Connecting to Juniper using the console port

In this chapter, you will learn how you can connect to Juniper device to be able to configure it. I will show you how you can do that using the console port that is available on most Juniper devices. Also, I will show you what softwares you need to use to be able to connect to the Juniper appliance using the console.

As a Juniper engineer, you will have to work always on the command line to configure the device. Once you have a Juniper device, you cannot connect to its IP address to gain access to it via the CLI because simply you do not know what IP address it does have and whether it has an IP address anyway. For this reason, you require to use the console to gain the first access to the Juniper device.

First, you need to have a console port on your Juniper device. This is something you can find it on the front side of the Juniper device:

Of course, you have to have the router powered on, then you connect the console cable to the console port of the router from one side, and to your PC/Laptop from the other side. The console cable looks like this:

It has an RJ45 connector from one side and a DB-9 from another side. You put the RJ45 side in the console port of the Juniper device and the DB-9 side in the PC/Laptop. If you do not have a serial port on your PC (most likely you won’t with new devices), then you can use a converter cable to convert the DB-9 to USB: