How to connect to Boards in the Private Board Farm cloud with TimeStorm IDE.

In your on-premise Board Farm Cloud (BFC), your board is attached to a zombie on its private IP network. In order to connect to this board from TimeStorm, two port (GDB and SSH/NAT) forwarding rules need to be created

BFC Provides two port forwarding methods and you can use either SSH port forwarding or NAT port forwarding method to access the Hardware Target which is connected to the BFC in the TimeStorm.

STEP 1: Access and allocate the BFC board by following the BFC’s user manual https://linuxlink.timesys.com/docs/bfc/user_guide#Device-allocation

STEP 2: To connect the BFC board from TimeStorm, you need to forward the SSH/NAT port and the GDB port (Reference: How to use port forwarding in the user manual https://linuxlink.timesys.com/docs/bfc/user_guide#How-to-use-port-forwarding

SSH Port Forwarding:

  1. Enter Device IP address, Device SSH Username, Device SSH Password, and in the Device SSH Forwarding, enter target board’s ssh port in Device SSH Port (default value 22) and forwarding port in Zombie Port. In the below screenshot, the device SSH port is shown as 22 and Zombie Port as 8080. Click on the forward button, it will forward the port.

  2. You need to port forward the GDB server’s port to debug the application on the target board connected behind a Zombie. In TimeStorm, the default GDB server port is 2345 (Note: you can modify the default GDB server port in the Debug configuration). In the above screenshot, we have Add More Port Maps option click on it which will display Device Port and Zombie Port text boxes as shown below. Enter device port is shown as 2345 and Zombie Port as 2345 and click on the forward button.

NAT Port Forwarding:

  1. In the NAT Port Forwarding, enter Device IP address, Device Port, select network protocol from the list (TCP, UDP, SCTP), Zombie Port, and click on the forward button. In the below screenshot, the device port is shown as 22 and Zombie Port as 8080.

  2. You need to port forward the GDB server’s port to debug the application on the target board connected behind a Zombie. In TimeStorm, the default GDB server port is 2345 (Note: you can modify the default GDB server port in the Debug configuration). In the above screenshot, we have Add More Port Maps option click on it which will display Device Port and Zombie Port text boxes as shown below. Enter device port is shown as 2345 and Zombie Port as 2345 and click on the forward button.

STEP 3: Configure and connect BFC’s Hardware Target to TimeStorm IDE.

Open TimeStorm by following the TimeStorm user manual (https://linuxlink.timesys.com/files/timestorm/timestorm-manual-5.1.0.pdf). In TimeStorm, we can see the Hardware Targets option in the top menu as shown below.

In the Hardware Targets, enter target name and uncheck the Link To Execution checkbox. Enter IP address as Zombie’s IP, port number as the SSH forwarded port, target boards username and password as shown below.

STEP 4: Similarly, in the execute tab (Hardware Targets → Execute). Enter the Zombie’s IP address and ssh forwarded port as shown below.

STEP 5: Click on the Check Link button. It check’s the SCP connection and Execution as shown below.

STEP 6: After check connection gets passed. You can run, debug, and profile the applications with the board connected to BFC by following the TimeStorm user manual (https://linuxlink.timesys.com/files/timestorm/timestorm-manual-5.1.0.pdf).