Calian SatService sat-nms VLC User manual

sat-nms VLC
VSAT Local Controller
Installation Manual
Version 1.1 / 2004-10-28
© Copyright
SatService Gesellschaft für Kommunikatiosnsysteme mbH
Hardstrasse 9
D-78256 Steisslingen
www.satnms.com
www.satservicegmbh.de
Tel [phone]
Fax [phone]

Table Of Contents
1Table Of Contents .................................................................................................................................
4Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................
4Before you start ....................................................................................................................................
6VLC basic configuration .......................................................................................................................
7Network configuration .......................................................................................................................
9How to connect to the VLC ................................................................................................................
11The file '/etc/rc.vlc' ..........................................................................................................................
13The file '/etc/satnms.rc' .................................................................................................................
16Adding serial interfaces ...................................................................................................................
174 / 8 Port Cards .............................................................................................................................
17Moxa Intellio Cards ......................................................................................................................
18Digi Etherlite Terminal Server ......................................................................................................
18Port Naming .................................................................................................................................
18VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 1 .............................................................................................
18VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 2 .............................................................................................
19VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 3 .............................................................................................
19VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 4 .............................................................................................
19VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 5 .............................................................................................
19VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 6 .............................................................................................
20VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 7 .............................................................................................
20VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 8 .............................................................................................
20VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 9 .............................................................................................
20VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 10 ............................................................................................
20VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 11 ............................................................................................
21VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 12 ............................................................................................
21VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 13 ............................................................................................
21VLC Serial IO Card Configuration 14 ............................................................................................
21Serial IO Hardware Setting (4-PORT / 1) ......................................................................................
23Serial IO Hardware Setting (4-PORT / 2) ......................................................................................
24Serial IO Hardware Setting (4-PORT / 3) ......................................................................................
25Serial IO Hardware Setting (8-PORT / 1) ......................................................................................
26Serial IO Hardware Setting (8-PORT / 2) ......................................................................................
27Serial IO Hardware Setting (8-PORT / 3) ......................................................................................
27Serial IO Hardware Setting (ROCKET / 1) ....................................................................................
28Serial IO Hardware Setting (ROCKET / 2) ....................................................................................
28Serial IO Hardware Setting (ROCKET / 3) ....................................................................................
28Serial IO Hardware Setting (INTELLIO) ......................................................................................
29The setup program ...........................................................................................................................
29Configuring the VLC for the equipment setup .......................................................................................
31Operating the VLC ..............................................................................................................................
31Appendix ............................................................................................................................................
32Device driver / protocol reference list ...............................................................................................
34Device setup configuration file format ..............................................................................................
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36A short introduction to 'vi' .................................................................................................................
37Common commands ......................................................................................................................
38'vi' in the MS Windows telnet client ...............................................................................................
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Introduction
The VLC installation manual describes the steps of the basic configuration for a new VLC which shall be
prepared for it's first use. These steps apply to VLCs which are going to be upgraded or re-used as well.
The chapter 'Before you start' gives some advice which information to collect before you start to configure a
VLC.
The chapter 'VLC basic configuration' describes the steps to prepare a VLC coming 'out of the box' for it's
on-site usage. This covers the VLC network setup including topics like the VLC - NMS communication
management and IP addresses as well as a detailed guide how to extend a VLC with additional serial
interfaces.
This manual coverts also the new version of the VLC which SatService delivers since March 2003 with
serial numbers greater or equal 1020. Changes in the documentation for the new VLC's are marked with the
label.
The Chapter 'setup program' describes the new setup program for the VLC configuration.
Chapter 'Configuring the VLC for the equipment setup' adds a short discription how to tell the VLC which
type of equipment shall be controlled at which interface port without using the NMS.
Finally, the 'Appendix' provides some reference information, amongst other things a complete list of device
drivers comping with the VLC.
Version 1.1 / 2004-10-28
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Before you start
To configure a VLC, there are some information about this VLC you need to collect. First of all you have to
assign an ID to the VLC. Each VLC managed by the NMS has it's unique ID. VLC IDs are number s in the
range 1 ... 1600. The NMS names the VLCs 'VLC0001' ... 'VLC1600' according to these numbers. There is
no need to number the VLSs in a close sequence. However, IP routing might be simpler to configure if you
limit the VLC IDs to 16 or 32 for a small network.
The next important question to check is how many serial interfaces does the VLC need to control the
devices attached to it. You probably will have clarified this before you purchased the VLC. But if you are
going to upgrade or reconfigure a VLC which was already in use, you have to figure out now which serial
interface boards have to be built into the VLC. Chapter 'Adding serial interfaces ' gives you an overview,
which kinds of serial boards the VLC may be configured for.
