Sun Cluster 2.2 System Administration Guide

Troubleshooting the Terminal Concentrator

This section describes troubleshooting techniques associated with the Terminal Concentrator. See also Chapter 5 in the Sun Cluster 2.2 Hardware Site Preparation, Planning, and Installation Guide.

Port Configuration Access Errors

A connect: Connection refused message while trying to access a particular Terminal Concentrator port using telnet(1) can have two possible causes:

The port is being used by someone else.
The port is misconfigured and not accepting network connections.

How to Correct a Port Configuration Access Error

Telnet to the Terminal Concentrator without specifying the port, and then interactively specify the port.

# telnet terminal-concentrator-name
Trying ip_address ..
Connected to 192.9.200.1
Escape character is '^]'.
[you may have to enter a RETURN to see the following prompts]

Rotaries Defined:
      cli                              -

Enter Annex port name or number: 2

If you see the following message, the port is in use.

Port(s) busy, do you wish to wait? (y/n) [y]:

If you see the following message, the port is misconfigured.

Port 2
Error: Permission denied.

If the port is in use, reset the Terminal Concentrator connections using the instructions in "Resetting a Terminal Concentrator Connection".

If the port is misconfigured, do the following:

Select the command-line interpreter (cli) and become the Terminal Concentrator superuser.

Enter Annex port name or number: cli

Annex Command Line Interpreter   *   Copyright 1991 Xylogics, Inc.
 
annex: su
Password:

As the Terminal Concentrator superuser, reset the port mode.

annex# admin
Annex administration MICRO-XL-UX R7.0.1, 8 ports
admin: port 2
admin: set port mode slave
	You may need to reset the appropriate port, Annex subsystem or
	reboot the Annex for changes to take effect.
admin: reset 2 
admin:

The port is now configured correctly.

For more information about the Terminal Concentrator administrative commands, see the Sun Terminal Concentrator General Reference Guide.

Random Interruptions to Terminal Concentrator Connections

Terminal concentrator connections made through a router can experience intermittent interruptions. These connections might come alive for random periods, then go dead again. When the connection is dead, any new Terminal Concentrator connection attempts will time out. The Terminal Concentrator will show no signs of rebooting. Subsequently, a needed route might be re-established, only to disappear again. The problem is due to Terminal Concentrator routing table overflow and loss of network connection.

This is not a problem for connections made from a host that resides on the same network as the Terminal Concentrator.

The solution is to establish a default route within the Terminal Concentrator and disable the routed feature. You must disable the routed feature to prevent the default route from being lost. The following procedure shows how to do this. See the Terminal Concentrator documentation for additional information.

The config.annex file is created in the Terminal Concentrator's EEPROM file system and defines the default route to be used. You also can use the config.annex file to define rotaries that allow a symbolic name to be used instead of a port number. Disable the routed feature using the Terminal Concentrator's set command.

How to Establish a Default Route

Open a shelltool(1) connection to the Terminal Concentrator.

# telnet terminal-concentrator-name
Trying 192.9.200.2 ...
Connected to xx-tc.
Escape character is '^]'.


Rotaries Defined:
    cli                              -

Enter Annex port name or number: cli


Annex Command Line Interpreter   *   Copyright 1991 Xylogics, Inc.

Enter the su command and administrative password.

By default, the password is the IP address of the Terminal Concentrator.
annex: su Password: administrative-password

Edit the config.annex file.
annex# edit config.annex

Enter the highlighted information appearing in the following example, substituting the appropriate IP address for your default router:
Ctrl-W:save and exit Ctrl-X: exit Ctrl-F:page down Ctrl-B:page up %gateway net default gateway 192.9.200.2 metric 1 active ^W

Disable the local routed.

annex# admin set annex routed n
   You may need to reset the appropriate port, Annex subsystem or
   reboot the Annex for changes to take effect.
annex#

Reboot the Terminal Concentrator.
annex# boot
It takes a few minutes for the Terminal Concentrator to boot. During this time, the Sun Cluster node consoles are inaccessible.