Keith is so awesome. This beats spending thousands of $ on a full blown terminal server (especially during a post covid-19 world). Thanks for always looking out!
Keith, thank you so much for this content! I was inspired to setup my own terminal server using a 2911. Finding the line numbers was a bit tricky since I installed the hwic16 into subslot 2, but I will outline the steps below in case it is helpful to others. The async ports are numbered according to slot/subslot/port so with my hwic16 installed in subslot 2, my 16 async ports are numbered 0/2/0 to 0/2/15. The line numbers can be found by sending the command "show line" (see below). r4#show line Tty Line Typ Tx/Rx A Modem Roty AccO AccI Uses Noise Overruns Int 0 0 CTY - - - - - 0 1 0/0 - 1 1 AUX 9600/9600 - - - - - 0 0 0/0 - 2 2 TTY 9600/9600 - - - - - 0 0 0/0 - 0/2/0 35 TTY 9600/9600 - - - - - 0 0 0/0 - 0/2/1 36 TTY 9600/9600 - - - - - 0 0 0/0 - NOTE: the line number for port 0/2/0 is 35. To determine the Telnet port number, you add 2000 to the line number, which provides the following values for my setup on the 2911. 0/2/0 - port 2035 0/2/1 - port 2036 0/2/2 - port 2037 0/2/3 - port 2038 0/2/4 - port 2039 0/2/5 - port 2040 0/2/6 - port 2041 0/2/7 - port 2042
Thanks Keith. I have had this set up for a while. I used to use a spare computer to RDP to that was connected to my router (acting as a terminal server) but your raspberry pi video was a game changer for me. Low power with a massive reduction on noise and space. Your passion for teaching is amazing. Thank you so much.
God Bless you Keith. I have a Cisco 2821 Router with the NM-32A Card but wasn't able to get it fully configured. Im gonna revisit it with this config you provided Keith!!
You are freaking awesome! I wish you had this earlier, it is what is it is. Thank you for these online labs, information, etc. Please continue what you are doing it is very appreciated and important. 🤜
Hello Keith, excellent that you are sharing this type of technology that is currently used in CLOUD point of presence sites, data centers, etc... I am definitely looking forward to more content like this, related to the day to day data center operations. I understand that the main purpose of the channel is CCNA but believe me, knowing the fundamentals of IP addressing (V4 & V6), ansible/python, and, data center topologies/operations makes a CCNA certified engineer a bit more valuable. Thank you for the great tip.
Thank you for the video that was helpful! I had been doing this for a a while, but I didn't know I could connect on the computer directly through the router to another router. I had been doing it via router 1 to each device. That is very useful!
This is the technique that I use in my home lab. I currently have eleven routers and switches, and just recently bought a 2621 router with two async cards installed. I have up to 32 ports to use, so I have plenty of spares and room to grow. In my lab I've assigned permanent names to the devices (R1, R2, SW1, SW2, etc) so I named my hosts with those names instead of dev1, like you did. I didn't know about saving Putty sessions using the async port numbers. I've always remoted into the terminal server router and reverse telnet from there, using my host names in its config. I like your method better. It might seem silly to go the trouble and expense of a terminal server like we have, but the convenience makes it all worth it, even though I'm only a couple of feet away from my equipment. It was a real pain to constantly be switching the console cable around. One more tip for lab that I'll pass on...I have a basic config for each device set up with a bare-bones setup: hostname, logging synchronous on the vty and console ports, etc. I then put that in flash as "basic.config" and have an alias on each device that I call "reset" to "config replace flash:basic.config". This gets rid of whatever config I have and puts it back for a fresh start on another lab. Faster than rebooting.
It wasn't until I grabbed a bunch of 1811's instead of 1841's a while back that I realized that the HWIC octo cards existed. My only regret! Might have to check out a 1921 or so at some point
@@blendonator I have a 2611 that I was going to use but, it seems to draw a lot more power. I'm sure if I tracked down the data sheet I could confirm but, meh.
@@KeithBarker Thought I might include my config. line 0/1/0 0/1/7 exec-timeout 0 0 password cisco login no exec transport input telnet transport output telnet ip host 2960-sw1 2021 10.10.10.10 ip host 2960-sw2 2022 10.10.10.10 ip host r1 2023 10.10.10.10 ip host r3 2024 10.10.10.10 ip host r2 2019 10.10.10.10 I included the security for practice.
