be logged and monitored

Telnet - With the Telnet service enabled on the ECS0016, a Telnet client on a User or Administrator’s PC/workstation can connect to a serial device attached to this serial port on the gateway. The Telnet communications are unencrypted, so this protocol is generally recommended only for local connections.

Instruction Manual

From Win2000/XP/NT, you can run telnet from the command prompt • (cmd.exe)

You can also use standard communications packages like PuTTY to • set a direct Telnet (or SSH) connection to the serial ports (see box below)

Also, if the remote communications are being tunneled with • MetaConnect, then Telnet can be used for securely accessing attached devices

In Console Server mode, Users and Administrators can use MetaConnect to set up secure Telnet connections that are SSH tunneled from their client PC/workstations to the serial port on the ECS0016. MetaConnect then enables those secure Telnet connections to be selected with a simple point and click.

To use MetaConnect to access consoles on the ECS0016 serial ports, you must conﬁgure MetaConnect using the ECS0016 as a gateway, then as a host, with Telnet service on Port (2000 + serial port #) i.e. 2001– 2016 enabled.

MetaConnect can be installed on Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista™ PCs and on most Linux platforms. Solaris platforms are also supported, however they must have Firefox installed.

Enter the ECS0016 gateway’s IP address as the ‘Host Name (or IP address)’. Select ‘Telnet’ as the protocol and set the ‘TCP port’ to 2000 plus the physical serial port number (i.e. 2001 to 2016).

Click the ‘Open’ button. You may then receive a ‘Security Alert’ that the host’s key is not cached - choose ‘yes’ to proceed. You will then be presented with the login prompt of the remote system connected to the serial port chosen on the ECS0016 device, where you can login as normal and use the host serial console screen.

Instruction Manual

SSH

It is recommended that you use SSH as the protocol whereby the User or Administrator connects to the ECS0016 gateway (or connects to the attached serial consoles) over the Internet (or any other public network). This will provide authenticated SSH communications between the SSH client program on the remote user’s PC/workstation and the gateway, so the user’s communication with the serial device attached to the gateway is secure.

For SSH access to the consoles on devices attached to the ECS0016 serial ports, you can use MetaConnect. You conﬁgure MetaConnect with the ECS0016 as a gateway, then as a host, and you enable SSH service on Port (3000 + serial port #) i.e. 3001-3016.

Also, you can use common communications packages, like PuTTY or SSHTerm to SSH connect directly to por t address IP Address _ Port (3000 + serial port #) i.e. 3001–3016

Alternately, SSH connections can be conﬁgured using the standard SSH port 22. The serial port being accessed is then identiﬁed by appending a descriptor to the username. This syntax supports any of:

Instruction Manual

For a User named ‘Paul’ to access serial port 2, when setting up the SSHTerm or the PuTTY SSH client, instead of typing username = paul and ssh port = 3002, the alternate is to type username = paul:port02 (or username = fred:ttyS1) and ssh port = 22.

Or, by typing username=fred:serial and ssh port = 22, the User is presented with a port selection option:

This syntax enables Users to set up SSH tunnels to all serial ports with only a single IP port 22 having to be opened in their ﬁrewall/gateway.

TCP

RAW TCP allows connections directly to a TCP socket. However while communications programs like PuTTY also supports RAW TCP, this protocol would usually be used by a custom application

For RAW TCP, the default port address is IP Address _ Port (4000 + serial port #) i.e. 4001 – 4016.

RAW TCP also enables the serial port to be tunneled to a remote ECS0016 client gateway, so two serial port devices can be transparently interconnect over a network.

RFC2217

Selecting RFC2217 enables serial port redirection on that port. For RFC2217, the default port address is IP Address _ Port (5000 + serial port #) i.e. 5001 – 5016.

Special client software is available for Windows UNIX and Linux that supports RFC2217 virtual com por ts, so a remote host can monitor and manage remote serially attached devices, as though they were connected to the local serial port.

Instruction Manual

RFC2217 also enables the serial port to be tunneled to a remote ECS0016 client gateway, so two serial port devices can be transparently interconnect over a network.

Accumulation Period

By default, once a connection has been established for a particular serial port (such as a RFC2217 redirection or Telnet connection to a remote computer) then any incoming characters on that port are forwarded over the network on a character by character basis. The accumulation period changes this by specifying a period of time that incoming characters will be collected before then being sent as a packet over the network.

Escape Character (esc)

This enables you to change the character used for sending escape characters. The default is ~.

SDT Mode

This Secure Tunneling setting allows port forwarding of RDP, VNC, HTPP, HTTPS, SSH, Telnet and other LAN protocols through to computers which are locally connected to the ECS0016 by their serial COM port. However such port forwarding requires a PPP link to be set up over this serial port.

Power Strip Mode

This mode conﬁgures the selected serial port to communicate with an intelligent serial controlled power strip.

Terminal Server Mode

Select Terminal Server Mode and the Terminal Type (vt220, vt102, vt100, Linux or ANSI) to enable a tty login on the selected serial port.

The getty will then conﬁgure the port and wait for a connection to be made. An active connection on a serial device is usually indicated by the

Instruction Manual

Data Carrier Detect (DCD) pin on the serial device being raised. When a connection is detected, the getty program issues a login: prompt, and then invokes the login program to handle the actual system login.

Serial Bridging Mode

Serial bridging is the encapsulation of serial data into network packets and the transport of the data over a network. So two ECS0016 gateways can conﬁgured to act as a virtual serial cable over IP network.

One gateway is conﬁgured as the server in Console Server mode with either RFC2217 or RAW enabled on the serial port to be bridged.

For the client gateway, the serial port must be set in Bridging Mode. To do so:

Select Serial Bridging Mode and specify the IP address of the ﬁrst ECS0016 gateway and the TCP port address of the remote serial port (for RFC2217 bridging this will be 5001 - 5016)

By default the bridging client will use RAW TCP, so you must select • RFC2217 if this is the console server mode you have speciﬁed on the server gateway

You may secure the communications over the local Ethernet by • enabling SSH, however you will need to generate and upload keys

Local Ethernet LAN

ECS0016

Serially Connected Device

(e.g. Security Appliance)

COM Port Connected

Control PC

Syslog

In addition to built-in logging and monitoring (which can be applied to serial attached and network attached management accesses. The ECS0016

Instruction Manual

can also be conﬁgured to support the remote syslog protocol on a per serial port basis.

Select the Syslog Facility/Priority ﬁelds to enable logging of trafﬁc on • the selected serial port to a syslog server; and to appropriately sort and action those logged messages (i.e. redirect them/ send alert email etc.)

For example if the computer attached to serial port 3 should never send anything out on its serial console port, the Administrator can set the Facility for that port to local0 (local0 .. local7 are meant for site local values), and the Priority to critical. At this priority, if the ECS0016 syslog server does receive a message, it will automatically raise an alert.

Add / Edit Users

The Administrator uses this menu selection to set up, edit and delete Users and to deﬁne the access permissions for each of these Users.

Users can be authorized to access speciﬁed ECS0016 serial ports and speciﬁed network attached hosts. These Users can also be given full Administrator status (with full conﬁguration and management and access privileges).

To simplify User set up, individual users can be conﬁgured as members of Groups. There are two Groups set up by default:

admin which provides User members with full Administrator privileges

and

users which provides User members with access to the Management section of the Management Console

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Select 1. Serial & Network: Users & Groups to display the conﬁgured Groups and Users

Click 2. Add Group.

Add a 3. Group name and Description for each new Group, then select Accessible Hosts and Accessible Ports to specify the serial ports and hosts you wish any Users in this new Group to be able to access.

Click 4. Apply

Select 1. Serial & Network: Users to display the conﬁgured Users.

Click 2. Add User to add a new User.

Add a 3. Username and a conﬁrmed Password for each new User. You may also include information related to the User (e.g. contact details) in the Description ﬁeld.

Select 4. Accessible Hosts and Accessible Ports, to specify which serial ports and to which LAN connected hosts you wish the User to have access.

Specify the 5. Group (or Groups) of which you wish the User to be a member.

Click 6. Apply to save changes.

Your new User will now be able to access the selected LAN devices and the devices attached to the chosen serial ports.

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The Administrator can also edit the Access settings for any existing Users. To do so:

Select 1. Serial & Network: Users & Groups

Click 2. Edit for the User to be modiﬁed.

Authentication

For details on authentication, please refer to the section titled Remote Authentication Conﬁguration.

Please note: There are no limits to the number of Users you can set up,

or on the number of Users per serial port or host. As such, multiple Users (and the Administrator) can control /monitor the one port or host.

Each User can be a member of a number of Groups, in which case they take on the cumulative access privileges of each of those Groups. A User may not be a member of any Groups (however if the User is not even a member of the default user group, they will not be able to use the ECS0016 Management Console to manage ports.

Instruction Manual

Network Hosts

To access a locally networked computer or appliance (referred to as a Host) you must identify the network connected Host, then specify the TCP or UDP ports/services that will be used to control that Host.

Selecting Serial & Network: Network Hosts presents all of the network connected Hosts that have been enabled for access, as well as the related access TCP ports/services.

Click • Add Host to enable access to a new Host (or select Edit to up date the settings for existing Host)

Enter the • IP Address or DNS Name of the new network connected Host (and optionally enter a Description)

Add or edit the Permitted Services (or TCP/UDP port numbers) that • are authorized to be used in controlling this host. Only these permitted services will be forwarded through by MetaConnect to the Host. All other services (TCP/UDP ports) will be blocked.

Optional:• Select Nagios Enabled if the service on the Host is to be monitored using the ECS0016 distributed Nagios monitoring.

The • Logging Level speciﬁes the level of information to be logged and monitored for each Host access.

If the Host is a networked server with IPMI power control, then the • Administrator can enable users (Users and Administrators) to remotely cycle power and reboot.

Click Apply once the desired changes have been made.

Instruction Manual

Trusted Networks

The Trusted Networks utility provides the option to select speciﬁc IP addresses at which users (Administrators and Users) must be located, in order to have access to the ECS0016 serial ports. To add an address designation:

Select 1. Serial & Network: Trusted Networks.

