And this video, I'd like to chat with you about some challenges
and troubleshooting in getting access
to the console port on a Cisco device router or switch.
And the first thing I'd like to talk about
is the console cable itself.
Now this is a roll over cable.
It's not a crossover cable.
It's not a straight through cable.
It's a rollover where pin 1 goes to 8,
and all the way down, they're swapped that way.
So this is so funny.
When I buy used gear, I still get a console cable
that looks like this with a little serial DB9.
For those of you under 40, computer boards WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
For those of you under 40, computer boards
used to have serial 9 pin adapters, and way
before that 25 pin adapters.
And this would go on your computer, like com 1 or 2.
Those are the actual port identifiers.
And then on this side, you'd plug it
into the console port on your device.
And so one of the challenges is, today, most computers
do not have a 9 pin serial adapter.
So what you want to do is get an adapter that goes from a USB
into a 9 pin.
It'd be a 9 pin male.
And then that would go into this female 9 port connector, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And then that would go into this female 9 port connector,
and then into your console port.
Or, you could get rid of that and just buy
a new cable that has USB on one end and the actual RJ45
connector on the other end, and away you go.
Another challenge is that once you have the right cable,
how do you know what port you're supposed
to be using to connect?
Meaning the com port, com 1, 2, com 3, com 4?
That can be challenging, depending
on the emulation of the cable that you're using,
and the emulation software.
So let me show you from PuTTY, which is just WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So let me show you from PuTTY, which is just
an example of a terminal emulator, one
great way of testing, do you have the right port?
So a great way to find out what port your terminal
emulator thinks it is with the USB cable is, I've plugged--
oh my gosh. so many cables.
I have this little 3560 8 port switch.
It's a known good switch.
And that's what I'd recommend starting with.
So take your cable.
Plug it into the console port on this bad boy.
And then when you bring up your terminal emulator like PuTTY
or whatever terminal emulator you're using,
you can com 1, com 2, com 3, com 4 and press Enter, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
you can com 1, com 2, com 3, com 4 and press Enter,
and verify which port is actually
being used to communicate through your USB adapter
or your USB cable is going into the console port.
So that's a great time saver.
And also, the settings for most Cisco devices
is 9600 bits per second, no parody, 8 data bits, one stop
bit.
So let me show one of the settings
I have on my terminal emulator, and how we can
verify what the com port is.
So if we take a known good and verify it that way, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
So if we take a known good and verify it that way,
then if we're working with a new piece of gear,
we don't have to have to wonder, I
wonder if it's me or the gear?
We can just realize it's the new gear
we're trying to connect to.
So I have set that switch off to my right here.
And let me bring up a terminal emulator.
This is the free PuTTY.
And I've got one R1.
So I'm going to click on R1, click on--
oh no.
That's not the right one.
I want console.
Click on Load.
And this will show me the settings I have.
So in testing this, I tried com 1, com 2, com 3.
And there's the speed, 9600 bits per second. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And there's the speed, 9600 bits per second.
And I just tried it until it worked.
So by doing this on a known good device, where
the console port is active, you can then least
rule out anything regarding your local configuration for the com
port when you're working with the new device.
So I'll click on Open, and press Enter a few times.
And then we go.
This is switch 1, 8P.
If you do a show users, it's showing me
that I'm currently asterisk, as I'm connected
from the console port.
Great.
There was no authentication.
And that's why it doesn't show who the user is. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And that's why it doesn't show who the user is.
And there's no one else logged on to this via of vty line,
because they would show up here as well.
So now that we know that this cable is working
and the settings are working, I could
use this with a new device.
So while we're here in King Kong mode on this switch,
on the console, let's do the show users,
verify where we are the show with the show run.
And we'll do section line console.
So basically, this is saying that there's
no log in by default on the console.
And the exec time out is non-existent,
which isn't the best idea.
But it's OK.
And then we have privilege level 15. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And then we have privilege level 15.
