New Lab Pics 5-8-13

As promised, below are new pictures of my growing lab. The main focus here is the new AP7900 Switched PDU and the Cyclades ACS32. Enjoy!

Pictured above is my APC7900 to allow enhanced management of power for my rack. The only rack equipment not connected to this unit is my Vyatta internet router which I need to establish VPN to power on and off the rack remotely.

Beneath the switched PDU is my Cyclades ACS32 terminal access server running Linux at the base. The ports (on this model) only light up when a console session to the connected equipment is activated. I made all console (rollover) cables, but I will go into more detail below. But each cable connects from a port on the ACS to a console port on my Cisco routing and switching equipment. But this server isn't just limited to Cisco devices.

The terminal server has 32 ports available for out-of-band access to all of my Cisco devices. I use it in the same manner I did the Ubuntu terminal server except this is much more efficient. I figured 32 ports was great in case one or two stops working and for lab growth (though I doubt I will have up to 32 devices --- but WHO KNOWS!?). As long as the network to my ACS is good, I can access anything in my lab remotely, which is why I did not put the ACS in my lab network. I placed it in my home (production) network so I can easily connect and so that instability in my lab network does not cause issues with me being able to connect. That would defeat the purpose.

The switched PDU and ACS has made life managing my lab a LOT easier.

My rack to-date in its entirety.

This is the web interface for the switched PDU. It's extremely simple to configure and power on and off devices.

This is just a screen capture of myself logged into all of the console ports of my equipment remotely (notice con0) from my laptop.

This is the web interface for the Cyclades ACS32 terminal server... I have to say, this is NOT the most attractive web-gui that I've seen... I mean, gold? Really? I'd rather look at the CLI (that's true in most cases anyway). But it works.

As you can see I use telnet (currently) to access devices through the ACS. I telnet to the device over a different port (other than 23) to access the console port of specific devices. Ex. I access my HQ router by telnetting to 192.168.1.10 over port 7001 (cmd: telnet 192.168.1.10 7001). I use a different port for each device (ex. backbone switch - 192.168.1.10 port 7002).

The ACS also connects using rollover cables. I made my own rollover cables because it was cheaper and I had bulk Cat5E UTP laying around rather than buying expensive adapters.  For those who don't know (because I had to research, to make a rollover cable  you can just use standard CAT5E and the diagram I just posted that I googled above. 

I used the pattern, orange>white-orange>green>white-green>blue>white-blue>brown>white-brown because it was easy but the one above works too. You can actually use any pattern that you want, AS LONG AS IT IS THE SAME - ONLY REVERSED ON THE OTHER SIDE but it's safest to follow a diagram. Again, this cable can only be used to connect to the console port of networking (Cisco) equipment. 

I hope you enjoyed this update. More to come!