To add a new trusted network, select 2. Add Rule.

Select the 3. Accessible Port(s) to which the new rule is to be applied.

Enter the 4. Network Address of the subnet to be granted access.

Specify the range of addresses that are to be permitted by entering a 5. Network Mask for that permitted IP range. For example:

To permit all the users located with a par ticular Class C network • (e.g. 204.15.5.0) connection to the selected port then you would add the following Trusted Network New Rule:

Network IP Address: 204.15.5.0 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

If you want to permit only one user located at a speciﬁc IP • address (e.g. 204.15.5.13) to connect:

Network IP Address: 204.15.5.0 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.255

If however you want to allow all the users operating from within a • speciﬁc range of IP addresses (e.g. any address within

204.15.5.129 to 204.15.5.158) to be permitted connection to the nominated port:

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Network IP Address: 204.15.5.128 Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.224

Click 6. Apply.

The above Trusted Networks will limit access by Users and the Administrator, to the ECS0016 serial ports and network attached hosts, however they do not restrict access by the Administrator to the ECS0016 console server itself. To change the default settings for this access, you will need to edit the IP tables rules (as described in the Advanced section).

Serial Port Cascading

Cascaded Ports enables you to cluster distributed console servers so a large number of serial ports (up to 1000) can be conﬁgured and accessed through one IP address and managed through the one Management Console. One console server, the Master, controls other console servers as Slave units and all the serial ports on the Slave units appear as if they are part of the Master.

ECS0016 clustering connects each Slave to the Master with an SSH connection. This is done using public key authentication so the Master can access each Slave using the SSH key pair (rather than using passwords). This ensures secure authenticated communications between Master and Slaves enabling the Slave console server units to be distributed locally on a LAN or remotely around the world.

To set up public key authentication you must ﬁrst upload your RSA or DSA key pair into the Master console server. Please note: If you do not already have RSA or DSA key pair you will need to create a key pair using ssh keygen, PuTTYgen or a similar tool as detailed in xxxxxxxxxx

Select 1. System: Administration on Master’s Management Console

Browse to the location you have stored RSA (or DSA) Public Key and 2.

upload it to SSH RSA (DSA) Public Key

Browse to the stored RSA (or DSA) Private Key and upload it to SSH 3.

RSA (DSA) Private Key

Click 4. Apply

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Next, you must register the Public Key as an Authorized Key on the 5.

Slave. In the simple case with only one Master with multiple Slaves, you need only upload the one RSA or DSA public key for each Slave.

Please note: The use of key pairs can be confusing as in many cases one ﬁle (Public Key) fulﬁlls two roles – Public Key and Authorized Key.

Select 6. System: Administration on the Slave’s Management Console.

Browse again to the stored RSA (or DSA) Public Key and upload it to 7.

Slave’s SSH Authorized Key.

Click 8. Apply

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The next step is to Fingerprint each new Slave-Master connection, which will authenticate you as a legitimate user for the SSH session. On the ﬁrst connection the Slave will receive a ﬁngerprint from the Master which will be used on all future connections.

To establish the ﬁngerprint, ﬁrst log in the Master server as root and •

establish an SSH connection to the Slave remote host:

# ssh remhost

Once the SSH connection has been established you will be asked to •

accept the key. Answer Yes and the ﬁngerprint will be added to the list of known hosts.

If you are asked to supply a password, then there has been a •

problem with uploading keys. The keys should remove any need to supply a password.

You can now begin setting up the Slaves and conﬁguring Slave serial ports from the Master console server:

Select Serial & Network: Cascaded Ports on the Master’s Management •

Console. To add clustering support select Add Slave

To deﬁne and conﬁgure a Slave:

Enter the remote IP Address (or DNS Name) for the Slave console 1.

server

Enter a brief Description and a short Label for the Slave (use a 2.

convention here that enables effective management of large networks

Instruction Manual

of clustered console servers and the connected devices)

Enter the full number of serial ports on the Slave unit in Number of 3.

Ports

Click Apply. This will establish the SSH tunnel between the Master and 4.

the new Slave

The Serial & Network: Cascaded Ports menu displays all of the Slaves and the port numbers that have been allocated on the Master. If the Master console server has 16 ports of its own, then ports 1-16 are preallocated to the Master, so the ﬁrst Slave added will be assigned por t number 17 onwards.

Once you have added all the Slave console servers, the Slave serial ports and the connected devices are conﬁgurable and accessible from the Master’s Management Console menu and accessible through the Master’s IP address. For example:

Select the appropriate • Serial & Network: Serial Port and Edit to

conﬁgure the serial ports on the Slave

Select the appropriate • Serial & Network: Users & Groups to add new

users with access privileges to the Slave serial ports (or to extend existing users access privileges)

Select the appropriate • Serial & Network: Trusted Networks to specify

network addresses that can access selected Slave serial ports

Select the appropriate • Alerts & Logging: Alerts to conﬁgure Slave

port Connection, State Change or Pattern Match alerts

All such conﬁguration changes made on the Master are propagated out to all the Slaves; whenever you change any User privileges or edit any serial port setting on the Master, the updated conﬁguration ﬁles will be sent out to each Slave in parallel. The Slaves will then make appropriate changes to their local conﬁgurations (i.e. only make those changes that relate to its particular serial ports).

Please note:

The Master is in control. You can still change all the settings on any •

Slave serial port (such as alter the baud rates) using the local Slave Management Console, however these changes will be overwritten the

Instruction Manual

next time the Master sends out a conﬁguration ﬁle update.

Also, while the Master is in control of all Slave serial port related •

functions, it is not Master over the Slave network host connections or over the Slave console server system itself.

Slave functions such as IP, SMTP & SNMP Settings, Date &Time, •

DHCP server must be managed by accessing each Salve directly and these functions are not over written when conﬁguration changes are propagated from the Master. Similarly the Slaves Network Host and IPMI settings have to be conﬁgured at each Slave. network and transmits it to the pseudo tty port.

Instruction Manual

Remote Power Control (RPC)

The ECS0016 Management Console monitors and controls Remote Power Control devices using the embedded PowerMan open source management tool. RPCs include power distribution units (PDUs) and IPMI power devices.

Serial PDUs invariably can be controlled using their command line console, so you could manage the PDU through the ECS0016 using a remote Telnet client. Also, you could use proprietary software tools supplied by the vendor. This generally runs on a remote Windows PC and you could conﬁgure the console server serial port to operate with a serial COM port redirector in the PC. Similarly, network-attached PDUs with browser controls can be controlled by directly sending HTTP/ HTTPS commands. Also servers and network-attached appliances with embedded IPMI service processors or BMCs invariably are supplied with their own management tools (like SoL) that will provide secure management when connected using with SDT Connector.

However for simplicity all these devices can also be controlled using the Management Console’s RPC remote power control tools.

RPC Connection

Serial and network connected RPCs must ﬁrst be connected to, and conﬁgured to communicate with the console server:

For serial RPCs connect the PDU to the selected serial port on 1. the ECS0016 and from the Serial and Network: Serial Port menu conﬁgure the Common Settings of that port with the RS232 properties etc required by the PDU. Then select RPC as the Device Type.

Similarly for each network connected RPC go to Serial & Network: 2. Network Hosts menu and conﬁgure the RPC as a connected Host.

Instruction Manual

Select the Serial & Network: RPC Connections menu. This will display 3. all the RPC connections that have already been conﬁgured.

Click Add RPC.4.

Enter a RPC Name and Description for the RPC.5.

In “Connected Via” select the pre-conﬁgured serial port or the network 6. host address that connects to the RPC.

Select any speciﬁc labels you wish to apply to speciﬁc RPC Outlets 7. (e.g. the PDU may have 20 outlets connected to 20 powered devices you may wish to identify by name).

Instruction Manual

Enter the Username and Password used to login into the RPC (Note 8. that these login credentials are not related the Users and access privileges you will have conﬁgured in Serial & Networks: Users & Groups).

Check Log Status and specify the Log Rate (minutes between 9. samples) if you wish the status from this RPC to be logged. These logs can be views from the Status: RPC Status screen.

Click Apply.10.

Note: The Management Console has support for a growing number of popular network and serial PDUs. If your PDU is not on the default list it is simple to add support for more devices.

IPMI service processors and BMCs can be conﬁgured so all authorized users can use the Management Console to remotely cycle power and reboot computers, even when their operating system is unresponsive. To set up IPMI power control, the Administrator ﬁrst enters the IP address/ domain name of the BMC or service processor (e.g. a Dell DRAC) in

Serial & Network: Network Hosts, then in Serial & Network: RPC Connections speciﬁes the RPC Type to be IPMI1.5 or 2.0

RPC Alerts

You can now set PDU and IPMI alerts using Alerts & Logging: Alerts

RPC Status

You can monitor the current status of your network and serially connected PDUs and IPMI RPCs

Select the 1. Status: RPC Status menu and a table with the summary status of all connected RPC hardware will be displayed

Instruction Manual

Click on View Log or select the 2. RPCLogs menu and you will be presented with a table of the history and detailed graphical information on the select RPC

Click 3. Manage to query or control the individual power outlet. This will take you to the Manage: Power screen

User Power Management

The Power Manager enables both Users and Administrators to access and control the conﬁgured serial and network attached PDU power strips, and servers with embedded IPMI service processors or BMCs:

Select the Manage: Power and the particular Target power device to be controlled (or click Manage on the Status: RPC Status menu)

Instruction Manual

The outlet status is displayed and you can initiate the desired Action to be taken by selecting the appropriate icon:

Power ON

Power OFF

Power Cycle

Power Status

You will only be presented with icons for those operations that are supported by the Target you have selected.

Uninterruptible Power Supply Control (UPS)

The ECS0016 console server can manage UPS hardware using Network UPS Tools.

Managed UPS Connections

A Managed UPS is a UPS that is connected by serial or USB cable or by the network to the console server. The console server becomes the master of this UPS, and runs a upsd server to allow other computers that are drawing power through the UPS (slaves) to monitor its status and take appropriate action (such as shutdown in event of low battery).

