What is In Band and Out Of Band Management ?

Fig 1: In Band and Out Of Band Management

In Band Management

What is in-band out-of-band management on a network switch or router you'll hear these terms being thrown about by computer network admins and technicians. But what do they mean exactly stay tuned so in band out of band management we actually manage a switch or a router. But when technicians and admins talk about in-band and out-of-band what exactly are they referring to make this simple. Here going to show you the traditional and more commonly used method that a lot of computer networks use for managing their switches and routers. And that's what we refer to as in-band now in-band management simply means you've added an IP address to overall switch or router configuration that allows it to be communicated with over a remote connection. Much like if the that switcher router were just a desktop laptop printer or server somewhere on the network giving it its own ip address for management is what allows it to be reached remotely to make changes to its configuration. So when we say in-band management that simply means we're remotely managing that switch or router over the existing network again this is the most commonly used method for managing switches routers and other networking devices over most computer networks. So it's not unusual or unheard of but so if we refer to managing devices over the existing network as in-band.

Out Of Band Management

What does out-of-band mean most higher-end switches and routers and many servers as well are made these days with a management port specifically for managing that device from a remote connection. But these management ports are connected specifically for just that managing the management port on a switch router or server. It is not going to pass normal network traffic like the other ports do again most of those ports are on the front of the device and so that management port is not going to pass normal traffic normal network traffic and it can and probably will cause issues. If it is connected to the normal computer network so when you look on a switch or router and again some servers you'll see this management port specifically marked as management manage or out of band. This is where the term out of band comes from you're outside the normal band or network on a separate connection you'll find some computer networks especially the bigger enterprise level networks with the normal network setup using all the ports normally on the routers and switches. And then you'll have an entirely separate out-of-band network just for connecting to and accessing the management ports or out-of-band ports on switches and routers when this type of setup is used it's referred to as out of band management. And to offer a little more clarification here on the industry itself when you have separate out-of-band management networks or outside the normal computer network being used they will not have the same bandwidth or volume of traffic. You will see passing on the normal computer network again on the ports on the front so oftentimes you'll see slower smaller switches and connections used on the out of band network than are needed elsewhere on the network on the primary network i have even seen what they call dumb terminals connected to the backs of switches and routers. And that are utilized just for the out-of-band network to keep it simple and functioning and allowing access to each switch or router's management when needed so to keep this short and sweet that's the difference between in-band out-of-band management on a computer network and on the devices on that network.