As a last point, you have to decide in which way the VLC shall communicate with the NMS. Does the VLC
use a dial-up link via modem or ISDN terminal adapter? Or does the VLC connect directly via Ethernet to
the NMS? Are there special requirements regarding the IP routing to the VLC? Chapter 'Network
configuration' demonstrates the some configuration variants.
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VLC basic configuration
To prepare a VLC before it is used the first time (or if it shall be re-configured), the following parameters
must be set at the VLC:
You can use the setup program for new VLC's to configure these settings.
VLC number/ID: Within the NMS, each VLC must have a unique ID assigned to it. The NMS software
accesses the VLC through this identifier. The VLC ID is a number in the range 1 .. 1600. The factory
default for the VLC ID is 1.
Parameter:
VLC_ID=[1..1600]
SATNMS_HOSTNAME="vlc[0001..1600]"
Working mode Set this option to 'vlc'.
Parameter:
SATNMS_TYPE=vlc
Serial interface setup: VLCs can be used with different serial interface boards built in. The VLC software
directly supports a number of boards in several combinations. The serial interface setup parameter selects a
combination of I/O boards from a given set. The factory default for this parameter selects 2 passive 4-port
serial boards. Chapter 'Adding serial interfaces ' gives a complete reference which combinations of serial
interface boards are supported, how the boards must be prepared and which settings are to be made in the
main configuration file. For other supported interface boards and the appropriate configuration parameters
refer also to Chapter 'Adding serial interfaces '.
Parameter:
SERIAL=[0..14]
SATNMS_SERIAL=[0..14]
Modem parameters: The VLC will connect to the NMS via a modem or ISDN terminal adapter in most
cases. The factory defaults initialize a modem at the first serial port using 34800 bps. You may want to
change the modem parameters for a ISDN terminal adapter or disable the modem completely if the VLC is
connected to the NMS via Ethernet.
Parameters:
USES_MODEM=[yes|no]
SATNMS_MODEM_USE=[yes|no]
Ethernet parameters: The parameters of the VLC's Ethernet port have to be set in order to integrate the
VLC into the network it is part of. Chapter 'Network configuration examples ' explains some common
network setups for a VLC.
UPS setup: The VLC is prepared to connect to a battery power supply through a special cable connected to
the second serial port. This cable uses the handshake lines to tell the VLC when to give a power fail alert
and when to shut down because the battery is going low. UPS support is disabled by default.
Parameters:
USES_UPS=[yes|no]
SATNMS_UPS_USE=[yes|no]
These basic configuration parameters are set by editing one configuration file at the VLC. This means, you
have to login to the Linux operating system running at the VLC and changes the configuration file. Chapter
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'How to connect to the VLC' explains, which options the VLC provides to do this task. Chapter The file
'/etc/rc.vlc' provides a reference of all parameters which can be set in this configuration file.
Chapter 'setup program' describes the use of the setup program for new VLC's and Chapter 'The file
'/etc/satnms.rc'' provides a reference to all parameters.
Network configuration
For the VLC network configuration, there are five common scenarios how to use the Ethernet port of the
VLC. The paragraphs below describe necessary configuration settings for these frequently used
configurations.
1. The VLC does not use the Ethernet at all
It is recommended not to switch off the Ethernet functionality at the VLC. Leave the network settings at
their factory defaults, this enables the Ethernet interface and assigns the IP address 192.168.2.222 to it.
You will be able to connect to the VLC for maintenance tasks at a later point, usually there is no reason to
disable this facility.
parameters:
USES_ETHERNET=[yes|no]
The new System does not provide an option to disable the ethernet interface. If you really want to do
this you have to edit the configuration files of the operating system directly.
2. The VLC connects via modem/ISDN-TA to NMS, Ethernet is used for occasional configuration or
maintenance jobs
You have to decide in this case if you will leave the default IP address for the VLC or if you have to
integrate it in a LAN with a given address space. Depending on this you will have to configure the VLC's IP
settings.
The IP address of the VLC's Ethernet interface is not the address the NMS uses to access the VLC. While s
PPP session between NMS and VLC is running, the NMS accesses the VLC at an address computed from
the VLC ID. The Ethernet IP address may be freely chosen, however the subnet routed to the Ethernet
interface and the subnet routed to the NMS must not overlap. The IP routing happening between VLC and
NMS is described more detailed with the next scenario.
Ethernet interface parameters:
ETHER_ADDR
ETHER_SNET
ETHER_MASK
SATNMS_IP_ADDRESS
SATNMS_IP_NETMASK
Modem parameters:
USES_MODEM=[yes|no]
MODEM_INIT="[InitString]"
MODEM_BAUD=[Baudrate]
SATNMS_MODEM_USE=[yes|no]
SATNMS_MODEM_INIT="[InitString]"
SATNMS_MODEM_BAUD=[BaudRate]
3. The VLC connects via modem/ISDN-TA to NMS. To the VLC Ethernet some devices are connected
you want to access from the NMS
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NMS and VLC are able to act as IP routers and to provide an on demand IP link between the LAN the
NMS is connected to and the Ethernet trunk behind the VLC.
