A terminal/communications server is a hardware component that connects serial devices to a LAN. A terminal/communications server is commonly used to connect multiple terminals to a LAN, giving those terminal users access to systems on the LAN. A terminal/communications server can also give LAN-connected systems access to serial devices. Operations Sentinel uses this latter method to interface to the serial console or terminal ports of managed systems. Figure H-2 shows three systems connected to an Operations Sentinel server through terminal/communications servers.

Figure I.2. Figure H–2. Connections through Terminal/Communications Servers [UNIX, Other]