Chapter 1: AC-2500 Series Hardware
NetEnforcer AC-2500 Hardware Guide
1-10
Accessories Area
Management Port (Out of Band Management)
Out-of-band management provides the following:
•
Offers physical separation between shaped traffic and management traffic.
•
Enables access to NetEnforcer even if there is a problem in the network (for
example, DoS attack).
•
Prevents management traffic from interfering with shaped traffic.
•
Permits NetEnforcer management from a DMZ.
The NetEnforcer includes a dedicated Management port for out-of-band management of
the device. The dedicated Management port provides a secure solution for device
management for enterprise and service providers. It enables you to permit access solely
to a closed group of network administrators, so that ISP customers cannot "see" the
Management port and therefore cannot access the NetEnforcer management. Operating
through the Management port denies management access to the device from Internal or
External ports. Moreover, when there is a problem in the regular network, for example,
a DoS (Denial of Service) attack, you can still manage and monitor the NetEnforcer.
Using a Management port has the following benefits:
•
Provides a security feature that prevents ISP customers from "seeing" the
Management port and thus prevents access to NetEnforcer. The Internal and
External ports are functioning solely to forward traffic, consequently only the
administrator (the only one who has access to the Management port) has access
to NetEnforcer.
•
Enables configuring, installing and upgrading while the unit is in Bypass mode.
This is particularly important when NetEnforcer is in carrier environments.
•
Improves NetEnforcer's forwarding performance by separating the management
traffic from the regular traffic. In addition, if a problem exists in the regular
network you can still communicate with NetEnforcer in order to repair the
problem.
•
Provides an infrastructure for improvement of the redundancy capabilities.
NOTE
The Management port has its own MAC and IP address.