Instruction Manual

The console server may or may not be drawing power through the Managed UPS (see the Conﬁgure UPS powering the console server section below).

When the UPS’s battery power reaches critical, the console server signals and waits for slaves to shutdown, then powers off the UPS.

Serial and network connected UPSes must ﬁrst be conﬁgured on the console server with the relevant serial control ports reserved for UPS usage, or the with the UPS allocated as a connected Host:

Select UPS as the Device Type in the 1. Serial & Network: Serial Port menu for each port which has Master control over a UPS and in the Serial & Network: Network Hosts menu for each network connected UPS.

No such conﬁguration is required for USB connected UPS hardware.

Select the 2. Serial & Network: UPS Connections menu. The Managed UPSes section will display all the UPS connections that have already been conﬁgured.

Click Add UPS 3.

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Enter a 4. UPS Name and Description (optional) and the select if the UPS will be Connected Via USB or over pre-conﬁgured serial port or via HTTP/HTTPS over the preconﬁgured network Host connection

Enter the UPS login details. This Username and Password is used by 5. slaves of this UPS (i.e. other computers that are drawing power through this UPS) to connect to the console server to monitor the UPS status and shut themselves down when battery power is low. Monitoring will typically be performed using the upsmon client running on the slave server. See section 8.5.4 for details on setting up upsmon on slave servers powered by the UPS

Note: These login credentials are not related the Users and access privileges you will have conﬁgured in Serial & Networks: Users &

Groups

If you have multiple UPSes and require them to be shut down in a 6. speciﬁc order, specify the Shutdown Order for this UPS. This is a whole

Instruction Manual

positive number, or -1. 0s are shut down ﬁrst, then 1s, 2s, etc. -1s are not shut down at all. Defaults to 0

Select the Driver that will be used to communicate with the UPS. 7. The drop down menu presents full selection of drivers from the latest Network UPS Tools (NUT version 2.2.0) and additional information on compatible Ups hardware can be found at http://www.networkupstools.

org/compat/stable.html

Click 8. New Options in Driver Options if you need to set driver-speciﬁc options for your selected NUT driver and hardware combination (more details at http://www.networkupstools.org/doc)

Check 9. Log Status an specify the Log Rate (minutes between samples) if you wish the status from this UPS to be logged. These logs can be views from the Status: UPS Status screen

Check Enable Nagios to enable this UPS to be monitored using 10. Nagios central management

Click Apply11.

You can also customize the upsmon, upsd and upsc settings for this UPS hardware directly from the command line

Conﬁgure UPS Powering the Console Server

A Monitored UPS is a UPS that the ECS0016 is drawing power through. The purpose of conﬁguring a Monitored UPS is in the event of a power failure, it provides an opportunity to perform any “last gasp” actions before power is lost. This is achieved by placing a script in /etc/conﬁg/scripts/ ups-shutdown - you may use the /etc/scripts/ups-shutdown as a template. This script is run when then UPS reaches critical battery status.

Instruction Manual

If the ECS0016 is drawing power through a Managed UPS that has already been conﬁgured, select Local, enter the Managed UPS Name and check Enabled. The ECS0016 continues to be the master of this UPS.

If the UPS that powers the console server is not a Managed UPS for that console server, then then console server can still connect to a remote NUT server (upsd) to monitor its status as a slave. In this case, select Remote, and enter the address, username and password to connect.

Instruction Manual

Conﬁguring Powered Computers to Monitor a Managed UPS

Once you have added a Managed UPS, each server that is drawing power through the UPS should be setup to monitor the UPS status as a slave. This is done by installing the NUT package on each server, and setting up upsmon to connect to the ECS0016.

Refer to the NUT documentation for details on how this is done, speciﬁcally sections 13.5 to 13.10. http://eu1.networkupstools.org/

doc/2.2.0/INSTALL.html

An example upsmon.conf entry might look like:

MONITORmanagedups@192.168.0.11usernamepasswordslave

- managedups is the UPS Name of the Managed UPS

- 192.168.0.1 is the IP address of the ECS0016

- 1 indicates the server has a single power supply attached to this UPS

Instruction Manual

- username is the Username of the Managed UPS

- password is the Password of the Manager UPS

UPS Alerts

You can now set UPS alerts using Alerts & Logging: Alerts

UPS Status

You can monitor the current status of all of your network, serially or USB connected Managed UPSes or any Monitored UPS

Select the 1. Status: UPS Status menu and a table with the summary status of all connected UPS hardware will be displayed

Click on any particular UPS System name in the table and you will be 2. presented with a more detailed graphical information on the select UPS System

Click on any particular All Data for any UPS System in the table for 3. more status and conﬁguration information on the select UPS System

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Select UPS Logs and you will be presented with the log table of the 4. load, battery charge level. temperature and other status information from all the Managed and Monitored UPS systems. This information will be logged for all UPSes which were conﬁgured with Log Status checked. The information is also presented graphically

Overview of Network UPS Tools (NUT)

Network UPS Tools (NUT) is a group of open source programs that provide a common interface for monitoring and administering UPS hardware; and ensuring safe shutdowns of the systems which are connected.

NUT can be conﬁgured using the Management Console as described above, or you can conﬁgure the tools and manage the UPSes directly from the command line. This section provides an overview of NUT however you can ﬁnd full documentation at http://www.networkupstools. org/doc.

Instruction Manual

NUT is built on a networked model with a layered scheme of drivers, server and clients.

The driver programs talk directly to the UPS equipment and run on 1. the same host as the NUT network server upsd. Drivers are provided for a wide assortment of equipment from most of the popular UPS vendors and they understand the speciﬁc language of each UPS and map it back to a compatibility layer. This means both an expensive “smart” protocol UPS and a simple “power strip” model can be handled transparently.

The NUT network server program upsd is responsible for passing 2. status data from the drivers to the client programs via the network. upsd can caches the status from multiple UPSes and can then serve this status data to many clients. upsd also contains access control features to limit the abilities of the clients (e.g. so only authorized hosts may monitor or control the UPS hardware)

There are a number of NUT clients that connect to upsd that to read 3. that check on the status of the UPS hardware and do things based on the status. These clients can run on the same host as the NUT server or they can communicate with the NUT server over the network (enabling them to monitor any UPS anywhere).

The upsmon client enables servers that draw power through the UPS (i.e. slaves of the UPS) to shutdown gracefully when the battery power reaches critical. Additionally, one server is designated the master of the UPS, and is responsible for shutting down the UPS itself when all slaves have shut down. Typically, the master of the UPS is the one connected to the UPS via serial or USB cable.

upsmon can monitor multiple UPSes, so for high-end servers which receive power from multiple UPSes simultaneously won’t initiate a shutdown until the total power situation across all source UPSes becomes critical.

There also the two status/logging clients, upsc and upslog. The upsc client provides as a quick way to poll the status of a UPS. It can be used inside shell scripts and other programs that need UPS status information. upslog is a background service that periodically polls the

Instruction Manual

status of a UPS, writing it to a ﬁle.

All these clients all run on the ECS0016 (for Management Console presentations) but they also are run remotely (on locally powered servers and remote monitoring systems).

This layered NUT architecture enables:

Multiple manufacturer support: • NUT can monitor USB models from 79 different manufacturers with a uniﬁed interface

Multiple architecture support: • NUT can manage serial and USB connected models with the same common interface. SNMP equipment can also be monitored (although at this stage this is still pre-release with experimental drivers and this feature will be added to the ECS0016’s embedded UPS tools in future release).

Multiple clients monitoring the one UPS:• Multiple systems may monitor a single UPS using only their network connections and there’s a wide selection of client programs) which support monitoring UPS hardware via NUT (Big Sister, Cacti, Nagios, Windows and more. Refer www.networkupstools.org/client-projects.)

So NUT supports the more complex power architectures found in data centers, computer rooms and NOCs where many UPSes from many vendors power many systems with many clients and each of the larger UPSes power multiple devices and many of these devices are themselves dual powered.

Environmental Monitoring

The Environmental Monitor Device (EMD) connects to any ECS0016 serial port and each console server can support multiple EMDs. Each EMD device has one temperature and one humidity sensor and two general purpose status sensors which can be connected to a smoke detector, water detector, vibration or open-door sensor.

Instruction Manual

Using the Management Console, Administrators can view the ambient temperature and humidity and set the EMD to automatically send alarms progressively from warning levels to critical alerts.

Connecting the EMD

The Environmental Monitor Device (EMD) connects to any serial port on the console server via a special EMD Adapter and standard CAT5 cable. The EMD is powered over this serial connection and communicates using a custom handshake protocol. It is not an RS232 device and should not be connected without the adapter:

Plug the male RJ plug on the EMD Adapter into EMD and then connect 1. to the console server serial port using the provided UTP cable. If the 6 foot (2 meter) UTP cable provided with the EMD is not long enough it can be replaced with a standard Cat5 UTP cable up to 33 feet (10 meters) in length

Instruction Manual

Screw the bare wires on any smoke detector, 2. water detector, vibration sensor, open-door sensor or general purpose open/close status sensors into the terminals on the EMD

The EMD can be used only with an ECS0016 and cannot be connected to standard RS232 serial ports on other appliances.

Select Environmental as the Device Type in the 1. Serial & Network: Serial Port menu for the port to which the EMD is to be attached. No particular Common Settings are required.

Click Apply.2.

Select the 3. Serial & Network: Environmental menu. This will display all the EMD connections that have already been conﬁgured.

Click Add.4.

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Enter a 5. Name and Description for the EMD and select pre-conﬁgured serial port that the EMD will be “Connected Via”.

Provide 6. Labels for each of the two alarms

Check 7. Log Status and specify the Log Rate (minutes between samples) if you wish the status from this EMD to be logged. These logs can be views from the Status: Environmental Status screen

Click Apply 8.

