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CHAPTER 16: ADVANCED CONFIGURATION
16.2 ADVANCED PORTMANAGER
Black Box’s portmanager manages console server serial ports. It routes network connections to serial ports, checks permissions,
and monitors and logs all data flowing to and from ports.
16.2.1 PORTMANAGER COMMANDS
pmshell
The pmshell command behaves similarly to standard tip or cu commands, but all serial port access is directed via the portmanager.
For example, to connect to port 8 via the portmanager:
# pmshell -l port08
pmshell commands
Once connected, the pmshell command supports a subset of the ~ escape commands that tip and cu support. For SSH you must
prefix the escape with an additional ~ character. That is, over SSH use the ~~ escape sequence.
Firmware v3.5.2 and later includes the pmshell chooser escape command. You can now use ~m (or ~~m over SSH) from
connected serial port to drop back to pmshell.
For console servers running firmware v3.11.0 and later, pmshell has a set of key sequences built in to access things like the power
menu, return to the serial port selection menu and so on.
TABLE 16-2. PMSHELL KEY SEQUENCES
COMMAND
SSH
NOTES
~b
~~b
Generates a BREAK on the connected-to serial port.
~h
~~h
Generates a history on the connected-to serial port. Depends on port logging being enabled.
~p
~~p
Opens the power menu for the connected-to serial port. Said port must be configured for an RPC.
~m
~~m
Connect to the port menu. Goes back to the serial port selection menu.
~?
~~?
Shows the pmshell help message.
~
~~
Quits pmshell.
~?
~~?
Sets RTS to [x].
~signals
~~signals
Shows all signals: 3DSR=1, DTR=1, CTS=1, RTS=1, DCD=0.
~getline
~~getline
Reads a line of text from the serial port.
Extra controls (key sequences) can be added to the built in set of key sequences and can be configured per serial port. You can
have all ports behave the same or selectively add control sequences to ports. The controls can be different from port to port for the
same function.
For example, you could configure pmshell such that when you are using serial port 2, pressing Ctrl+p would take you straight to the
power menu for that port.
The pmshell control commands are configurable only via the command line.
NOTE: The pmshell help message is not updated with information about any custom control command keys that are configured.
There is a helper script which will configure a control command on a range of serial ports to eliminate the cumbersome task of
entering the configuration command for every port. You will still need to use this script once per control function (see below), but
there are only six of these.