So this might be appropriate for a lab, saying you're connected!
Boom!
You've got privilege level 15.
We'll do a show privilege.
And sure enough-- so if we wanted to kick this up a little
bit, let's create a King Kong user.
Username, admin.
And we'll say privilege is 15, and the secret
is going to be Cisco exclamation mark 23 with a capital C
in front there.
All right, great.
So we have a local user.
And now if we went to line console 0,
and we said login, press Enter, says you can't do that, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and we said login, press Enter, says you can't do that,
because a password isn't set.
And so we'll create a password.
Password is Cisco.
We'll make it simple.
There you go.
Simple enough.
And then we'll type in login.
Now login is required.
And so if we type in end and exit and press Enter and try
to go back, now it's going to ask us for our password,
which is s-i-m-p-l-e, and it lets us in.
If we want to change that, we'll go to a line console 0,
and we'll do a logging, and let's say login local, WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
and we'll do a logging, and let's say login local,
and press Enter, and then type exit.
This is about the diamond we're glad we created the local user
account.
So now it's asking us to login as user.
So we'll login as admin, I think it was, and that.
And, unless I did a typo--
dang it.
So let me curl up and see what user I just
created just a moment ago.
It was admin.
OK, all right.
The login is a-d-m-i-n.
And the password, capital C-i-s-c-o, exclamation mark 23. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And the password, capital C-i-s-c-o, exclamation mark 23.
All right, and we're in.
Now, if we do a show users, show users, it knows who we are.
It shows us where we're connected.
And we're in.
And if we were to use triple A, it'd
be important understand the pieces of how that works.
Now I don't have any access outside of this console port.
So we're not reaching a triple A server.
But if we made a method list, triple
A authentication or login, and let's create method 1.
WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And for method 1, let's go to use a group of TACACS servers.
And if we can't reach a group of TACACS servers,
we'll use a group of RADIUS servers.
And because we don't have any of that configured
and we have no IP addresses, they're going to fail.
And then we can go ahead and choose, in our method list,
let's use local.
And that will then, finally, after the TACACS times out
and the RADIUS times out, it'll finally
go to our local database, which is our running config.
We can apply that to the console.
Let's go ahead and apply that to the console. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Let's go ahead and apply that to the console.
Line console 0, login authentication.
And we'll go ahead and specify the method list,
which is going to be method 1.
And we're done.
Then to verify that, we could do some debugging.
We'll do a debug triple A authentication.
And then, and the show log.
All right.
So we've got logging enabled.
Fantastic.
So we can see the messages.
And we'll type in exit.
And now, it's can use that method list WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
And now, it's can use that method list
as we tried to connect on the console port.
So our name is, there we go.
So I said, OK.
I need to use the method list called method list 1.
It can't find TACACS.
And that's fantastic.
And the user we are is admin.
And the password is capital C-i-s-c-o exclamation mark 23.
And that's confusing using the local database.
So the method this, we do a show run, section triple A.
Our method list was group TACACS and group RADIUS and local. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
Our method list was group TACACS and group RADIUS and local.
And all that failed, and it finally
defaulted to the local database, which is where our local user
admin actually worked.
So in this video, we've taken a look
at troubleshooting issues with getting console access,
depending on the physical connectivity to the console,
to make sure that exists, we have
the right speed and the stop bits
and all that, and the right settings from our terminal
emulator, and then making sure we have the right stuff
to login, whether it's a password or a local login
or a triple A method list that we
are using for the authentication on that console port. WEBVTT X-TIMESTAMP-MAP=LOCAL:00:00:00.000,MPEGTS:900000
are using for the authentication on that console port.
In the next video, I'd like to take you
through a set of similar steps, but this time for vty access.
Assuming people can reach the device vty line,
what are some of the constraints and stoppers
there that would prevent us from getting access?
So we'll take a look at that in the next video.
Meanwhile, I hope this has been informative for you.
And I'd like to thank you for viewing.