Environmental Alerts

You can now set temperature, humidity and probe status alerts using

Alerts & Logging: Alerts

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Environmental Status

You can monitor the current status of all of EMDs and their probes

Select the 1. Status: Environmental Status menu and a table with the summary status of all connected EMD hardware will be displayed

Click on View Log or select the 2. Environmental Logs menu and you will be presented with a table and graphical plot of the log history of the select EMD

Instruction Manual

Failover and Out-of-Band Dial Access

The ECS0016 has a number of failover and out-of-band access capabilities to ensure high availability.

If there are difﬁculties in accessing the gateway through the principal •

network path, the Administrator can access the ECS0016 out-of-band (OoB) from a remote location, using a dialup modem/ISDN connection

The ECS0016 can also be accessed out-of-band (OoB) using an •

alternate broadband link

ECS0016 gateways also offer broadband failover, so in the event of a •

disruption to the principal management network connection, access is switched transparently to the standby network connection

The ECS0016 can also be conﬁgured for out-dial failover, so in the •

event of a disruption in the principal management network, an external dial up ppp connection is established

OoB Dial-In access

To enable OoB dial-in access, you ﬁrst conﬁgure the ECS0016 gateway (and once set up for dial-in PPP access, the gateway will await an incoming connection from a dial-in at remote site). Then set up the remote client dial-in software so it can establish a network connection from the Administrator’s client modem to the dial in modem on the ECS0016.

Instruction Manual

Please note: The ECS0016 requires an external modem attached (via a serial cable) to the DB9 port (marked Local, located on the front panel).

Conﬁgure Dial In PPP

To enable dial-in PPP access on the ECS0016 console/modem port:

Select the 1. System: Dial menu option and the port to be conﬁgured

(Serial DB9 Port or Internal Modem Port). The ECS0016 console/ modem serial port is set by default to 115200 baud, No parity, 8 data bits and 1 stop bit, with software (XonXoff) ﬂow control enabled. When enabling OoB dial-in on ECS0016 units, it is recommended that this be changed to 38,4000 baud with Hardware Flow Control.

Select the 2. Baud Rate and Flow Control that will communicate with

the modem. You can further conﬁgure the console/modem port (e.g. to include modem init strings) by editing /etc/mgetty.conﬁg ﬁles.

Check the3. Enable Dial In Access box.

Enter the 4. User name and Password to be used for the dial-in PPP

link.

In the 5. Remote Address ﬁeld, enter the IP address to be assigned to

the dial-in client. You can select any address for the Remote IP Address, however it and the Local IP Address, must both be in the same network range (e.g. 200.100.1.12 - 200.100.1.67)

In the Local Address ﬁeld enter the IP address for the Dial-In PPP Server. This is the IP address that will be used by the remote client to access ECS0016, once the modem connection is established. Any address within the IP range of the Remote IP Address can be used (e.g. 200.100.1.12 - 200.100.1.67) addresses must be in the same network range as the Remote IP Address.

The • Default Route option enables the dialed PPP connection to

become the default route for the ECS0016 gateway.

The • Custom Modem Initialization option allows a custom AT string

modem initialization string to be entered (e.g. AT&C1&D3&K3)

Instruction Manual

Select the 6. Authentication Type to be applied to the dial-in connection.

The ECS0016 uses authentication to challenge Administrators who •

dial-in to the gateway. (For dial-in access, the username and pass word received from the dial-in client are veriﬁed against the local authentication database stored on the ECS0016). The Administrator must also have their client PC / workstation conﬁgured to use the selected authentication scheme.

Select 7. PAP, CHAP, MSCHAPv2 or None and click Apply.

None• - With this selection, no username or password authentication

is required for dial-in access. This is not recommended.

PAP - • Password Authentication Protocol (PAP) is the usual method

of user authentication used on the internet: sending a username and password to a server where they are compared with a table of authorized users. Whilst most common, PAP is the least secure of the authentication options.

CHAP -• Challenge Handshake Authentication Protocol (CHAP) is

used to verify a user’s name and password for PPP Internet connections. It is more secure than PAP, the other main authentication protocol.

MSCHAPv2• - Microsoft Challenge Handshake Authentication

Protocol (MSCHAP) is authentication for PPP connections between a computer using a Microsoft Windows operating system and a network access server. It is more secure than PAP or CHAP, and is the only option that also supports data encryption

Instruction Manual

ECS0016 gateways also support dial-back for additional security. Check the Enable Dial Back box and enter the phone number to be called to reestablish an OoB link, once a dial-in connection has been logged.

Using The MetaConnect client

Administrators can use the MetaConnect Java client software to set up secure OoB dial-in access to remote ECS0016 gateways. OoB access uses a different path for connecting to the gateway than that which is used for regular data trafﬁc.

Starting an OoB connection in MetaConnect may be achieved by initiating a dial up connection, or adding an alternate route to the gateway, while allowing you to provide your own scripts or commands for starting and stopping the OoB connection.

Set up Windows XP/ 2003 client

Open 1. Network Connections in Control Panel and click the New

Connection Wizard.

Select 2. Connect to the Internet and click Next.

On the 3. Getting Ready screen select Set up my connection manually

and click Next.

On the Internet Connection screen select 4. Connect using a dial-up

modem and click Next.

Enter a Connection Name (any name you choose) and the dial-up 5.

Phone number that will connect thru to the ECS0016 modem

Enter the 6. PPP User name and Password that are set up for the

ECS0016, select Next, then Finish.

Set up earlier Windows clients

For Windows® 2000, the PPP client set up procedure is the same as above, except to access the Dial-Up Networking Folder, click the Start button, select Settings then click Network and Dial-up Connections followed by Make New Connection.

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Similarly for Windows® 98, you double-click My Computer on the Desktop, then open Dial-Up Networking and double-click Make New Con-

nection and proceed as outlined for Windows XP (see previous section).

Set up Linux clients

The online tutorial http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialPPP. html presents a selection of methods for establishing a dial up PPP connection:

Instruction Manual

Command line PPP and manual conﬁguration (which works with any •

Linux distribution)

Using the Linuxconf conﬁguration tool (for Red Hat compatible •

distributions). This conﬁgures the scripts ifup/ifdown to start and stop a PPP connection

Using the Gnome control panel conﬁguration tool •

WVDIAL and the Redhat “Dialup conﬁguration tool” •

GUI dial program Xisp. Download/Installation/Conﬁguration•

Note For all PPP clients:

Set the PPP link up with TCP/IP as the only protocol enabled •

Specify that the Server will assign IP address and do DNS •

Do not set up the ECS0016 PPP link as default for Internet connection •

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Secure Tunneling & MetaConnect

Serial access to Linux consoles,

Windows EMS/BIOS etc.

Control serial connected ﬁrewalls, power

switches and other devices

MetaConnect establishes secure tunnel to gateway, then Telnet/SSH connection

to serially attached devices

Remote or Local User/

Administrator

Telnet or SSH connection to serially attached devices

MetaConnect can also be used to access text consoles on devices that are attached to the ECS0016 gateway serial ports. For these connections, you must conﬁgure the MetaConnect client software with a Service that will access the target gateway serial port, and then set the gateway up as a host:

Launch MetaConnect on your PC. Select 1. Edit, then Preferences and

click the Services tab. Click Add, then enter “SerialPort2” in Service Name. Click Add to proceed.

Select 2. Telnet client as the Client. Enter 2002 in TCP Port. Click OK,

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then Close and Close again

Assuming you have already set up the target ECS0016 as a gateway 3.

in your MetaConnect client (with username/ password etc), select this gateway and click the Host icon to create a host (alternatively, select File > New Host).

Enter 4. 127.0.0.1 as the Host Address and select Serial Port 2 for

Service. In Descriptive Name, enter as appropriate (e.g. Loop back ports, Local serial ports, etc.). Click OK to continue.

 • ClicktheSerialPort2iconforTelnetaccesstotheserialconsoleon the device attached to serial port #2 on the gateway

To enable MetaConnect to access devices connected to the gateway’s serial ports, you must also conﬁgure the ECS0016 gateway itself to allow port-forwarded network access to itself, and enable access to the selected serial port:

Browse to the ECS0016 gateway and select 1. Serial Port from Serial &

Network.

Click 2. Edit next to the selected Port number (e.g. Port 2 if the target

device is attached to the second serial port). Ensure the port’s serial conﬁguration is appropriate for the attached device.

Scroll down to 3. Console Server Setting and select Console Server

Mode. Check Telnet (or SSH) and scroll to the bottom and click Apply.

Select 4. Network Hosts from Serial & Network and click Add Host.

In the 5. IP Address/DNS Name ﬁeld enter 127.0.0.1 and enter Loop

back in Description.

Remove all entries under 6. Permitted Services, select TCP and

enter 200+n in Port. (This conﬁgures the Telnet port enabled in the previous steps, so for Port 2 you would enter 2002)

Click 7. Add, then scroll to the bottom and click Apply.

By default, administrators have gateway and serial port access privileges; however for Users to access the gateway and the serial port, you will need to give those Users the required access privileges. To do so:

Instruction Manual

Select 1. Users & Groups from Serial & Network.

Click 2. Add User.

Enter a 3. Username, Description and Password/Conﬁrm.

Select 4. 127.0.0.1 from Accessible Host(s) and select Port 2 from

Accessible Port(s).

Click 5. Apply.

MetaConnect for OoB Connection to the Gateway

MetaConnect can also be set up to connect to the gateway out-of-band (OoB). OoB access uses a different path for connecting to the gateway than that which is used for regular data trafﬁc. OoB access is useful for when the primary link into the gateway is unavailable or unreliable.

Typically a gateway’s primary link is a broadband Internet connection or Internet connection via a LAN or VPN, and the secondary Out-of-band connectivity is provided by dialing into a dial-up modem that is directly attached to the gateway. Out-of-band access enables you to access the hosts on the network, diagnose any connectivity issues, and restore the gateway’s primary link.

In MetaConnect, OoB access is conﬁgured by providing the secondary IP address of the gateway, and telling MetaConnect how to start and stop the OoB connection. Starting an OoB connection in MetaConnect may be achieved by initiating a dial up connection, or adding an alternate route to the gateway, while allowing you to provide your own scripts or commands for starting and stopping the OoB connection.

