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3
Application Notes
3.1
In-Band/Out-of-Band Switch Management
n
Out-of-Band Management
To configure the switch, a network management station (NMS) normally can connect directly
via the the
Cfg Port
. This kind of connection can be regarded as an
out -of-band
switch
management as the configuration traffic is totally separate from the normal (in-band) traffic
through the switch ports. An example figure for out-of-band management is shown as below.
The NMS needs two network interfaces to have both the in-band access and out-of-band control
for switch configuration in different IP domains.
8G Smart Switch
C
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
NMS
PC1
192.168.1.100
PC2
192.168.1.200
IP
192.168.2.254
Switch Traffic
192.168.1.10
192.168.2.10
Config Traffic
The advantages of out-of-band management, is that the configuration traffic won’t be affected
by switch configuration, even if all ports are disabled. The configuration traffic will be secured
because of the “out-of-band ” traffic isolation. In many cases switches are located in secure
server rooms, so having the management port isolated from the working network is a definite
security advantage.
The disadvantage is that the switch can only be configured by the PCs (e.g. PC1 or PC2)
through an in-band connection when one of the 8 ports is used to link the configuration port to
the in-band ports. See next heading.
