Upgrading an MRV LX Terminal Server

Michael McNamara — Sat, 25 Jun 2011 11:00:10 +0000

I recently had a few issues with one of our MRV LX-4016T terminal servers and decided to upgrade the software. Unfortunately we don’t have a maintenance contract with MRV so I had to upload the (newer) software from a newly purchased LX-4008T to our TFTP server. I was then able to use that software to upgrade the LX-4016T which appears to have resolved the stability issues when connected to a pair of Citrix NetScalers.

The default username is InReach (case sensitive) with a password of access. The default enable password is system.

InReach:0 >enable
Password: ********

InReach:0 >>update ppciboot 10.1.24.50
Attempting tftp download of file 'ppciboot.img' from address '10.1.24.50'

..............
Tftp download complete, verifying file integrity
File ok, copying image to flash
..............
Finished successfully

After upgrading the boot code I upgraded the software image;

InReach:0 >>update software 10.1.24.50
Attempting tftp download of file 'linuxito.img' from address '10.1.24.50'

................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
.............................
Tftp download complete, verifying file integrity
....File ok, copying image to flash
................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
................................................................
....
Finished successfully

With the software upgrade complete we now need to reload the terminal server so the new software and load.

InReach:0 >>reload
Do you really want to proceed? y/n y
Restarting System!...
Please wait for system to restart...

That’s really all there was to it… pretty easy once you upload the software to a TFTP server.

Cheers!

MRV LX-4108T Terminal Server – Out of band Networking

Michael McNamara — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 04:00:28 +0000

In the old days most organizations didn’t think of building out-of-band management networks. When needed it was easy enough to hang a modem with an analog phone line off the console port of a router or switch and call it a day. In today’s world with 99.999% uptime requirements an out-of-band network is now longer a wish it’s a real day necessity for any network engineer/manager.

The LX Series software delivers the most secure and richest set of features including point and click access to any port, per port password protection, SSH v2.0, SNMP V3, IP V6, RADIUS, SecurID, LDAP, TACACS+, PPP PAP/ CHAP, PPP dial-back, user access lists, and on-board user database capabilities.

The MRV ships with a default IP address of 192.168.100.1 along with a default username of “InReach” and a default password of “access”. The diag (console) port on the MRV defaults to 9600/8/1/None. The “Getting Started Guide” includes all the information you’d need to perform the initial configuration.

I will say that we started using the MRV LX 4100T series terminal servers almost a year ago now and we’ve been very happy with them. They’ve saved the day on numerous occasions and are one of the best solutions out there.

Cheers!

References;
http://www.mrv.com/datasheets/IR/PDF300/MRV-IR-4108T_HI.pdf
http://service.mrv.com/downloads/4510363b.pdf (Getting Started Guide)