Using the Serial Management Port

The serial management port (SERIAL MGT) has a dedicated purpose: It enables ASCII communication between an external terminal and ALOM or the host server. The port takes a standard RJ-45 connector.

This port can be used only with an external terminal or with a terminal emulator, such as a serial connection from a workstation. It is not a general-purpose serial port. However, the Solaris operating environment sees this port as ttya.

If you want to use a general-purpose serial port with your server, use the regular 7-pin serial port on the back panel of your server. The Solaris operating environment sees this port as ttyb. For more information about the server's serial port, refer to your server's documentation.

Using the Serial Management Port to Access the System Console

Before You Begin

When you first turn on the power to your server and to the external terminal, the serial management port is automatically connected to the system console output.

The serial management port is set to the following parameters:

9600 baud
8 bits
No parity
1 stop bit
No handshaking

The host server automatically sets these parameters for the serial management port when it starts up. The settings are read-only, and cannot be changed from the ALOM sc> prompt. To view the settings for the parameters from the sc> prompt after you establish an ALOM session, check the serial port variables.

What to Do

Connect to ALOM and log in to establish an ALOM system controller session.
The ALOM sc> prompt is displayed.
To connect to the system console, in the ALOM system controller window type:

sc> console

Switching Between the System Console and ALOM

To switch from the system console output to the ALOM sc> prompt, type #. (pound-period).

To switch from the sc> prompt to the system console, type console.

Note: The #. (pound-period) character sequence is the default escape character sequence for ALOM. If desired, you can change the first character in the escape sequence by using the sc_escapechars variable. For example:

sc> setsc sc_escapechars a.