We use this for our Netlabs implementation at our Cisco Academy! When students schedule a lab, they'll have console access to 2 switches and 2 routers and 2 virtualized W10 computers. It's a pretty clever setup.
This is my current terminal server setup: 2801 with hwic16: an upgrade from a 2509 with octal cable. You are right about port determination. the trick is using the correct one for IP host. mine started at 2018 - 2033 because the hwic card is on slot 2.
I recently used an NM-32A module attached to a 2620XM router for my automation project at university. The goal was to create a solution for connecting to as many lab devices (no set IP!) as possible to check the IOS version and upgrade if necessary. You can get these parts dirt cheap on eBay!
Keith Barker, thank you so much for all your help.. Just a question here, as you mention a person is a newbie, and don't know about what is console and others parts. thinking about going for an interview, what and how you will answer the technical questions may they ask how you will responds to it.
Thank you for the question Demetrio. The first step would be to repeat the question, to confirm you understand what they are asking. If you have no idea of what the technology or answer is, be honest. If you have a guess, you could elaborate on that as a guess. They may want to see your attitude towards new situations/technologies. If you offer your best, with an offer to research it a bit more and follow up, that may be useful as well. No matter how the interview goes, use the lessons learned to do more research/study in preparation for the next one.
Thank you Murphy Brown. Feel free to join my Discord sever. Lots of people there helping each other out. Each Saturday at 10am Pacific I hold my "Office Hour" where learners can ask questions about the topics they are studying. Mostly focusing on Cisco CCNA 200-301 topics. Feel free to join us there live if you are available. Here is the link ogit.online/Join_OGIT_on_Discord Thanks again Murphy Brown!
So you are basically using the router as a sort of jumping point to connect to the console port of your other switches and routers if I'm understanding correctly? Is there a benefit to this instead of setting up telnet or ssh on each device? Ill have to find this pi video :)Thanks.
Hi None Given, while ssh/telnet to each device directly is inline, this console access can be setup as an Out of Band Management in case you have a network outage in your Datacenter affecting inline access. This way you can check via console and troubleshoot. This has been my use case for this setup.
You could also connect via the CLI by doing a reverse Telnet, which is pretty much the same (connecting to yourself to port 200X). The command will be: Router# telnet 1.1.1.1 2003
Hi I am facing a problem with Cisco 1100TG service getaway router when I tried from Cisco server gateway router to console any other device then it asks for a password/username but for the remote device console port I have not assigned any passwords. Then I have set a console port pass for the remote device. but still pass word and username is not checking.
Thank you for the question @muntasirkhan6968. If you don't have aaa-new model enabled, then in line configuration, use the command: no login See if that makes a difference for your lab. In production, you would want to require authentication.
Thank you for the question Chimezirim. I will usually find a document for the module, and a document for the version of router to solve that. Here are examples: www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/docs/routers/3600-series-multiservice-platforms/7258-hw-async.html www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/routers/access/2900/hardware/installation/guide/Hardware_Installation_Guide/Overview.html Cheers.
For anyone in the future reading this: Just do a "show line" and then it'll list of bunch of lines and you should be looking for something in the effect of 0/0/0 - 0/0/15 (It maybe different but still the same principle applies.) Then once you find that, it should have columns, look under the Line column. So for example, the first line 0/0/0 might have a line number of 3. Take that number and add it by 2000. So line 1s port number would be 2003. I hope that makes sense.
Thank you Murphy Brown. Feel free to join my Discord sever. Lots of people there helping each other out. Each Saturday at 10am Pacific I hold my "Office Hour" where learners can ask questions about the topics they are studying. Mostly focusing on Cisco CCNA 200-301 topics. Feel free to join us there live if you are available. Here is the link ogit.online/Join_OGIT_on_Discord Thanks again Murphy Brown!
Yes, it works, but is kinda different as you need to configure rotary groups. Here's the official Cisco doc if you want to give a look: Secure Shell Configuration Guide, Cisco IOS Release 15S: Chapter: SSH Terminal-Line Access www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/docs/ios-xml/ios/sec_usr_ssh/configuration/15-s/sec-usr-ssh-15-s-book/sec-ssh-term-line.html
