Using the Cyclades terminal server

The Cyclades terminal server is a very flexible serial line server which allows an administrator to connect to the serial port of each compute node or monitor the boot up process prior to the network becoming active. Connections can be made using telnet, rlogin, and ssh directly to the serial line, depending on how the terminal server is configured. Normally we will set up the Cyclades terminal server so an administrator can telnet directly to as a serial port from the front end server. For instance

  telnet console032

In order to do this the terminal server must be connected to the local ethernet network and be configured. We will have set up a serial line login on each node for use. The full documentation for the Cyclades will have been left with your administrator and is also available on the web at http://www.cyclades.com .

Additionally an administrator may login directly to the terminal server via the network or over the console line plugged into a com port on the front end server. To login over the network simply telnet to it. Look in /etc/hosts to find the hostname and IP address of your terminal server. To login over the serial port use Kermit or mini-com as root user. The Cyclades terminal server is a small power pc system running embedded Linux. This should be a familiar environment for an administrator, however there are significant differences between this and, say, RedHat Linux. Please read the manual before attempting to change the configuration files. In particular all configurations need to be saved to flash memory for them to be save over a reboot.