How to configure VMs with Serial Ports to be vMotion compatible?

[GordonPM]

We have two VMs which test for a physical environment:

VM #1: Windows server with the analyzer controller software

VM #2: Windows server with emulator for a physical analyzer.

In the physical environment the software and analyzer are connected via serial ports, thus in order to test, these two VMs need to be connected via serial connections.

I can get this to work fine by adding a serial port to each VM as follows:

VM#1

Serial Port 1: Use Named Pipe  Connected

Status:          Connect At Power On

Pipe:             /dev/ttys2

Ner End:       Client

Far End:       A Virtual Machine

I/O mode:     Yield CPU on Poll

VM#2

Serial Port 1: Use Named Pipe  Connected

Status:          Connect At Power On

Pipe:             /dev/ttys2

Ner End:       Server

Far End:       A Virtual Machine

I/O mode:     Yield CPU on Poll

Minor issue: Both VMs have to be on the same ESX host in order for this to work

My major issue and question is:

Currently in order to Vmotion these VMs, they have to be turned off thus requiring downtime of the test system. Is there any way to set up serial ports between two VMs so that they are vMotion enabled? At present, because these VMs will not vMotion unless powered off this means that host patching of our environment can be delayed by weeks while a test period is in progress (this is a medical environment).

Is there a way to configure this without something like a virtual serial port concentrator?

[Alex_Romeo]

Hi,

Are you looking for something like this (pag. 143 in the attached)

Using Serial Ports with vSphere Virtual Machines

Connect over the network Enables a serial connection to and from a virtual machine's serial port over the network. The Virtual Serial Port Concentrator (vSPC) aggregates traffic from multiple serial ports onto one management console. vSPC behavior is similar to physical serial port concentrators. Using a vSPC also allows network connections to a virtual machine's serial ports to migrate seamlessly when you use vMotion to migrate the virtual machine. For requirements and steps to configure the Avocent ACS v6000 virtual serial port concentrator, see http://kb.vmware.com/kb/1022303.

[GordonPM]

Yes, I've seen that thanks.

I was hoping for small scale another option would be feasible, but it is beginning to look like a vSPC is the only solution.

[Alex_Romeo · Accepted solution]

Hi GordonPM,

it's the only solution that lets you have a standard vMotion.

ARomeo

[rebaudin]

Honestly I try to find the Avocent ACS v6000 Virtual Serial Port Concentrator download appliance or even some information, I don't find any...

VMware Knowledge Base => [kb: 1022303] included link about AVOCENT is dead and redirect to VERTIV. What is funny is that the KB Last Updated is 9/24/2020.

So when on https://www.vertiv.com/​ (which is Avocent) and search for ACS v6000 there is no result ! Then as, every one, I looked up on google and didn't find any information about Avocent ACS v6000 Virtual Serial Port Concentrator.

Thus my question is: Which alternative do we have for Avocent ACS v6000 ? If no alternative, how can we get access to Avocent ?

Regis Baudin