Cisco C9550 Series Smart Switches Hardware Installation Guide

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Cisco C9550 Series Smart Switches Hardware Installation Guide

Access the CLI through the console port

Updated: July 17, 2026

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How to access the CLIs through the console port.

You can access the CLI on a configured or unconfigured switch by connecting the RJ-45 console port or USB console port of the switch to your PC or workstation and accessing the switch through a terminal emulation program.

Connect the RJ45 console port

This task describes how to connect the RJ45 console adapter to the port and power on the switch

Procedure

1.

Connect the RJ45 port adapter to the serial port on the terminal server or your PC using the optional RJ45-to-DB9 adapter cable. Connect the other end of the cable to the switch console port.
2.

Start the terminal-emulation program on the PC or the terminal. The program, frequently a PC application such as Putty or TeraTerm, makes communication between the switch and your PC or terminal possible.
3.

Configure the baud rate and character format of the PC or terminal to match the console port default characteristics.

  • 1 stop bit

  • 8 data bits

  • 9600 baud (default)

  • No parity

  • None (flow control)
4.

Power on the switch.
5.

The PC or terminal displays the bootloader sequence.

Connect to the USB console port

The Cisco C9550 Series Smart switches will either have a Cisco USB Device or Silicon Labs USB Device (CP2102N).

To identify which USB device is available,

  • connect a USB cable from the Windows-based PC or Mac-based PC to the USB console port.

Note

On a Windows-based device, we recommend using the default Windows driver.

Procedure

1.

To install the USB driver to a Windows-based PC or Mac-based PC for the first time, do the following:

  • Windows-based PC

    We recommend using the default Windows driver.

  • MAC-based PC

    • For Cisco USB devices, no driver installation is required.

    • For Silicon Labs USB device. you can download the USB driver from the Silicon Labs website . Once the installation is completed, a virtual COM port session, "tty.SLAB_USBtoUART", will be started.

      Note

      Do not use the generic USB serial driver available on Mac-based PCs.
2.

On a Mac-based PC: Before connecting the USB cable to the MAC, run the “ls -lrt /dev/tty.usb*” command from the terminal application on MAC.
3.

Connect a USB cable to the PC USB port. Connect the other end of the cable to the switch Type C USB console port.
4.

Start the terminal-emulation program on the PC or the terminal. The program, frequently a PC application such as Putty or TeraTerm, makes communication between the switch and your PC or terminal possible.
5.

On a MAC-based PC: After connecting the USB cable, run the “ls -lrt /dev/tty.usb*” command from the terminal application to identify the device.

The new device is identified as “/dev/tty.usbserial-XXXXX”.
6.

Configure the baud rate and character format of the PC or terminal to match the console port default characteristics.

  • 1 stop bit

  • 8 data bits

  • 9600 baud (default)

  • No parity

  • None (flow control)

To configure the baud rate on a Mac-based PC, run the “screen /dev/tty.usbserial-XXXXX <baud-rate>” command.
7.

Power on the switch as described in the switch getting started guide.
8.

The PC or terminal displays the bootloader sequence.