To conﬁgure MetaConnect for OoB access:

When adding a new gateway or editing an existing gateway, select the Out Of Band tab, then:

Enter the secondary, OoB IP address of the gateway (e.g. the IP 1.

address it is accessible using when dialed in directly). You also may modify the gateway’s SSH port if it’s not using the default of 22

Enter the command or path to a script to start the OoB connection in 2.

Start Command

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To initiate a pre-conﬁgured dialup connection under Windows, use the •

following Start Command:

cmd /c start “Starting Out of Band Connection” /wait /min rasdial

network_connection login password

(where network_connection is the name of the network connection as displayed in Control Panel -> Network Connections, login is the dial-in username, and password is the dial-in password for the connection)

To initiate a pre-conﬁgured dialup connection under Linux, use the •

following Start Command:

pon network_connection

(where network_connection is the name of the connection)

Enter the command or path to a script to stop the OoB connection 3.

using a Stop Command

To stop a preconﬁgured dialup connection under Windows, use the •

following Stop Command:

cmd /c start “Stopping Out of Band Connection” /wait /min rasdial

network_connection /disconnect

(where network connection is the name of the network connection as

displayed in Control Panel -> Network Connections)

To stop a preconﬁgured dialup connection under Linux, use the •

following Stop Command:

poff network_connection

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To make the OoB connection using MetaConnect:

Select the gateway from the left hand list of gateways and hosts. Under Gateway Actions in the right hand pane, click Out Of Band. The status bar will change color to indicate this gateway is now being accessed using the OoB link, rather than the primary link.

When you connect to a service on a host behind the gateway, or the gateway itself, MetaConnect will initiate the OoB connection using the provided Start Command. The OoB connection isn’t stopped (using the provided Stop Command) until Out Of Band under Gateway Actions is clicked off, at which point the status bar will return to its normal color.

Importing (and exporting) preferences

To enable the distribution of pre-conﬁgured client conﬁg ﬁles, MetaConnect has an Export/Import facility:

To save a conﬁguration .xml ﬁle (for backup or for importing into other •

MetaConnect clients) select File > Export Preferences and select the location to save the conﬁguration ﬁle

To import a conﬁguration select • File -> Import Preferences and select

the .xml conﬁguration ﬁle to be installed

MetaConnect Public Key Authentication

MetaConnect can authenticate against an SSH gateway using your SSH key pair, rather than requiring you to enter your password. This is known as public key authentication.

To use public key authentication with MetaConnect, ﬁrst you must add the public part of your SSH key pair to your SSH gateway:

Ensure the SSH gateway allows public key authentication, this is •

typically the default behavior

If you do not already have a public/private key pair for your client •

PC (the one running MetaConnect) generate them now using ssh-keygen, PuTTYgen or a similar tool. You may use RSA or DSA, however it is important that you leave the passphrase ﬁeld blank.

Instruction Manual

PuTTYgen:

http://www.chiark.greenend.org.uk/~sgtatham/putty/download.html

OpenSSH:

http://www.openssh.org/

OpenSSH (Windows):

http://sshwindows.sourceforge.net/download/

Upload the public part of your SSH key pair (this ﬁle is typically named •

id_rsa.pub or id_dsa.pub) to the SSH gateway, or otherwise add to .ssh/authorized keys in your home directory on the SSH gateway.

Next, add the private part of your SSH key pair (this ﬁle is typically •

named id_rsa or id_dsa) to MetaConnect. Click Edit > Preferences > Private Keys > Add, then locate the private key ﬁle and click OK.

Note that you do not have to add the public part of your SSH key pair, it is calculated using the private key.

MetaConnect will now use public key authentication when connecting through the SSH gateway. Note that you may have to restart MetaConnect to shut down any existing tunnels that were established using password authentication.

Note: If you have a host behind the SSH gateway that you connect to by clicking the SSH button in MetaConnect you may also wish to conﬁgure access to it for public key authentication as well.

This conﬁguration is entirely independent of MetaConnect and the SSH gateway. You must conﬁgure the SSH client that MetaConnect launches (e.g. Putty, OpenSSH) and the host’s SSH server for public key authentication. Essentially, what you are using is SSH over SSH, and the two SSH connections are entirely separate.

Setting up MetaConnect for Remote Desktop access

Microsoft’s Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) enables the system manager to securely access and manage remote Windows computers – to reconﬁgure applications and user proﬁles, upgrade the server’s operating

Instruction Manual

system, reboot the machine etc. ECS0016’s Secure Tunneling uses SSH tunneling, so this RDP trafﬁc is securely transferred through an authenticated and encrypted tunnel.

MetaConnect with RDP also allows remote Users to connect to Windows XP, Windows 2003 computers and to Windows 2000 Terminal Servers, and to have access to all of the applications, ﬁles, and network resources (with full graphical interface just as though they were in front of the computer screen at work).

To set up a secure Remote Desktop connection you must enable Remote Desktop on the target Windows computer that is to be accessed and conﬁgure the RPD client software on the client PC.

Set up MetaConnect Serial Ports on ECS0016

To set up RDP (and VNC) forwarding on the ECS0016 Serial Port that is connected to the Windows computer COM port:

Secure MetaConnect Tunneled Remote Desktop Connections

Select the • Serial & Network: Serial Port menu option and click Edit

(for the particular Serial Port that is connected to the Windows computer COM port)

On the MetaConnect Settings menu, select SDT Mode (which will •

enable port forwarding and SSH tunneling) and enter a Username and User Password.

Note: When you enable MetaConnect, this will override all other Conﬁgu-

Instruction Manual

ration protocols on that port

Note: If you leave the Username and User Password ﬁelds blank, they default to portXX and portXX where XX is the serial port number. The default username and password for Secure RDP over Port 2 is port02

Ensure the ECS0016 • Common Settings (Baud Rate, Flow Control)

are the same as were set up on the Windows computer COM port and click Apply

RDP and VNC forwarding over serial ports is enabled on a Port basis. •

You can add Users who can have access to these ports (or reconﬁgure User proﬁles) by selecting the Serial & Network :User & Groups menu tag

SSH port forward over the ECS0016 Serial Port

In the MetaConnect software running on your remote computer, specify 1.

the gateway IP address of your ECS0016 and a username/password for a user you have setup on the ECS0016 that has access to the desired port.

Next you need to add a New MetaConnect Host. In the Host address, 2.

you need to enter portxx where xx = the port to which you are connecting. (e.g. for Port 3 you would have a Host Address of: port03)

Select the RDP Service check box.3.

Instruction Manual

Alerts and Logging

This chapter describes the logging and alert generation features of the console server. The Alert facility monitors the serial ports, all logins and the power status and sends emails or Nagios or SNMP alerts when speciﬁed trigger events occurs:

First, you must enable and conﬁgure the service that will be used to carry the alert then specify the alert trigger condition and the actual destination to which that particular alert is to be sent.

The Port Logging can maintain a record of all access and communications with the ECS0016 and with the attached serial devices. A log of all system activity is also maintained.

If port logs are to be maintained on a remote server, then the access •

path to this location need to be conﬁgured. Then, you need to activate and set the desired levels of logging for each serial or network port or Managed UPS

Enable SMTP, SNMP and/or Nagios

The Alerts facility monitors nominated ports/hosts for trigger conditions. When triggered an Alert message is emailed to a nominated email address (SMTP), or sent to a designated SNMP destination or sent to the central Nagios server for action. Before setting up the alert trigger, you must specify these alert destinations.

Email alerts

To set up the email alert destination:

Select Alerts & Logging: SMTP and in the Server ﬁeld enter the IP 1.

address of the outgoing mail server

You may optionally enter an Sender email address which will •

appear as the ‘from’ address in all sent email from this ECS0016

Click 2. Apply to activate SMTP.

Instruction Manual

SNMP alerts

The Administrator can conﬁgure the Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) agent that resides on the console server, to send Alerts to an SNMP management application:

Select 1. Alerts & Logging: SNMP.

Enter the SNMP transport protocol. SNMP is generally a UDPbased 2.

protocol though infrequently it uses TCP instead.

Enter the IP address of the SNMP Manager and the Port to used for 3.

connection.

Select the version being used. The console server SNMP agent 4.

supports SNMP v1, v2 and v3

Enter the Community name for SNMP v1 or 2c 5.

To conﬁgure for SNMP v3 you will need to enter an ID and 6.

authentication password and contact information for the local Administrator (in the Security Name)

Click Apply to activate SNMP 7.

Nagios Alerts

To notify the central Nagios server of Alerts, NSCA must be enabled under System: Nagios and Nagios must be enabled for each applicable host or port under Serial & Network: Network Hosts or : Serial Ports

Conﬁgure Alerts

The Alerts facility monitors the status of the console server and connected devices and when an alert event is triggered, an Alert message is then

Instruction Manual

emailed to a nominated email address, or the SNMP or Nagios server is notiﬁed. The data stream from nominated serial por ts can be monitored for matched patterns or ﬂow control status changes can be conﬁgured to trigger alerts. As can user connections to serial ports and Hosts, or power events.

Select 1. Alerts & Logging: Alerts which will display all the alerts

currently conﬁgured. Click Add Alert.

At 2. Add a New Alert enter a Description for the alert or trigger

condition.

Select the email address for the Email Recipient who will be notiﬁed 3.

of the alert, and/or activate SNMP notiﬁcation for this event.