For this reason, the NMS uses a unique IP address space for each VLC during an online PPP session to it.
VLCs are assigned to IP addresses in steps of 16, starting at 192.168.100.1. VLC0001 is at
192.168.100.1, VLC0002 at 192.168.100.17 and so on. Moreover, the NMS routes a subnet
masked 255.255.255.224 to each VLC. The subnet 192.168.100.0/28 is routed to VLC0001,
192.168.100.16/28 is routed to VLC0002 and so on.
The VLC may be configured to use same address valid for the PPP interface for the Ethernet interface, too.
With this configuration, the VLC routes addresses for the 255.255.255.224 subnet assigned to it to it's
Ethernet interface.
To activate this configuration, assign empty strings to the 'ETHER_ADDR', 'ETHER_SNET' and
'ETHER_MASK' ( 'SATNMS_IP_ADDRESS', 'SATNMS_IP_NETMASK') parameters in the 'rc.vlc' file.
Devices or hosts which shall be accessible from the NMS must configured to an IP address within the
subnet the VLC is assigned to. The remote devices / hosts must have the VLC's IP address set as the
gateway for the NMS' address space.
The diagram above shows an example for this configuration. The CLIENT computer at the NMS site can
access the DEVICE at the VLC's site at it's address 192.168.100.20. The gateway settings of the
communication partners ensure, that the packets are routed through the NMS -- VLC link.
4. The VLC connects via Ethernet to NMS. The modem line is not used
This scenario described here is quite simple: The VLC gets one IP address assigned to, this address must be
in the NMS LAN subnet. The VLC does not need a modem to be connected at ttyS0. You absolutely
should set the 'USES_MODEM' ( 'SATNMS_MODEM_USE') parameter to 'no' in this case or else the
VLC will permanently try to initialize a modem which is not present. The VLC might run into trouble due to
such a misconfiguration.
Yet another advantage of this configuration is the fact, that the ttyS0 interface now becomes available for
M&C function of the VLC.
If your NMS Server is not in the same Subnet as the VLC but you have a connection via a WAN you
can also configure a default route of the VLC. Additionally you can configure the Adress of a DNS Name
Server.
parameters:
SATNMS_IP_GATEWAY
SATNMS_IP_DNSSERVER
Statics route maybe configured in the file /etc/network/interfaces in the section of the ethernet
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interface eth0 directly (not in the satnms configuration file).
auto eth0
iface eth0 inet static
address 192.168.2.222
netmask 255.255.255.0
gateway 192.168.2.254
up route add -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0 gw 192.168.2.253
down route del -net 192.168.1.0 netmask 255.255.255.0
The last two lines sets a static route to the 192.168.1.0 network if the interface goes up and removes this
route if the interface goes down.
5. The VLC connects via Ethernet to NMS. The modem line is used as backup
The last scenario described here corresponds to the previous one, but the Modem or ISDN-TA is connected
but only used in the case that the VLC is not reacheable via the Ethernet interface. Just configure the VLC
for Ethernet and Modem use. Then configure the NMS with both Addresse (Ethernet-IP and PPP-IP) and
the NMS Server tries first to connect via Ethernet and then via the Dialup link.
How to connect to the VLC
To access the VLC's Linux operating system, there are basically three methods:
1. Connect a CRT monitor and a keyboard
This is the preferred method, because you can not only access the running Linux operating system but also
the BIOS configuration screen and some MS-DOS based configuration programs as well. It is recommended
to use a CRT monitor rather than a LCD panel as some LCD panels have been reported to refuse syncing
to the VLC's screen resolution. With the new VLC such problems with LCD panels are not known.
2. Connect a terminal to the ttyS1 serial interface
The VLC accepts a VT100 type terminal (or a PC running a terminal emulation program) at the serial
interface 'ttyS1' (see the diagram at the end of this chapter). You need a special cable for this case, wired as
shown in the diagram below.
The cable, with 9-pin sub-D socket connectors at both sides, connects the pins 2, 3 and 5 with pin 2 and 3
crossed. All other pins are not connected. This is important to avoid any interference with the battery power
supply function which uses the other lines of this interface.
The terminal / PC must be set to 9600 baud, 8 data bits, no parity. Hardware flow control must be switched
off. When typing at the terminal, you should get a login prompt.
3. Connect the VLC to the LAN and use telnet to login
The VLC accepts telnet logins at the network interface. If you know the actual setup configuration of the
VLC's Ethernet interface (specially it's IP address), you may con figure a computer to see the VLC in it's
address space and connect this computer via Ethernet to the VLC. Telnet is not prefered for the new VLC's.
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