[Basanta Dhakhwa]

Dear all,

We have procured 3 units of IBM 520 server. All these server have 2 serial port integrated within the system. We are planing to use these serial ports for connecting a device known as HSM (Host security module) which is used for PIN (Personal identification number) generation and verification. The HSM is from THALES Racal 7400 model and supports asynchronous communication.

My vendors claims that we cannot use the integrated serial ports of the server as they have limited functionality. To rule out this confusion, we referred to many of IBM documentation which clearly states these ports supports asynchrounous communication for serial device (like modem) if HMC (IBM hardware management console) is not used. We are not using HMC at all so i am in view that there should be no problem communicationg a serial device with asynchronous protocol. Since our HSM device is serial device and does supports asynchronous protocol, am in view that the integrated serial port should serve our purpose.

In contrary to above, my vendor is insisting to buy a separate add on card from IBM which can expand to multiple serial ports. They think adding this card would definitely solved the problem. It is to be noted each unit of these add on card cost not less than $1200.

Have any one in this board come across similar situation? Appreciate if some one can share their experience and advice us possible solutions to the problem at the earliest. Thanking you in advance.

Regards,
Basanta from Nepal

[duke900ssd]

I do not know the device you wish to connect but I do know that the 520 ports are not either RS232 or 422 compatible.

They are dedicated AIX console ports and if you wish to connect a RS device, or UPS for example, then you will require a RS232 - 422 PCI adapter.

[cdelgadop]

Hi

You're right. Those internal Serial ports can be used to connect that HSM device of yours, only if your servers are not connected to a HMC. Old pSeries p6xx servers used serial port to connect to HMC, imagine the mess when connecting multiple servers. You have to use those multiport adapters and create a network based on serial connections. Then IBM started to use ethernet to connect to the HMC (those HMC1/HMC2 ethernet ports in the rear of your servers) but still used internal serial ports to create some kind of virtualization of those serial devices.

Now if your p520 servers are not going to be configured to connect to a HMC, you can use serial internal ports. If not, please buy a PCI serial adapter.

Hope this helps

[Basanta Dhakhwa]

Hi cdelgadop,

Thanks for confirming that IBM 520 internal serial ports can be used to connect HSM. However i still didnot have any luck in successfully connecting HSM so far and am still struggling.

Well we are not using HMC at all and our setup is quite simple and straigth forward. However our IBM guys said we may not use those ports for connecting HSM. They are saying such connection was possible in IBM 520 P5 only and is not possible in P6 series. Ours is P6. I still dont believe on what IBM saying. Can i have your views on this please?

Just for your info, our HSM configuration is as follows for your perusal.

Message header length: 09
Protocol: Asynchronous
Character format: ASCII
Terminating Sequence: 03 00
Interface: DCE
Response delay (ms): 00
Baud: 9600
Word format: 8 bits, even parity, 1 stop

Appreciate if you can share any more information in solving the problem.

One more thing, is there any utility in AIX 5.3 to check whether the ports are functioning or not.

Regards,
Basant Dhakhwa
Nepal

[cdelgadop]

Hi

Well. If IBM guys say so ....

You can test serial ports connectivity by using a null modem cable joining both adapters and then from one shell session you can run the following procedure:

Help -

Hope this helps.

[duke900ssd]

No chance, and it would not work on a power 5 system either, your IBM guys are wrong here, it would only have worked on power 4 and older systems.

Power 4 systems were the last to have RS232 ports by default.

The power 5 and power 6 ports can be used for console access and some limited remote console operations only.

No other "serial" devices are supported on the onboard ports because they are not serial ports any more, they are dedicated console ports that do not support the rs232 protocol.

You will need to buy a pci RS232 adapter if you want to connect any serial device other than a console or remote console via modem to a power 5 or power 6 system.
No question here at all.

You can run diags to check out the hardware is working and you can also connect a terminal to check they are working but you will not get any other serial device to work on these ports because they are NOT RS232 SERIAL PORTS.

They are exclusivly under the control of the system firmware, they are configured for speed, etc. in the service processor menus (ASMI), not in AIX like real serial ports. AIX is not in control here, the firmware is and it does not support anything but consoles.

How many ways can I say what I posted 3 days ago!

[cdelgadop]

Hehe

Well. Buy a new PCI serial adapter. No way Jose.

[pedz]

There is one pSeries machine with a "real" serial port on it. I can't recall what it is.

The serial ports you see on the outside are connected to the FSP. There is then a communication path from the FSP via PHYP up to AIX. This is ONLY for non-managed systems (no HMC). For managed systems, this path disappears.

Originally, the ports could not do anything but xon/xoff flow control. As far as I know, that has not changed. I don't think there is even a way to turn off flow control but I'm not 100% sure of that. And, other hardware characteristics like baudrate, bits per character, and parity are not controllable by AIX. But I believe you can set all of them via the firmware ASMI menus. Again, I'm fairly sure about that but not 100% positive. (To recap, I am sure that AIX can not set the hardware characteristics. I am not sure what options the ASMI menus provide.)

Having said all that, I would try it out. See if you can sweet talk it into working for you. Perhaps a consultant could help out. IBM will not "support" your configuration but perhaps in this case, the cost / benefit of that limitation is ok.

The cheapest alternative is the two port PCI adapter.

I don't know of any third party serial devices other than ethernet attached devices and you probably don't want to go that way.