Select the 4. Applicable Ports (serial) and/or Hosts and/or UPS that is

(are) to be monitored for this alert trigger

In a MetaConnect Nagios centrally managed environment, you can check the Nagios alert option. On the trigger condition (for matched patterns, logins, power events and signal changes) an NSCA check “warning” result will be sent to the central Nagios server. This condition is displayed on the Nagios status screen and triggers a notiﬁcation, which can cause the Nagios central server itself to send out an email or an SMS, page, etc

Next, you must select the AlertType (Connection, Signal, Pattern Match or Power) that is to be monitored. Also you can conﬁgure a selection of different Alert types and any number of speciﬁc Alert triggers for each serial port

Connection Alert: This alert will be triggered when a user connects or

Instruction Manual

disconnects from the applicable Host or Serial Port, or when a Slave connects or disconnects from the applicable UPS

Serial Port Signal Alert: This alert will be triggered when the speciﬁed signal changes state and is applicable to serial ports only. You must specify the particular Signal Type (DSR, DCD or CTS) trigger condition that will send a new alert

Serial Port Pattern Match Alert: This alert will be triggered if a regular expression is found in the serial ports character stream that matches the regular expression you enter in the Pattern ﬁeld. This alert type will only be applied serial ports

UPS Power Status Alert: This alert will be triggered when the UPS power status changes between on line, on battery, and low battery. This alert type will only be applied to UPSes.

Click Apply, once you’ve made your selection(s).

Remote Log Storage

Before activating Serial or Network Port Logging on any port or UPS logging, you must specify where those logs are to be saved:

Select the • Alerts & Logging: Port Log menu option and specify the

Server Type to be used as well as the details to enable log server access

Serial Port Logging

In Console Server mode, activity logs can be maintained of all serial

Instruction Manual

port activity. These records are stored on an ‘offserver’. To specify which serial ports are to have activities recorded and to what level data is to be logged:

Select 1. Serial & Network: Serial Port and Edit the port to be logged.

Specify the 2. Logging Level of for each port as:

Level 0• Turns off logging for the selected port

Level 1• Logs all connection events to the port

Level 2• Logs all data transferred to and from the port and all

changes in hardware ﬂow control status and all User connection events

Click 3. Apply

Please Note: A cache of the most recent 8K of logged data per serial port is maintained locally (in addition to the Logs which are transmitted for remote/USB ﬂash storage). To view the local cache of logged serial port data select Manage: Port Logs.

Power Control

Users and Administrators can use their ECS0016 gateways to remotely power on, power off, power cycle and read the current status of power strips, UPS supplies and servers:

Serial port controlled power strips can be controlled by using their •

command line console. However, these serial port controlled power strips can also be securely accessed and controlled using the Management Console’s power control tools

Network attached power strips with browser controls can be •

controlled by directly sending HTTP/HTTPS commands with MetaConnect. Alternately, these browser controlled power strips can be securely accessed and controlled using the Management Console’s power control tools.

Servers and network attached appliances with embedded IPMI •

service processors or BMCs invariably are supplied with their own management tools (like SoL) that will provide secure management

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when connected using MetaConnect. These IPMI controlled power switches can also be controlled using the Management Console’s power control tools

Servers with embedded service processors (such as Dell’s DRAC) •

usually provide power control using the browser based management applications that are supplied with the service processor (such as Dell’s Open Manage) – and these applications invariably can be connected (securely in and outofband) using MetaConnect

The ECS0016 embeds the Network UPS Tools (NUT), enabling you •

to manage serially connected and USB connected Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) hardware. You can conﬁgure the NUT tools and manage the UPSes directly from the command line or using the Management Console.

Instruction Manual

Conﬁguring Serial Port Power Strips

The Administrator can conﬁgure serially connected power strips, so both Users and Administrators can control them directly using the Management Console. First, the selected gateway serial port must be connected to and conﬁgured to communicate with the power strip:

Connect the power strip to the selected serial port on the ECS0016 1.

gateway

Select the 2. Serial and Network: Serial menu option and conﬁgure the

Common Settings of the selected gateway serial port that will be connected to the power strip with the RS232 properties etc required by the power strip.

Select 3. Power Strip Mode, then select the Power Device Type to be

controlled.

To simplify power management, you also can also optionally apply 4.

a text label to each of the power outlets on the power strip you have installed

Enter the 5. Username and Password for accessing the Power Device.

Click 6. Apply.

Conﬁguring IPMI Power Management

The ECS0016 provides power management of servers, storage and telco devices built with embedded IPMI service processors and BMCs. The Administrator can conﬁgure these IPMI devices, so both Users and Administrators can use the Management Console to remotely cycle power and reboot, even when the operating system is unresponsive.

To set up networked server for IPMI power control, the Administrator must conﬁgure the embedded IPMI device to communicate:

Select 1. Serial & Network: Network Hosts and enter the IP Address/

Domain Name of the BMC or Service Processor (e.g. Dell DRAC)

Then in 2. Power Device Settings, specify the IPMI Power Device Type

(1.5 or 2.0) and Username / Password.

Click 3. Apply

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Conﬁguring Browser Controlled Power Strips

The Administrator can conﬁgure network attached power strips, so both Users and Administrators can control them directly using the Management Console.

User Power Management

The Power Manager enables both Users and Administrators to access and control the conﬁgured serial and network attached power strips and servers with embedded IPMI service processors or BMCs:

Select the 1. Manage: Power and the par ticular Target power device to

be controlled.

Then initiate the desired Action to be taken by selecting the appropriate 2.

icon:

Power ON

Power OFF

Power Cycle

Power Status

You will only be presented with icons for those operations that are supported by the Target you have selected.

Instruction Manual

Nagios Integration

Nagios is a powerful, highly extensible open source tool for monitoring network hosts and services. The core Nagios software package will typically be installed on a server or virtual server - the central Nagios server.

ECS0016 gateways operate in conjunction with a central/upstream Nagios server, to provide distributed monitoring of attached network hosts and serial devices. They embed the NSCA (Nagios Service Checks Acceptor) and NRPE (Nagios Remote Plugin Executor) addons – this allows them to communicate with the central Nagios server, eliminating the need for a dedicated slave Nagios server at remote sites.

The ECS0016 supports basic distributed monitoring. Even if distributed monitoring is not required, the ECS0016 gateways can be deployed locally alongside the Nagios monitoring host server, to provide additional diagnostics and points of access to managed devices.

StarTech.com’s MetaConnect for Nagios extends the capabilities of the central Nagios server beyond monitoring, enabling it to be used for central management tasks. It incorporates the MetaConnect client, enabling point-and-click access and control of distributed networks of ECS0016 gateways as well as their attached network and serial hosts, from a central location.

Please note: if you have an existing Nagios deployment, you may wish to use the ECS0016 gateways in a distributed monitoring server capacity only; if this is the case, skip to the section titled Enable Nagios on the

ECS0016

Nagios overview

Nagios provides central monitoring of the hosts and services in your distributed network. Nagios is freely downloadable, open source software.

This section offers a quick background of Nagios and its capabilities. A complete overview, FAQ and comprehensive documentation are available at: http://www.nagios.org

Nagios does take some time to install, but once Nagios is up and running,

Instruction Manual

it provides an outstanding network monitoring system.

With Nagios you can:

Display tables showing the status of each monitored server and •

network service in real time

Use a wide range of freely available plugins to make detailed checks of •

speciﬁc services – e.g. don’t just check that a database is accepting network connections, check that it can actually validate requests and return real data

Display warnings and send warning emails, pager or SMS alerts when •

a service failure or degradation is detected

Assign contact groups who are responsible for speciﬁc services in •

speciﬁc time frames

Central management and setting up MetaConnect for Nagios

The MetaConnect Nagios solution has three parts: Central Nagios server, Distributed ECS0016 console servers, and SDT for Nagios clients

Central Nagios server:

A Nagios 2.x or 3.x installation (typically on a Linux server)•

Generally running on a blade, PC, virtual machine, etc. at a central •

location

Runs a web server that displays the Nagios GUI •

Imports conﬁguration from distributed ECS0016 console servers using • the MetaConnect for Nagios Conﬁguration Wizard

Distributed ECS0016 console servers:

ECS0016 Enhanced Console Server •

Serial and network hosts attached to each console server •

Each runs Nagios plugins, NRPE and NSCA addons, but not a full •

Nagios server

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Clients

Typically a client PC, laptop, etc. running Windows, Linux or Mac OS X •

Runs MetaConnect •

Possibly remote to the central Nagios server or distributed ECS0016 • console servers

May receive alert emails from the central Nagios server or distributed • ECS0016 console servers

Connects to the central Nagios server web UI to view status of •

monitored hosts and serial devices

Uses MetaConnect to connect through the distributed ECS0016 • console servers, to manage monitored hosts and serial devices

MetaConnect Nagios setup involves the following steps:

Install Nagios and the NSCA and NRPE addons on the central Nagios 1.

server.

Conﬁgure each ECS0016 distributed console server for Nagios 2.

monitoring, alerting, and MetaConnect Nagios integration.

Run the MetaConnect for Nagios Conﬁguration Wizard on the central 3.

Nagios server and perform any additional conﬁguration tasks.

Install MetaConnect on each client.4.

Set Up a Central Nagios Server

MetaConnect for Nagios requires a central Nagios server running Nagios

2.x or 3.x. Nagios 1.x is not supported.

The Nagios server software is available for most major distributions of Linux using the standard package management tools. Your distribution will have documentation available on how to install Nagios. This is usually the quickest and simplest way to get up and running.

Note that you will need the core Nagios server package, and at least one of the NRPE or NSCA addons. NSCA is required to utilize the alerting features of the distributed hosts, installing both NRPE and NSCA is recommended.

Instruction Manual

You will also require a web server such as Apache to display the Nagios web UI (and this may be installed automatically as a dependency of the Nagios packages).

Central Site

Nagios

Server

ECS0016

Network

Alternatively, you may wish to download the Nagios source code directly from the Nagios website, and build and install the software from scratch. The Nagios website (http://www.nagios.org) has several Quick Start Guides that walk through this process.

Once you are able to browse to your Nagios server and see its web UI and the local services it monitors by default, you are ready to continue.

Set up distributed ECS0016 console servers

This section provides a brief walkthrough on conﬁguring a single ECS0016 console server to monitor the status of one attached network host (a Windows IIS server running HTTP and HTTPS services), one serially attached device (the console port of a network router), as well as to send alerts back to the Nagios server when an administrator connects to the router or IIS server.

This walkthrough provides an example, however details of the conﬁguration options are described in the next section. This walkthrough also assumes the network host and serial devices are already physically connected to the console server.

