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ser2net(8) System Manager's Manual ser2net(8)

NAME

ser2net - Serial to network proxy

SYNOPSIS

ser2net [-c configfile] [-C sysconfdir] [-Y configline] [-p controlport] [-n] [-d] [-b] [-v] [-P pidfile]

DESCRIPTION

The ser2net daemon allows telnet and tcp sessions to be established with a unit's serial ports or with an IPMI Serial Over LAN (SOL) interface.

The program comes up normally as a daemon, opens the network ports specified in the configuration file, and waits for connections. Once a connection occurs, the program attempts to set up the connection and open the serial port. If another user is already using the connection or serial port, the connection is refused with an error message.

OPTIONS

Set the configuration file to one other than the default of sysconfdir/ser2net/ser2net.yaml. If the config-file is - then standard input is read as the config file. See -C for info on sysconfdir
Set the directory where the configuration file and ssl keys are stored. This is generally /etc/ser2net on Unix-type systems, on Windows it is ../etc/ser2net from the executable's location by default.
Set the default directory where authentication information is stored. This is generally /usr/share/ser2net on Unix-type systems, on Windows it is ../share/ser2net from the executable's location by default. This can be overridden in the config file. See the ser2net.yaml.5 for info on what this does.
Set the default directory where the administrator's authentication information is stores. This is sysconfdir/auth by default. This can be overridden in the config file. See the ser2net.yaml.5 for info on what this does.
Add a yaml config string to the end of strings to be processed. This may be specified multiple times for multiple strings. These are appended onto the end of a yaml config file; though if this is specified, the default config file is disabled and you have to enable it with the -c option.

To make things easier to handle, any # in the config string that is not inside quotes (what would normally start a comment in yaml) is converted to a new line. Plus a new line is added after each separate config string. So, for instance:


-Y 'connection: &con01# accepter: tcp,2013'
-Y ' connector: serialdev,/dev/ttyEcho0,9600n81,local'
-Y ' options:# banner: "### A Banner ###\r\n"'

can be put on the ser2net command line.

Stops the daemon from forking and detaching from the controlling terminal. This is useful for running from init.
Like -n, but also sends the system logs to standard output. This is most useful for debugging purposes.
If specified, put the process id (pid) of ser2net in the pidfile, replacing whatever was in that file previously. A pidfile is not created by default, you must specify this to create one. Note also that this filename must be specific with the full path, as ser2net will change directory to "/" when it becomes a daemon.
If UUCP locking is enabled, this will disable the use of UUCP locks.
Cisco IOS uses a different mechanism for specifying the baud rates than the mechanism described in RFC2217. This option sets the IOS version of setting the baud rates. The default is RFC2217's. Note that this capability is now handled automatically and this option is ignored.
Prints the version of the program and exits.
Spawn the given number of threads for ser2net to use. The default is 1. Only valid if pthreads is enabled at build time.
Enables the admin interface on the given accepter specification. See "ADMIN CONNECTION" in ser2net.yaml(5) for more details on how to configure this, and "ADMIN INTERFACE" below for details on how to use it.
Specifies the default RFC2217 signature.

ADMIN INTERFACE

The admin interface provides a simple interface for controlling the ports and viewing their status. To accomplish this, it has the following commands:

