The SSH half is what you would expect — connect, run commands, move files over SFTP. The half that is hard to find anywhere else is the console side: it drives a USB-to-serial adapter, which is the only way in before a switch has an address, and one tool walks the entire console-to-SSH handover on Cisco and Aruba gear rather than leaving you to type the configuration in by hand.
An MCP server with two ways onto a device: an SSH client for hosts that are already reachable, and a serial console client that talks through a USB-to-serial adapter to gear that is not. On top of both sit switch-specific tools for Cisco IOS, IOS-XE and Aruba, and a set of Ubuntu server chores.
- SSH sessions and file transfer: ssh_connect, ssh_exec, ssh_upload_file, ssh_download_file, ssh_list_files, ssh_disconnect
- Serial console access over a USB adapter: serial_list_ports, serial_connect, serial_send_command, serial_discover_device, serial_list_connections, serial_disconnect
- Reading a switch: switch_discover_device, switch_show_interfaces, switch_show_vlans, switch_show_mac_table, switch_backup_config, switch_network_diagnostics
- Turning a console-only switch into an SSH-managed one: switch_generate_ssh_config, switch_apply_ssh_config, switch_verify_ssh_status, switch_test_ssh_connection, switch_complete_ssh_setup, console_to_ssh_transition, quick_ssh_check
- Firmware work with a rollback path: switch_check_firmware, switch_check_storage, switch_upload_firmware, switch_verify_firmware, switch_install_firmware, switch_prepare_rollback
- Ubuntu server chores: ubuntu_nginx_control, ubuntu_update_packages, ubuntu_ssl_certificate, ubuntu_website_deployment, ubuntu_ufw_firewall
Node on the machine and a build from the repository checkout, which the client then launches by file path. SSH work needs the usual credentials for the target — a password, or a private key and its passphrase — and the switch tools also want the enable password wherever the device asks for privileged mode. The console tools need hardware you have to physically have: a USB-to-serial adapter, a console cable that fits the switch, and on Windows the adapter's driver.
One command — npx -y mcp-ssh-server