Remote Site

Serial

Managed Hosts

Instruction Manual

The ﬁrst step is to set up the Nagios features on the console server:

Select 1. System: Nagios on the ECS0016 Management Console.

Check to make sure the Nagios service is 2. Enabled.

Enter the IP address that the central Nagios server will use to contact 3.

the distributed ECS0016 servers in Nagios Host Address.

Enter the IP address that the distributed ECS0016 server will use to 4.

contact the central Nagios server in Nagios Server Address.

Enter the IP address that the clients running MetaConnect will use 5.

to connect through the distributed ECS0016 servers as the MetaConnect Gateway address.

Check 6. Prefer NRPE, NRPE Enabled and NRPE Command

Arguments.

Check 7. NSCA Enabled, choose an NSCA Encryption Method and enter

and conﬁrm an NSCA Secret. Remember these details as you will need them later on. For NSCA Interval, enter: 5

Click 8. Apply.

Next, you must conﬁgure the attached Windows network host and specify the services you will be checking with Nagios (HTTP and HTTPS):

Select 1. Network Hosts from the Serial & Network menu and click Add

Instruction Manual

Host.

Enter the 2. IP Address/DNS Name of the network server, e.g.:

192.168.1.10 and enter a Description, e.g.: Windows 2003 IIS Server

Remove all 3. Permitted Services. This server will be accessible using

Terminal Services, so check TCP, Port 3389 and log level 1 then click Add. It is important to remove and re-add the service to enable logging

Scroll down to 4. Nagios Settings and check Enable Nagios.

Click 5. New Check and select Check Ping. Click check-host-alive.

Click 6. New Check and select Check Permitted TCP. Select Port 3389

Click 7. New Check and select Check TCP. Select Port 80.

Click 8. New Check and select Check TCP. Select Port 443

Click 9. Apply.

Similarly you now must conﬁgure the serial port to the router to be monitored by Nagios:

Select 1. Serial Port from the Serial & Network menu.

Locate the serial port that has the router console port attached and 2.

click Edit.

Ensure the serial port settings under 3. Common Settings are correct

and match the attached router’s console port.

Click 4. Console Server Mode, and select Logging Level 1.

Check 5. Telnet (SSH access is not required, as MetaConnect is used

to secure the otherwise insecure Telnet connection).

Scroll down to 6. Nagios Settings and check Enable Nagios.

Check 7. Port Log and Serial Status.

Click 8. Apply

Select 9. Alerts from the Alerts & Logging menu and click Add Alert.

In 10. Description, enter: Administrator connection

Check 11. Nagios (NSCA)

In 12. Applicable Ports check the serial port that has the router console

Instruction Manual

port attached. In Applicable Hosts, check the IP address/DNS name of the IIS server.

Click 13. Connection Alert.

Click 14. Apply.

Now, you can set the console server to send alerts to the Nagios server. Lastly you need to add a User for the client running MetaConnect:

Select 1. Users & Groups from the Serial & Network menu.

Click 2. Add User.

In Username, enter: sdtnagiosuser, then enter and conﬁrm a Password. 3.

In 4. Accessible Hosts click the IP address/DNS name of the IIS server,

and in Accessible Ports click the serial port that has the router console port attached

Click 5. Apply.

Enable Nagios on the ECS0016

Remote ECS0016 Gateway

Select 1. System: Nagios on the ECS0016 Management Console and

select Nagios service Enabled.

Enter the 2. Nagios Host Name that the ECS0016 gateway will be referred to in the Nagios central server – this will be generated from local System Name (entered in System: Administration) if unspeciﬁed

In Nagios Host Address enter the IP address or DNS name that the 3.

Instruction Manual

upstream Nagios server will use to reach the ECS0016 – if unspeciﬁed this will default to the ﬁrst network port’s IP (Network (1) as entered in System: IP)

In Nagios Server Address enter the IP address or DNS name that 4. the ECS0016 will use to reach the upstream Nagios monitoring server

Check the 5. Disable SDT Nagios Extensions option if you wish to disable the MetaConnect integration with your Nagios server at the head end this would only be checked if you want to run a standard Nagios monitoring.

If not, enter the IP address or DNS name the MetaConnect Nagios clients will use to reach the ECS0016 MetaConnect Gateway Address

When NRPE and NSCA are both enabled, NSCA is preferred method for communicating with the upstream Nagios server – check Prefer NRPE to use NRPE whenever possible (i.e. for all communication except for alerts)

Enable NRPE monitoring

Enabling NRPE allows you to execute plugins (such as check_tcp and check_ping) on the remote ECS0016 gateway to monitor serial or network attached remote servers. This will ofﬂoad CPU load from the upstream Nagios monitoring machine which is especially valuable if you are monitoring hundreds or thousands of hosts. To enable NRPE:

Select 1. System: Nagios and check NRPE Enabled.

Enter the details of the user connection to the upstream Nagios 2. monitoring server and refer the sample Nagios conﬁguration example below for details on conﬁguring speciﬁc NRPE checks

By default the ECS0016 will accept a connection between the upstream Nagios monitoring server and the NRPE server with SSL encryption, without SSL, or tunneled through SSH. The security for the connection is conﬁgured at the Nagios server.

Instruction Manual

Enable NSCA monitoring

NSCA is the mechanism that allows you to send passive check results from the remote ECS0016 to the Nagios daemon running on the monitoring server. To enable NSCA:

Select 1. System: Nagios and check NSCA Enabled

Select the Encryption to be used from the drop down menu, then enter 2. a Secret password and specify a check Interval.

Refer to the sample Nagios conﬁguration section below for some examples of conﬁguring speciﬁc NSCA checks

Conﬁgure selected Serial Ports for Nagios monitoring

The individual Serial Ports connected to the ECS0016 to be monitored must be conﬁgured for Nagios checks.

To enable Nagios to monitor on a device connected to the ECS0016 serial port:

Select 1. Serial & Network: Serial Port and click Edit on the serial Port number to be monitored.

Select 2. Enable Nagios, specify the name of the device on the upstream server and determine the check to be run on this port. Serial Status monitors the handshaking lines on the serial port and Check Port monitors the data logged for the serial port.

Conﬁgure selected Network Hosts for Nagios monitoring

The individual Network Hosts connected to the ECS0016 to be monitored must also be conﬁgured for Nagios checks:

Select 1. Serial & Network: Network Port and click Edit on the Network Host to be monitored.

Select 2. Enable Nagios, then specify the name of the device as it will appear on the upstream Nagios server.

Click 3. New Check to add a speciﬁc check which will be run on this host.

Instruction Manual

Select 4. Check Permitted TCP/UDP to monitor a service that you have previously added as a Permitted Service.

Select 5. Check TCP/UDP to specify a service port that you wish to monitor, but to which you do not wish to allow external (MetaConnect) access.

Select 6. Check TCP to monitor

The Nagios Check selected as the check-host-alive check is the • check used to determine whether the network host itself is up or down

Typically this will be • Check Ping – although in some cases the host will be conﬁgured not to respond to pings

If no • check-host-alive check is selected, the host will always be assumed to be up

You may de-select check-host-alive by clicking Clear check-host- • alive

If required, customize the selected Nagios Checks to use custom • arguments

Click 7. Apply.

Conﬁgure the upstream Nagios monitoring host

Refer to the Nagios documentation (http://www.nagios.org/docs/) for conﬁguring the upstream server:

The section entitled Distributed Monitoring steps through what you • need to do to conﬁgure NSCA on the upstream server (under Central Server Conﬁguration)

NRPE Documentation: walkthrough NRPE conﬁguration on up • stream server: http://nagios.sourceforge. net/docs/nrpe/NRPE.pdf

At this stage, Nagios at the upstream monitoring server has been conﬁgured, and individual serial port and network host connections on the ECS0016 conﬁgured for Nagios monitoring. If NSCA is enabled, each selected check will be executed once over the period of the check interval. If NRPE is enabled, then the upstream server will be able to request status updates under it’s own scheduling.

Instruction Manual

System Management

This chapter describes how the Administrator can perform a range of general ECS0016 system administration and conﬁguration tasks such as:

Applying Soft and Hard Resets to the gateway •

Reﬂashing the Firmware •

Conﬁguring the Date, Time and NTP•

System Administration and Reset

The Administrator can reboot or reset the gateway to default settings

A soft reset is effected by selecting Reboot in the System: Administra- tion menu and clicking Apply.

The ECS0016 reboots with all settings (e.g. the assigned network IP address) preserved. However this soft reset does disconnect all Users and ends any SSH sessions that had been established.

A soft reset will also be affected when you switch OFF power from the ECS0016, and then switch the power back ON. However if you cycle the power and the unit is writing to ﬂash you could corrupt or lose data, so the software reboot is the safer option.

A hard erase (hard reset) is effected by pushing the Erase button on the rear panel twice. (A ball point pen or bent paper clip is a suitable tool for performing this procedure. Do not use a graphite pencil). Depress the but-

Instruction Manual

ton gently twice (within a 5 second period) while the unit is powered ON.

This will reset the ECS0016 back to its factory default settings and clear the ECS0016’s stored conﬁguration information.

The hard erase will clear all custom settings and return the unit back to factory default settings (i.e. the IP address will be reset to 192.168.0.1).

You will be prompted to log in and must enter the default administration username and administration password:

Username: root

Password: default

Firmware Upgrades

Before upgrading you should ascertain if you are already running the most current ﬁrmware on your gateway. Your ECS0016 will not allow you to upgrade to the same or an earlier version.

The Firmware version is displayed in the header of each page. Or, select Status: Support Report and note the Firmware Version

To upgrade, you ﬁrst must download the latest ﬁrmware image (http:// www.startech.com) selecting the most recently added ﬁle, and save the image to a system on the same subnet as the ECS0016.

To upload the ﬁrmware image ﬁle to your ECS0016, select System: Firmware

Specify the address and name of the downloaded Firmware Upgrade 1.

File, or Browse the local subnet and locate the downloaded ﬁle.

