TRUEPORT FOR AIX 4.2 and AIX 4.3 VERSION 4.1.0 29/09/2000 ========================================================= WHATS NEW ========= This software has identical function to version 4.0.0, but features the ability to start a second trueport daemon, allowing upto 1024 serial device connections. INTRODUCTION ============ Software version 4.1.0. TruePort is a virtual serial port device driver for the Specialix X-Stream range of terminal servers and the Chase IOLAN. Please read the following notes before attempting to install or use this product. This product supports the TruePort LITE mode ONLY on Chase IOLAN and TruePort FULL mode on Specialix JET/LANSTREAM Terminal Servers. LITE mode (IOLAN mode) provides a Fixed TTY interface to AIX based software - HOWEVER - you must pre-configure the Terminal Server for the required serial parameters - baud rate, parity, flow control etc. IMPORTANT NOTE - Please note configuration of IOLAN is different to the Chase IOLAND software - please read the section on IOLAN configuration carefully. FEATURES ======== TruePort creates standard AIX TTY's in the /dev directory. Each TTY is connected to a unique Terminal server and TCP/IP port number on that terminal server via a special control device created during installation. This terminal server/port number combination is used to uniquely identify the port and the connection to the AIX computer. A keep-alive feature improves robustness; TruePort will always attempt to keep the application interface available. If the network connection fails, TruePort will reconnect when the network is available. This feature allows terminal server power cycles without a server reboot. INSTALLATION AND CONFIGURATION ============================== There are 3 major steps required to configure this product; Terminal server and device driver installation (on the host computer) enable logins if required. 1) IOLAN Terminal Server Configuration ______________________________________ NOTE - Configuration method has changed from version 3.0.0. This product uses the "Remote" access mode on the IOLAN serial ports. Please note - this is different to the configuration for IOLAND. Please consult your Chase IOLAN product documentation for terminal server configuration details. Each IOLAN port is configured to use a remote TCP port in the range 10001- 10016, the Access parameters in the IOLAN PORT SETUP MENU would be configured as follows: Access [Remote] Authentication [None] Mode [Raw ] Connection [ ] Host [ ] Remote Port [0 ] Local Port [10001] (10001 for the first port 10002 for second and so on ...) TruePort software uses the "Remote" Access mode on the IOLAN, in this mode the line is configured to listen on the network for a specified TCP/IP host port number. This is how the TruePort system matches the network connection to the TTY name. 2) Device driver Installation _____________________________ Copy the supplied installable files onto the filesystem of the host computer, we recommend /tmp. Before installation, make sure that you are logged in as the root user. Copy the TruePort package file to a blank floppy disk using the command : # dd if=/tmp/tpaix410.img of=/dev/fd0 bs=64k Install the software with the command: # installp -acX all The files will be installed and the device drivers will be loaded. You do not need to reboot. TruePort administrative files and utilities are installed in the /etc/trueport directory. TruePort is configured using the smit configuration utility, type: # smit tp The following menu is displayed: List All TruePort and Printer Devices Manage Terminal Server Manage TTY Devices Manage Printer Devices Delete All TruePort Devices All TTY devices are added in blocks (one terminal server at a time) using the "Manage Terminal Server" -> "Add Terminal Server option". You are required to supply the name or IP address of the terminal server to add and the number of ports required. All other entries should be left as default. A block of TTYs corresponding to the number of ports selected will be created and enabled for login. 3) Adding Logins _________________ Logins are automatically enabled when you add a terminal server. You may enable/disable login an individual TTY ports using the "Manage TTY Devices option", and selecting the required TTY from the list generated in the "Change / Show Characteristics of a TTY menu". Using the "List all TruePort TTY and Printer devices" option you can list all of the TTY's created and their control devices. Some AIX device system administration experience is highly desirable before attempting to add, remove or change individual devices. FURTHER CONSIDERATIONS ====================== TTY Name ======== The AIX serial TTY administration system is built into AIX, the user has no control over the tty names generated. All the ports will be numbered from the next available device number. In general if there are no other defined serial ports in the system, the TTY's will be created starting from tty0. A list of available TTY's can be generated in the smit tty menu. Single/Dual Process(s) ====================== While this version of TruePort supports upto 1024 TruePort ports between 2 daemons, the initial installation will only handle 512 ports with 1 daemon. To enable the second daemon (and second set of 512 ports), the following command should be entered # mkitab -i tpd "tpd2:2:respawn:/etc/trueport/tpd -2nd -config /etc/trueport/config.tp" Note: This line has been wrapped and the command must be entered as one line. Trueport AIX version 4.1.0 runs the network connection for upto 512 TruePort ports in a single process. If more than a total of 512 TruePort ports are required, a second process must be started. The TruePort daemon(s) can therefore become very large when the maximum number of ports is configured. Consider increasing the system swap space partition if you don't have enough physical memory to keep the process memory resident. Port Restarter ============== The script /etc/trueport/restartport can be used to restart hung ports. Usage: ./restartport tty# This is needed because all ports are handled by one process, it signals the daemon to stop and start just this one port. Port Status =========== The file /etc/trueport/tpd.log contains status messages from the daemon. You can get the TruePort daemon to re-read its configuration file by sending it a SIGHUP. # cd /etc/trueport # kill -HUP `cat tpd.pid` This will cause the latest status of each port to be listed at the end of the file. Any error messages will be listed in tpd.log. Note: If using 2 daemons and more than 512 Trueport ports, the files for the second set of ports will be 'tpd.2nd.pid' and 'tpd.2nd.log'