IBM Rack-Based Local Console Switches User Manual page 8

Tiered consoles
You can tier multiple rack console switches to enable access to additional servers. In a tiered system, an
ARI port on the main rack console switch connects to the ACI port of a tiered rack console switch (see
Figure 3 for locations of these ports). Consider a tiered configuration if you want to manage servers
connected to multiple switches from one central location. For example, you could have a primary 2x16
console switch with 16 switches tiered underneath it that all have servers chained on their ports.
Figure 6 shows an example of tiered consoles.
Figure 6. Tiered consoles
Maximum configurations are as follows:
The 1x8 Console Switch can scale to support up to a total of 128 target systems by connecting

additional console switches to each of the 8 ARI ports on the 1x8 switch. Only one level of tiering is
supported.
The 2x16 Console Switch can scale to support up to a total of 256 target systems by connecting

additional console switches to each of the 16 ARI ports on the 1x8 switch. Only one level of tiering is
supported.
The LCM2 Console Switch can scale to support up to a total of 512 target systems by connecting

additional console switches to each of the 8 ARI ports on the LCM2 switch. One, two, or three levels
of tiering are supported.
When using the IBM GCM console switch as the primary switch in a tiered environment, the KVM

switching system can scale to support 2048 target systems
IBM Rack-Based Local Console Switches 8