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Difficulty: MediumRemote Access and Out-of-Band Management

A network administrator needs to establish out-of-band management access to the text-based command-line interfaces of several managed switches in a remote datacenter rack. The switches lost all primary in-band IP connectivity following a local network configuration error, but their RS-232 serial console ports remain operational. Which device should be deployed in the rack to aggregate these serial connections and provide remote console access over the network?

  1. A terminal server connected to the serial console ports of the network switchesAnswer
  2. B
    An IP-KVM switch connected to the video and USB interfaces of the network switches
  3. C
    A switched Power Distribution Unit connected to the power supplies of the network switches
  4. D
    An in-band SNMPv3 proxy gateway connected to the Ethernet management ports of the network switches

Answer

A terminal server connected to the serial console ports of the network switches
A terminal server (console server) concentrates multiple RS-232 serial console connections into a single network device, enabling out-of-band administration of switch command-line interfaces even when primary in-band IP network access is completely offline.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Identify the management interface type required by the target devices.
The switches require access via their RS-232 serial console ports to reach the text-based command-line interface.
The scenario specifies that all primary in-band IP interfaces are down and command-line access via serial ports is required.
2
Evaluate which hardware device aggregates serial console lines for remote network management.
A terminal server (also called a console server) converts multiple RS-232 serial ports into IP packets, allowing secure Telnet/SSH sessions to connect directly to device console ports over an out-of-band connection.
Terminal servers are specifically designed for out-of-band management of serial devices.

Key Concept

Out-of-band (OOB) console management using terminal/console servers to access RS-232 serial interfaces during in-band network outages.
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Topics

Remote Access and Out-of-Band Management

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