IBM 88553RX, Installation Manual

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78
IBM
Eserver
xSeries 455 Planning and Installation Guide
3.2.4 Serial connectivity
The x455 has an integrated serial port, as shown in Figure 3-4 on page 66. This
port has two purposes:
During the boot process (before the OS loader starts), the Extensible
Firmware Interface (EFI) has control of the port and uses it as an auxiliary
console where POST messages are transmitted, many even before the
server’s video port is enabled. This is especially useful in performing problem
determination on the system.
Once the operating system loads, it is made available to the operating system
as a standard (and dedicated) COM port.
To use the serial port, for use as an auxiliary console, you will need the following:
A null modem cable
A system running a terminal emulation program, such as HyperTerminal in
Windows or minicom in Linux
First, connect the RS-232 cable between the two systems. The cable should be
connected to the serial port of the server, not the serial port of the Remote
Supervisor Adapter.
Once the cable is connected, start HyperTerminal or your emulation program.
HyperTerminal should be set to the following settings:
Speed: 115200 bps
Data bits: 8
Parity: None
Stop Bits: 1
Flow Control: None
For HyperTerminal, you can leave emulation set to auto detect. If you are using
another program that does not have auto detect, you may need to set emulation
to ANSIW.
Once your session is configured, click Connect and, assuming there is no
operating system currently running, you should see POST messages or the EFI
Boot Manager menu.
Tip: If you are running Linux, you can redirect the console messages to the
serial port. For more information about this feature refer to “Using the serial
port for the Linux console” on page 171.