Tag Archives: cisco products

Ubuntu – Managing Cisco Devices via Serial / Rollover Cable

Posted on by

KB ID 0000400 

Problem

A while back I ran though “Managing Cisco ASA devices via the ASDM with Ubuntu“, I prefer to work at command line, with a new firewall my only choice is via the console port, In a windows environment I can fire up Hyperterminal and I’m away. With Linux there a couple of things to do first.

Solution

Step 1 (Get the Serial / RS232 / COM Port working)

As pictured above, this is being done on my Acer Netbook so I don’t have a serial port. I need to use a USB to Serial converter, If your machine has a serial port then simply skip this section.

1. Plug in your serial converter and wait a few seconds, open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal) and issue the following command,

[box]dmesg[/box]

2. Amazingly it looks like been installed with the correct driver, without any effort by me at all! Lets make sure, unplug the USB to serial converter then issue the following command,

[box]lusb[/box]

Then plug the device back in and run the same command, notice the serial port has popped onto the list.

Note: If you not as lucky as me follow the excellent advice here to install the drivers you need.

Step 2 Install and Configure Minicom

1. Open a terminal window and issue the following command,

[box]sudo apt-get install minicom[/box]

Tap in your password, then enter “Y” for yes when prompted.

4. We need to know the connection name for the USB to Serial converter, issue the following command (See mines called ttyUSB0).

[box]dmesg | grep tty[/box]

5. Now lets fire up Minicom with the following command,

[box]sudo minicom[/box]

Tap in your password again, then as requested press CTRL+A, then Z.

6. To configure the serial settings press O (that’s O for Oscar not zero).

7. Select “Serial Port Setup”.

8. Press A to set the device.

9. As we discovered (above) ours is called ttyUSB0, so change the device to /dev/ttyUSB0.

10. Press C to change the connection speed to 9600 baud, Press Q (to set 8 bits, no stop bit, and 1 parity bit. On mine this was set by default), press {enter} to exit.

11. Press F to turn off hardware flow control (Some posts will say leave it on, I generally turn if off and I’ve never seen anything break!). Press G to disable software flow control (if enabled).

12. Then Select “Save setup as..”, and give is a sensible name. (If you went back too far simply press O again to get back here).

13. Now the settings are saved you can launch them at anytime with,

[box]sudo minicom {filename}[/box]

Note: Sometimes your serial drive gets locked up but a reboot will solve the problem.

14. Here’s me connected to an ancient old catalyst switch.

15. And the baby PIX on my test network.

Note: If your keystrokes are not getting sent: From the main menu (CTRL+A then Z) Press E to turn on local echo.

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Cisco Symbols (3D) Visio Stencils

Posted on by

KB ID 0001041 

Problem

I have to do a LOT of network drawings in Visio, and the standard Cisco Visio templates look a bit dated now. So how about some that look a little bit more professional? I used to use the Cisco Packet Icons library, but that meant cutting them out of Powerpoint all the time.

Solution

These are all part of the Cisco Validated Design Library, I don’t know why I never found them before.

Cisco Validated Design Set

Download in Cisco Powerpoint Icon Library

Download in Cisco Icons in Visio Stencil Format

Download in Cisco Icons in PNG Format

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

NA

Cisco ASDM – Accessing with Ubuntu

Posted on by

KB ID 0000396 Dtd 11/02/11

Problem

Even though I prefer to use command line, there are times I need to manage Cisco firewalls from the ASDM. To do this from my Netbook running Ubuntu 10.10 it was not as straight forward as I was used to.

Solution

In my scenario I’m using Ubuntu 10.10 Desktop Edition, Chrome as my browser, and the ASDM is running version 6.3(1).

1. Before we start I’m assuming you know what the ASDM is and how to connect to to it and configure it for access. Also you will need Java Installed.

2. Connect to the web console of the firewall using its configured IP Address, Chrome by default will download the Java file (which I’ve written about before). Normally this is annoying, but here it’s a good thing, by default it will drop the file in your home folder in the downloads directory, for simplicity I moved it to the root of my home folder. Then open a terminal window (Applications > Accessories > Terminal), and execute the following command.

[box]javaws asdm.jnlp[/box]

3. After a little while, you will be prompted to accept the certificate (The self signed certificate on the server will not be trusted that’s OK).

4. After entering your password (User name will be blank, unless you have enabled AAA). the ASDM will open.

5. Thankfully, you only need to do this the first time you connect, the next time you try it will open the ASDM password prompt and run correctly.

 

Related Articles, References, Credits, or External Links

Cisco Serial – Accessing with Ubuntu