Are rollover cables and crossover cables the same, just different pins?
Pinout for serial cable with RJ45 on both sides?
Serial Console over RJ45 Ethernet-Patchpanels / RS232-Ethernet-Pinout?
DIY Cisco RJ45 console cable?
Videos
Can they both be used in the same way? I get the pins are different.
crossover cable,
1---3
2---6
3---1
4---7
5---8
6---2
7---4
8---5
rollover cable
1---8
2---7
3---6
4---5
5---4
6---3
7---2
8---1
Thank you.
We have a ThinkLogical Serial Console Server that I'm attempting to connect to some F5 Big IPs. Both devices have RJ45 jacks, and I'm trying to get them to talk to each other. The Big IPs came with TIA 568B to rollover adapters.
Connecting using RJ45 -> DB9 works just fine.
I've tried connections between the SCS and Big IPs with the following, in all permutations:
-
With and without the adapter. EDIT: Meaning with rollover and standard pinout ethernet cables.
-
DTE and DCE on the SCS.
-
Multiple baud rates on both sides.
Nothing has worked, so I can only conclude that the pinout is the problem. Does anyone know the correct pinout that I should be using? My google fu has failed me.
EDIT: Just in case someone finds this while searching for the same problem, here's the answer: my coworker accidentally used an F5 failover cable instead of standard ethernet. The failover cables have their own unique pinout, so they didn't work. The correct cable for this job is a standard rollover, or a standard ethernet cable with a rollover adapter (which is included with the Big IPs).
We also had to change our serial console server from DCE to DTE, turn off all flow control, and (obviously) match baud rates and parity on both sides. The Big IPs default is 19200 8N1.
You're correct, standard ethernet cables won't work due to the wiring sequence - cisco uses what's called a "rollover cable" for their serial consoles. An example of the pin-out for rollover can be found here:
http://pinouts.ru/NetworkCables/rj45_rollover_pinout.shtml
It's as simple as pin 8 on one end is swapped to pin 1 on the other end, pin 7 to pin 2, etc. All the way down the cable.
If you have some Cat-5 cable, RJ-45 ends, a crimper, and the know-how to crimp your own cables - you can make your own rollovers fairly easily! If you don't wish to do that, I'd suggest searching for "Cisco RJ-45 Rollover" or similar in order to find vendors from which you can purchase RJ-45 to RJ-45 rollover cables.
P.S: Double-check the documentation of your KVM - some KVMs that allow serial management require their own proprietary adapters for it, even if the port on the KVM is RJ-45. If it does require a proprietary adapter, there's a chance that it will support standard RJ-45.
Haymaker beat me to it...
You don't say what Cisco device or what KVM, but chances are you want what Cisco calls a rollover cable:
Pin 1 on one end connects to Pin 8 on the other
Pin 2 Pin 7
Pin 3 Pin 6
Pin 4 Pin 5
etc.
Pin 8 Pin 1
This is basically a null-modem cable but with RJ connectors instead of DB. Here's a link to a different Cisco doc that describes console pinouts.