IBM 1754 LCM8 and LCM16 Local Console Managers
10
Tiered consoles
You can tier multiple rack console switches to enable access to additional servers. In a tiered system, an
ARI port on the main rack console switch connects to the Analog Console Interface (ACI) port of a tiered
rack console switch (see Figure 3 for the locations of these ports). Consider a tiered configuration if you
want to manage servers connected to multiple switches from one central location. For example, you could
have a primary LCM16 console switch with 16 switches tiered underneath it that all have servers chained
to their ports.
The LCM8 and LCM16 support two levels of tiering. The use of virtual media and smart card
authentication are both supported only when primary and secondary switches are LCM8 or LCM16
console switches.
The following figure shows an example of tiered consoles. The red connections are simply CAT-5 cables
between an ARI port on the master and the ACI port of each secondary switch.
Figure 6. Tiered consoles
If there are local users attached to other tiered consoles, each can control target systems connected to
that specific console. The local user at the primary console (Local user A in Figure 6) can preempt other
local users if necessary.
The LCM8 supports up to 128 target systems and the LCM16 supports up to 256 target systems in a
tiered configuration.
If the master switch is a Global Console Manager, GCM16 (1754D1X), or GCM32 (1754D2X), then tiering
can also be used with the additional benefit of supporting remote network-attached users.
