What serial port wiring does Mellanox use in their IB switches?

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dba

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Feb 20, 2012
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San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA
I'm trying to commission my Voltaire/Mellanox 4136 Infiniband switch. Step one involves connecting to the switch via serial port - and a cable that I do not have. I tried my standard DB-9 cables but they do not work.

Has anyone had success connecting to their Mellanox switch? What wiring did you use?
 

renderfarmer

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Feb 22, 2013
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New Jersey
That was more like try it; it's the only other DB-9 style cable I know...

I just rememberd that I had a Voltair switch a year ago and a standard RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) worked for that.

Then I switched to a Cisco Topspin90 and needed a Cisco DB9 cable. So I retract my previous suggestion. Sorry.
 
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Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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That was more like try it; it's the only other DB-9 style cable I know...

I just rememberd that I had a Voltair switch a year ago and a standard RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) worked for that.

Then I switched to a Cisco Topspin90 and needed a Cisco DB9 cable. So I retract my previous suggestion. Sorry.
Very OT but just looked at your portfolio. Very cool and local (although says NJ on the forums.)
 

renderfarmer

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Feb 22, 2013
249
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New Jersey
Very OT but just looked at your portfolio. Very cool and local (although says NJ on the forums.)
Thanks, I appreciate that. I lived/worked in San Francisco from 2007-2011. I kept the 415 phone number when I moved to Jersey to live with my wife last year.

Thanks for creating this site btw. I had to figure out all of this Infiniband networking and server stuff by myself a year ago and it was pretty overwhelming. It's really nice to be able to discuss it with knowledgable like minded people.
 

Patrick

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Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Thanks, I appreciate that. I lived/worked in San Francisco from 2007-2011. I kept the 415 phone number when I moved to Jersey to live with my wife last year.

Thanks for creating this site btw. I had to figure out all of this Infiniband networking and server stuff by myself a year ago and it was pretty overwhelming. It's really nice to be able to discuss it with knowledgable like minded people.
Ha! Originally from Jersey now in the Silicon Valley. Thanks for the kind words on the site. That was the whole idea of creating STH.
 

zane

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Aug 22, 2013
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So did the RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) work on the Mellanox IB switch? I have a 4036 that that I can not get to work. I'm using a RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) I get back nothing during boot ect... tried reset button for 50 sec nothing.. Would the usb port be of any use to me?

That was more like try it; it's the only other DB-9 style cable I know...

I just rememberd that I had a Voltair switch a year ago and a standard RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) worked for that.

Then I switched to a Cisco Topspin90 and needed a Cisco DB9 cable. So I retract my previous suggestion. Sorry.
 

mobilenvidia

Moderator
Sep 25, 2011
1,956
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63
New Zealand
So did the RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) work on the Mellanox IB switch? I have a 4036 that that I can not get to work. I'm using a RSR-232 (DB-9 to DB-9) I get back nothing during boot ect... tried reset button for 50 sec nothing.. Would the usb port be of any use to me?
You may need to get a xover cable.
ie pins 2/3 get reversed don't use a straight through cable.

Or make your own with plug in pins, as I did with my Expanders serial port
Not exactly what you need but theory works the same I used to this to change the rcv/xmt pins, worked a treat.
I use a USB-COM cable, then the below plug then a RJ12 cable to the expander serial port (RJ12), but DE-9 to DE-9 would work the same
 
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