Click 2. Apply and the ECS0016 appliance will undertake a soft reboot and commence upgrading the ﬁrmware. This process will take several minutes. After the ﬁrmware upgrade has completed, click on “click here to return to the Management Console”. Your ECS0016 will have retained all pre-upgrade conﬁguration information

Instruction Manual

Conﬁgure Date and Time

It is recommended that you set the local Date and Time in the ECS0016 as soon as it is conﬁgured. Features like Syslog and NFS logging use the system time for timestamping log entries, while certiﬁcate generation depends on a correct Timestamp to check the validity period of the certiﬁcate.

Select the 1. System: Date & Time menu option

Manually set the Year, Month, Day, Hour and Minute using the Date 2. and Time selection boxes, then click Apply

The gateway can synchronize its system time with a remote time server using the Network Time Protocol (NTP). Conﬁguring the NTP time server ensures that the ECS0016 clock will be accurate soon after the Internet connection is established. Also if NTP is not used, the system clock will be reset randomly every time the ECS0016 is powered up. To set the system time using NTP:

Select the 1. Enable NTP checkbox on the Network Time Protocol page.

Enter the IP address of the remote NTP Server and click 2. Apply.

You must now also specify your local time zone so the system clock can show local time (and not UTP). As such, set your appropriate region/ locality in the Time Zone selection box and click Apply.

Instruction Manual

Status Reports

This chapter describes the selection of status reports that are available for review:

Port Access and Active Users •

Statistics •

Support Reports •

Syslog •

UPS Status •

Port Access and Active Users

The Administrator can see which Users have access privileges with which serial ports:

Select Status: Port Access

The Administrator can also see the current status as to Users who have active sessions on those ports. To do so, select Status: Active Users.

Instruction Manual

Statistics

The Statistics report provides a snapshot of the data trafﬁc and other activities and operations of your gateway.

Support Reports

The Support Report provides useful status information that will assist the StarTech.com technical support team to solve any problems you may experience with your ECS0016.

If you do experience a problem and have to contact support, you have the option of including the Support Report with your email support request.

To generate a Support Report:

Select the 1. Status: Support Report menu option and you will be presented with a snapshot of your gateway’s status.

Save the ﬁle as a text ﬁle (.txt) to an easily accessible location. 2.

Instruction Manual

Syslog

The Linux System Logger maintains a record of all system messages and errors. To view the System Log, select Status: Syslog

Remote System Logging: The syslog record can be redirected to a remote Syslog Server. To do so, enter the remote Syslog Server address and port details and click Apply Local System Logging

To view the local Syslog ﬁle:

Select Alerts & Logging: Syslog (To make it easier to ﬁnd information in 1. the local Syslog ﬁle, a pattern matching ﬁlter tool is provided).

Specify the Match Pattern for which you wish to search (e.g. the search 2. for Mount is shown below) and click Apply. The Syslog will then be represented with only those entries that actually include the speciﬁed pattern

Instruction Manual

Management

The ECS0016 has a number of Management reports and tools that can be accessed by both Administrators and Users:

Access and control conﬁgured devices •

View serial port logs and host logs •

Use MetaConnect or the Java terminal to access serially attached • consoles

Power control•

Device Management

To display all the connected Serial devices, Network Hosts and Power devices, select Manage: Devices. By then selecting the Serial/ Network/ Power item, the display will be reduced to such devices only.

The user can take a range of actions on each of these Serial/Network/ Power devices by selecting the Action icon or related menu item.

Port Log Management

Administrator and Users can view logs of data transfers to connected devices. To do so:

Select 1. Manage: Port Logs and the serial Port number to be displayed.

To display Host logs select 2. Manage: Host Logs and the Host to be displayed

Power Management

Administrator and Users can access and manage the connected power devices. To do so:

Select 1. Manage: Power.

Instruction Manual

Serial Port Terminal Connection

Administrator and Users can communicate directly with the ECS0016 command line and with devices attached to the ECS0016 serial ports using MetaConnect and their local telnet client, or using a Java terminal in their browser. To do so:

Select 1. Manage: Terminal

Click Connect to MetaConnect to access the ECS0016’s command line 2. shell or the serial ports via MetaConnect. This will activate the MetaConnect client on the computer you are browsing and load your local telnet client to connect to the command line or serial port using SSH.

Please Note that MetaConnect must be installed on the computer you are browsing from and the ECS0016 must be added as a gateway.

Instruction Manual

The alternate to using MetaConnect and your local telnet client is to download the open source jcterm Java terminal applet into your browser to connect to the ECS0016 and attached serial port devices. However jcterm does have some JRE compatibility issues which may prevent it from loading.

Select 1. Manage: Terminal. The jcterm Java applet is downloaded from the ECS0016 to your browser and the virtual terminal will be displayed.

Select 2. File > Open SHELL Session from the jcterm menu to access the command line using SSH

To access the ECS0016’s command line enter the gateway’s • TCP address (e.g. 192.168.254.198) as hostname and the User name (e.g. root@192.168.254.198, then enter the Password)

To access the ECS0016’s serial ports append :serial to the username e.g. with the gateway’s TCP address (e.g.

192.168.254.198), the Username (e.g. root) enter root:serial@192.168.254.198, then enter the Password and select the TCP Port address for the serial port to be accessed. By default 3001 is selected (i.e. Port 1). To access Port 4 for example, this must be changed to 3004 for the Username

Port Log Management

Administrator and Users can view logs of data transfers to connected devices. To do so, Select Manage: Port Logs and the serial Port number to be displayed.

To display Host logs, select Manage: Host Logs and the Host to be displayed.

Basic Conguration - Linux Commands

For those who prefer to conﬁgure their ECS0016 at the Linux command line level (rather than use a browser and the Management Console), this chapter describes getting command line access and using the conﬁg tool to manage the system and conﬁgure the ports etc. from the command line:

Administration Conﬁguration (System Settings and Authentication •

Instruction Manual

Conﬁguration)

Date and Time Conﬁguration (Manually Change Clock Settings and •

Network Time Protocol Time Zone)

Network Conﬁguration (Static and DHCP IP Conﬁguration, Dial-in •

Conﬁguration and Services Conﬁguration)

Serial Port Conﬁguration (Serial Port Settings, Supported Protocol •

Conﬁguration, Users and Trusted Networks)

Event Logging Conﬁguration (Remote Serial Port Log Storage and •

Alert Conﬁguration)

The ECS0016 runs a standard Linux kernel so it is also possible to conﬁgure the gateway using other standard Linux and Busybox commands and applications (ifconﬁg, gettyd, stty etc.) However doing this will not guarantee these changes are permanent.

Please note: This chapter assumes you already have a certain level of understanding before you execute Linux kernel level commands.

The Linux Command line

Power up the ECS0016 and connect the “terminal” device: 1.

If you are connecting using the serial line, plug a serial cable • between the ECS0016 local DB9 port and terminal device. Conﬁgure the serial connection of the “terminal” device/program you are using to 115200bps, 8 data bits, no parity and one stop bit. If you are using a program running on a Windows PC as the terminal device, then the cable is made up from a Cat5 UTP (#440016) cable and two DB9 to RJ45 adapters (#319000 and #319001)

If you are connecting over the LAN then you will need to • interconnect the Ethernet ports and direct your terminal emulator program to the IP address of the ECS0016 (192.168.0.1 by default)

Log on to the ECS0016 by pressing ‘return’ a few times. The ECS0016 2. will request a username and password. Enter the username root and the password default. You should now see the command line prompt which is a hash (#)

Instruction Manual

The conﬁg Tool:

Syntax

conﬁg [ ahv ] [ d id ] [ g id ] [ p path ] [ r conﬁgurator ] [ s id=value ]

Description

The conﬁg tool allows manipulation and querying of the system conﬁguration from the command line. Using conﬁg, the new conﬁguration can be activated by running the relevant conﬁgurator which performs the action necessary to make the conﬁguration changes live.

Conﬁguration elements which can be changed are speciﬁed by a unique ‘.’ separated name. For example the conﬁguration ﬁle version is identiﬁed as ‘conﬁg.version’.

Run all registered conﬁgurators. This

-a –run-all

-h –help

-v –verbose

-d –del=id

-g –get=id

-p –path=ﬁle

-r –run=conﬁgurator

-s --set=id=value

performs every conﬁguration

synchronization action pushing all changes to the live system

Display a brief usage message.

Log extra debug information

Remove the given conﬁguration element speciﬁed by a ‘.’ separated

identiﬁer.

Display the value of a conﬁguration element

Specify an alternate conﬁguration ﬁle to use. The default ﬁle is located at /etc/conﬁg/ conﬁg.xml

Run the speciﬁed registered conﬁgurator. Registered conﬁgurators are alerts, auth, dialin, eventlog, ipconﬁg, power, serialconﬁg, services, systemsettings, time and users.

Change the value of conﬁguration element speciﬁed by a ‘.’ separated identiﬁer.

Instruction Manual

The conﬁg tool is designed to perform multiple actions from one command if need be, so if necessary options can be chained together.

Options

Administration Conﬁguration

System Settings

You can conﬁgure the system settings to the following values (denoted in bolded text) using the corresponding commands from the command lines (denoted by italicized text):

System Name og.mydomain.com #/bin/cong–-set=cong.system.name=og.mydomain.com

System Password (root account) secret #/bin/cong–-set=cong.system.password=secret

System SMTP Server 192.168.0.124 #/bin/cong–-set=cong.system.smtp.server=192.168.0.124

System SMTP Sender og@mydomain.com #/bin/cong–-set=cong.system.smtp.sender=og@mydomain.com

The following command will synchronize the live system with the new conﬁguration.

#/bin/cong–-run=systemsettings

Authentication Conﬁguration

You can conﬁgure the system remote authentication with the following settings (denoted in bolded text):

Remote Authentication Method: LDAP #/bin/cong–-set=cong.auth.type=LDAP

 Server IP Address: 192.168.0.32 #/bin/cong–-set=cong.auth.server=192.168.0.32

Server Password: Secret #/bin/cong–-set=cong.auth.password=Secret

StarTech.com ECS0016 User Manual

Specifications and Main Features

Frequently Asked Questions

User Manual