dconsole command

Description

The dconsole command opens a console window to one or more Power Systems™ compute node or Power Systems virtual server systems. Each window provides access to the system's serial console, accessed out-of-band. Since the console is displayed in a separate xterm window, the DISPLAY environment variable needs to be set prior to invoking the smcli dconsole command.

Specify targets as a comma separated list of individual systems or as a comma separated list of groups. You can list individual systems using their names, object IDs, or TCP/IP addresses or host names. Groups are listed using their names. If a group is listed, the command is executed on all members of that group.

Options

-c | --close

Forces an existing virtual terminal session to be closed before opening a new session. This flag is used when another remote system (such as an HMC or another AIX server running dconsole) has a remote session open to the same managed system, causing the system's virtual terminal session to be unavailable.

-h | -?

Displays the syntax and a brief description of the command.

Tip: If you specify additional options other than -h | -? | --help, the options are ignored.

--help

Displays detailed information about the command, including the syntax, a description of the command, a description of the options and operands, error codes, and examples.

Tips:

• If you specify additional options other than -h | -? | --help, the options are ignored.
• You can also display detailed help in the form of man pages using the man command_name command.

-i | --ipaddress {ip_address | host_name}[,{ip_address | host_name}...]

Targets one or more systems, specified by IP address or host name.

The list can be a mixture of IP addresses and host names, separated by a comma.

ip_address

The IP address of the system.

Tips:

• You can enter lssys -A IP_address to list the IP address of each discovered system.
• You can use either the IPv4 or IPv6 format to specify the IP address.

host_name

Either the host name or the host name and Domain Name System (DNS) suffix of the system. If the host name contains spaces, enclose it in quotation marks. If it contains a comma, prefix the comma with a backslash (\).

Tips:

• You can enter lssys -A HostName to list the host name of each discovered system.
• The host names are not locale specific.
• A given IP address or host name might resolve multiple systems. For example, both the OperatingSystem and Server instance of a particular system will have the same host name. Use system Object ID (option -n) to target a system uniquely.

-l | --log

Enables console logging (no logging if omitted).

By default, the console logs are written to the /var/ibm/sysmgt/dsm/log/console directory. The location and subdirectory can be changed by overriding "Log_File_Location" and "dconsole_log_File_Subdirectory."

-N | --groups {group_name}[,{group_name}...]

Targets all systems in one or more specified groups that are identified by name.

Tips:

• If the same systems are members of more than one group, they are targeted only once.

• To target all systems, specify the "All Systems" group.

group_name

The name of the group. If the group name contains spaces, enclose it in quotation marks. If it contains a comma, prefix the comma with a backslash (\) and enclose the name in quotation marks.

Tips:

• Group names are unique.
• Use the lsgp command without any options to list all group names.
• The group names are not locale specific.

-n | --names {system_oid | system_name}[,{system_oid | system_name}...]

Targets one or more systems specified by name or ID.

The list can be a mixture of system names and IDs, separated by a comma.

If the -n option is not specified, then a customized event action that starts a noninteractive task on the system on which the event occurred is created. If the -n option is specified, then a customized event action that starts a noninteractive task on a specified system is created.

system_oid

The unique ID of the system, specified as a hexadecimal value prefixed with 0x (for example, 0x37).

Tip: Use the lssys -o command to list all system IDs.

system_name

The name of the system. If the system name contains a comma, prefix the comma with a backslash (\).

Tips:

• The system names might not be unique. This command acts on all systems with the specified name. Use the -v | --verbose option to generate a message when this command targets multiple systems with the same name. To target a particular system that has a name that is not unique, identify the system by specifying its unique, hexadecimal ID, or use additional target options to refine the selection.
• Use the lssys command without any options to list all system names.
• The system names are not locale specific.

-o | --force

Forces a new session to be opened as a read-write session. By default, the command opens the first session to a specified server as read-write and opens subsequent sessions as read-only. This flag forces the new session to be read-write, and any existing read-write session are changed to read-only.

-r | --read

Opens a console as read-only.

-v | --verbose

Writes verbose messages to standard output.

If this option is not specified, this command suppresses noncritical messages.

Exit status

• 0: The operation completed.
• 1: A usage error occurred.
• 2: The command or bundle was not found.
• 3: The command was not performed because either authentication failed or you are not authorized to perform the action.
• 200: The command execution failed. The exit value is increased by 1 for each successive failed attempt to start the console or target that is not valid.

Examples

1. Open a remote console to specific managed servers

   This command illustrates how to open a remote serial console to managed servers Server1 and Server2.

   smcli dconsole –n Server1DisplayName,Server2DisplayName

2. Open a remote console to all managed servers in a group

   This command illustrates how to open a remote serial console to all managed servers in the "AIX/Linux Virtual Servers" group.

   smcli dconsole –N "AIX/Linux Virtual Servers"