Management Port vs Console Port in Networking Devices

Rashmi Bhardwaj | Blog,BUZZ,Hardware, Infrastructure & Design
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Management port vs Console port

Management Port vs Console Port

Device management is essential in device provisioning, implementation, operations and configuration changes. Inband and out of band (OOB) are 2 management approaches administrators may consider. While OOB management operates on a “management plane” that is separate from the data plane used by data traffic on the device, in-band management traffic uses the same data plane as used by data traffic.

Hence OOB management can continue to function even during the event of data traffic congestion, device glitch or network attacks in addition to improved switch security.

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Console port and dedicated Management port are 2 types of OOB management scenarios. Please note that Console and Management ports support non-transitive traffic and hence can’t be configured.

Related – In band and Out of Band Network Management 

Difference in Console Port and Management Port –

PARAMETERCONSOLE PORT
MANAGEMENT PORT
IP address Assignment
Can’t give IP address to console Port
IP address can be given to a management port
Communication Type
Asynchronous
Synchronous
Remote access via Telnet/SSH
NoYes
Access required
Physical access to device required
IP reachability and TCP port 23 (for telnet) or TCP port 443 (for SSH) required or HTTP (80)
Segregation type
Physically separate connection
Generally a VRF based traffic segregation
Maximum Speed
0.1 Mbps (115200 bps)
1 Gbps
Connectivity Type
Serial , DB9 , RJ45
RJ45
Management type
Out of Band Management
Out of Band Management
Boot Sequence
Shows Boot sequence
Does not show boot sequence
SNMP, Logging on interface
No SNMP, syslog configurable on console interface
SNMP, syslog configurable on management interface
Application required
HyperTerminal
Telnet/SSH, Web GUI
Additional Features
The Console port supports these additional features:
* Bit Rate 75, 110, 300, 1200, 2400, 4800, 9600, 19200, 38400, 57600 and 115200 bit/s
The Ethernet management port supports these features:
* Express Setup (only in switch stacks)
* Network Assistant
* Telnet with passwords
* TFTP
* Secure Shell (SSH)
* DHCP-based autoconfiguration
* SMNP (only the ENTITY-MIB and the IF-MIB)
* IP ping
* Speed—10/100/1000 Mbps and autonegotiation
* Loopback detection
* Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)
* DHCP relay agent
* IPv4 access control lists (ACLs)

Download the difference table here.

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