Show information about a port. If no port is given, all ports are displayed.
Show information about a port, each port on one line. If no port is given, all ports are displayed. This can produce very wide output.
Display a short list and summary of commands.
Disconnect from the control port.
Go into yaml output mode. See YAML MODES below.
Display the version of this program.
Display all the input for a given port on the calling control port. Only one direction may be monitored at a time. The type field may be tcp or term and specifies whether to monitor data from the network port or from the serial port Note that data monitoring is best effort, if the controller port cannot keep up the data will be silently dropped. A controller may only monitor one thing and a port may only be monitored by one controller.
Stop the current monitor.
Disconnect the tcp connection on the port.
Set the amount of time in seconds before the port connection will be shut down if no activity has been seen on the port.
Set the port configuration as in the device configuration in the /etc/ser2net/ser2net.yaml file. If conflicting options are specified, the last option will be the one used. Note that these will not change until the port is disconnected and connected again. Options 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600, 115200 set the various baud rates. The following speed may be available if your system has the values defined and your hardware supports it: 230400, 460800, 500000, 576000, 921600, 1000000, 1152000, 1500000, 2000000, 2500000, 3000000, 3500000, 4000000. Parity, databits, and stopbits may be specified in the classical manner after the speed, as in 9600N81. This has the following format: <speed>[N|E|O|M|S[5|6|7|8[1|2]]]. Setting serial options this way does not work on SOL, SOL has fixed N81 serial options. EVEN, ODD, NONE (MARK and SPACE if supported) set the parity. 1STOPBIT, 2STOPBITS set the number of stop bits. 7DATABITS, 8DATABITS set the number of data bits. [-]XONXOFF turns on (- off) XON/XOFF support. [-]RTSCTS turns on (- off) hardware flow control. [-]LOCAL ignores (- checks) the modem control lines (DCD, DTR, etc.)
Modify dynamic port controls. These do not stay between connections. Controls are: DTRHI, DTRLO Turns on and off the DTR line. RTSHI, RTSLO Turns on and off the RTS line.
Sets the port operation state. Valid states are: off to shut the network port down, raw to enable the network port transfer all I/O as-is, rawlp to enable the network port input and device output without termios setting, and telnet to enable the network port is up run the telnet negotiation protocol on the port.
Causes ser2net to reload its configuration. Any error output will come out in the output, along with going to syslog.

YAML MODES

If the "yaml" command is issued, echo is turned off and all output is YAML compliant. The form is basically the same as the non-YAML output, with some minor adjustments to make it YAML compliant. In addition, all responses are in the form:


%YAML 1.1
---
response:
<response info here>
...

If there is an error, it is returned in the response with the "error" key. If the command succeeded, no "error" key will be present in the response mapping. The "..." will be at the end of all responses.

The following commands are available in yaml output mode: exit, version, showport, disconnect, setporttimeout, setportenable, setportcontrol, reload,

If "%YAML" is seen in the input, YAML input and output modes are activated, echo is disabled, and all input is expected to be in the form:


---
command:
name: <command name>
id: <optional id>
parms: [ parm1 [, parm2 [...]]]
...

The id is optional and will just be returned in the response. The parms are optional, too, unless the command requires them. Extra parms are ignored, along with unknown keys in the main mapping.

Note that you have to deal with the "->" that is issued when the connection is made, before going into YAML mode, YAML doesn't handle that well.

In YAML output mode, you will get asynchronous reports of connections and disconnections in the form:


%YAML 1.1
---
new connection:
name: !!str 'con1'
remaddr: !!str 'ipv6,::1,59072'
...


%YAML 1.1
---
disconnect:
name: !!str 'con1'
remaddr: !!str 'ipv6,::1,59072'
...

CONFIGURATION

Configuration is accomplished through the file /etc/ser2net/ser2net.yaml. A file with another name or path may be specified using the -c option.

The yaml configuration file is described in ser2net.yaml(5)

SIGNALS

If ser2net receives a SIGHUP, it will reread it configuration file and make the appropriate changes. If an in use connection is changed or deleted, the actual change will not occur until the port is disconnected, except that if you disable a connection it will kick the users off.

ser2net uses the name (the connection alias) of the connection to tell if it is new, changed or deleted. If the new configuration file has a connection with the same name, it is treated as a change.

This has some unusual interactions with connections that allow more than one simultaneous connection. It works just like the other port, but the accepter is disabled and new connections will not be accepted until all the existing connections are closed.

ERRORS

All error output after startup goes to syslog, not standard output, unless you use the -d option.

FILES

/etc/ser2net/ser2net.yaml, /etc/ser2net/ser2net.key, /etc/ser2net/ser2net.crt, /usr/share/ser2net

SEE ALSO

telnet(1), ser2net.yaml(5), hosts_access(5)

KNOWN PROBLEMS

None.

AUTHOR

Corey Minyard <minyard@acm.org>

06/02/01 Serial to network proxy