Moxa Nport DE311 Serial Device Server: advice needed

[galday]

Hi all, i read from some people here successfully connecting a serial device over Ethernet using an adapter serial-Ethernet.

One of our customers converted a physical fax server using a serial modem device to a VI3 virtual machine.

Connected virtual machine serial port directly to ESX host serial port. But the only way we had to make it work was to set modem transfer speed as low as 2400 baud.

By the way, we opened an SR (SR Number: 190144091) with support and they recommended us using an adapter.

So we are trying now a Moxa Nport DE311 1port Serial Device Server, and although customer is able to access serial port from a physical machine, when they try to configure it on a virtual machine no modem is found at all.

Under the physical machine "New hardware wizard" automatically starts upon connection, but VM can't find anything connected to that virtual COM port.

Please, does anyone know if there's a particular configuration for a VM?

Thanks in advance.

Regards.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

Is this the adapter VMware Support recommended? Did the vendor self certify the device? Does Linux even recognize it normally?

Best regards,

Edward

[galday]

Hi Texiwill, VMware support didn't suggest an specific device.

This kind of serial-ethernet adapter is OS-independent as it's just connected to ethernet, not to a physical box nor ESX server.

Then you just have to install a software on the (physical or virtual) server you want the serial device available. The software maps a virtual COM port to the adapter IP address.

Regards.

[Texiwill]

Hello,

If it is IP based and the Moxa is a separate device from the ESX server then the driver for the VM OS should be all you need. If it does not work, then you will want to check the VLAN it is on and whether the VM is on the same VLAN, if you are working with VLANs. If not then then vSwitch needs to be able to see the Moxa device.

I do not use the device but it sounds like it should work just fine as long as the vmkernel does not need to know anything about it.

Best regards,

Edward