Using a Cisco console cable in a keystone jack

Introduction In building out a new office network, I've had to wire a workspace that would allow a network engineer to connect his...

Introduction

In building out a new office network, I've had to wire a workspace that would allow a network engineer to connect his PC's serial port to a keystone wall jack, leading to a patch panel in the data center, that could then be connected by console cable to Cisco network hardware.

Steps (2 total)

1

Gather the right cables

Making this work involves using one Cisco serial-to-RJ45 console cable (the light blue cable Cisco engineers will be familiar with), two keystone jacks, a length of standard Cat 5e Ethernet cable, and an RJ45-to-RJ45 Cisco console cable.

2

Wire the keystone jacks

Expand

The key to making this work is to pinout one keystone jack according to the TIA568B standard, and pinning out the other keystone jack to be the mirror opposite (see diagram for details).

Conclusion

Once this wiring is done correctly, the engineer can use the serial port on a PC or laptop to plug the serial-to-RJ45 cable into the wall mounted keystone jack. On the data center side, he can plug the RJ45-to-RJ45 console cable from the patch panel into any of the Cisco network hardware (switches, routers, ASAs) and run a terminal console session from their workspace.

Although this isn't difficult, it involves non-standard wiring and I found no other previous documentation on how to do this, so I thought a How-To here would be helpful.