The Sun/Cisco and Cyclades (Avocent) terminal servers both carry asynchronous RS-232 (EIA/TIA-232) signals over 8-conductor RJ-45 connectors, but use different pinouts that are not directly compatible. The dominant Cisco/Sun scheme assigns pin 5 as a second signal ground and pin 7 as DSR, whereas the Cyclades scheme places CTS on pin 5 and DCD on pin 7, with DSR moving to pin 8. A crossover adapter or cable — the Avocent ADB0039 or CAB0045 — is required to bridge the two wiring schemes; it is fitted at the Cisco or Sun device end, with a straight-through CAT-5 patch lead running back to the Cyclades server port. On Sun servers, the console port is often labelled “SERIAL MGMT”.
Compatibility
This cable officially works with the following devices (as of July 15, 2009):
- Cisco 25xx, 26xx, 3640, and 3660
- Cisco Catalyst 2984G, 2950, 2950-C24, 2980G, 3524, 3550, 4006, and 65xx
- Cisco FastHub 400
- Cisco PIX515E and PIX525
- Sun Fire V100, V120, V240, and V480
- Sun LX50
- Sun Netra t1 105, AC200, and DC200
- Sun V420
This cable is also known to work with the following devices:
- Juniper EX4200-24F, EX4200-xxT, EX4200-xxP, EX4200-xxT-DC, EX4200-24F-TAA, EX4200-xxT-TAA, and EX4200-xxP-TAA,
- Sun Fire X4200 M2
- Sun Sparc Enterprise T5120 and T5220
Connectors
| | Terminal Server | | Device |
|———————————————————|———————————————————|
| 
|
|
| Male RJ-45 | Male RJ-45 |
Pinout
| Terminal Server RJ-45 | Device RJ-45 |
|---|---|
| RTS | 1 |
| DTR | 2 |
| Tx | 3 |
| Gnd | 4 |
| CTS | 5 |
| Rx | 6 |
| DCD | 7 |
| NC | 8 |
Pin 8 on the terminal server side is not connected.
Part Numbers
- Avocent ADB0039: Adapter, male RJ-45 to female RJ-45
- Avocent CBL0045: Cable, male RJ-45 to male RJ-45, 10 feet