Terminal Hangs or Does Not Open

Terminal Hangs or Does Not Open

Problem

My terminal appears to hang or returns unexpected results when using the Cycle step to open a terminal connection.

Potential Issues and Solutions

There are several common issues that can cause failures when opening a terminal in your Cycle feature:

 

  • The server you are connecting to may be down or unresponsive. Double check your connection information and ensure you are able to reach the server using other methods such as a terminal emulator and/or ping. If you suspect the server is down, contact your system administrator to verify the status of the server.

 

  • Terminal server connection information in the Cycle step may be incorrect or incomplete.

Cycle steps expect the terminal server connection information in the format of "HOST:PORT" in the Cycle step.

For example, "127.0.0.1:23" or "myserver.mynetwork.com:23" would be the expected format including the HOST and PORT connection information. 

If your HOST or PORT are incorrect, or if you have omitted the PORT from your connection information, then Cycle will not be able to successfully establish a terminal connection.

The screen capture below is an example of what will occur if you attempt to connect using only the HOST and not including the correct PORT information:

missing_port.PNG

Double check that you are using the correct connection information if a terminal window appears, but the data does not match what you are expecting.

 

  • You may be attempting to connect using the incorrect network protocol.

Cycle includes steps for opening terminals using either Telnet or SSH (Secure Shell) protocols.

Telnet sends plain text communication over the network and poses security risks. Many organizations have made the switch to using SSH because data is encrypted during transfer.

Telnet and SSH use different steps for opening terminals, and Cycle will not be able to successfully open the terminal connection if you use a step that does not use the correct protocol for the server you are connecting to. 

Telnet terminal steps follow the convention below:

I open terminal connected to ...

SSH terminal steps follow the convention below.

I open terminal with SSH encryption connected to ...

In the example below, the Cycle step to open an SSH terminal connection was used to attempt to connect to a Telnet server. Cycle was unable to establish the connection and the step eventually timed out.

attempt_to_ssh_to_telnet.PNG

In the example below, the Cycle step to open a Telnet terminal connection was used to attempt to connect to an SSH server. The SSH server responded with SSH server information rather than the expected Telnet server prompt.

attempt_to_telnet_into_SSH.PNG

 

 

 

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