Management interface not always accessible (trouble with settings)
Hi,
i have some M4300 switches (M4300-24XF, GSM4352PB). All have the same problem. All switches are brandnew.
Firmware 12.0.17.7
The Netgear docs says, the OOB-Port is independend from the normal Ethernet-Ports. The Management Interface is accessible through the OOB-Port (192.168.0.239), but not always.
1)
I connect the Management Interface through the OOB-Port.
2)
I set the Management Interface with default VLAN 1 to IP 192.168.0.22/24, because i would connect the Management Interface through the normal Ethernet-Ports (my network is 192.168.0.0/24). After this setting i must restart the switch to connect through the IP 192.168.0.22/24. Without a restart i can not connect.
3)
If I now call the interface again once through OOB (192.168.0.239), the connection through the IP 192.168.0.22/24 is no longer possible.
After i digging a while in the settings, it seems the oob-interface is not independend. The oob-interface can not in the same subnet as the virtual vlan management interface. All problems are gone, if i set the OOB-Interface to IP 172.16.0.x/24.
If i set manual the IP from the OOB-Interface to the same subnet as the virtual VLAN Management Interface, the switch says: Error IP Address/Netmask entered conflicts with die configured IP Address/Netmask of a router interface.
It doesn't matter if I turn off the router functions.
Is this behaviour is "by design" or is it an error in the firmware? What is best practice? Where i can see the settings from the "router interface".
Let us try to update the firmware of the M4300 switches to the latest version which is v12.0.17.9 that was just recently released then observe if the same problem will occur. You can download the M4300 FW v12.0.17.9 here.
Re: Management interface not always accessible (trouble with settings)
Appears there are very basic misunderstandings of what OOB is and how it can be deployed. Lot to learn sorry saying.
An OOB network is a dedicated, standalone independent network to keep the management access running, even if all other links and connections are (for example) of the production network are not operational.
And the first thing you do is interconnect the OOB and the production network, and try to bring it into the same IP subnet?
Large scale networks have a dedicated network infrastructure: Complete physically and logically independent networks, to retain the management access. Historically, this network was used to keep the access to the physical typically serial consoles. Over time, sophisticated services were added to this layer, like IPMI for server monitoring and management. IPMI is a series of specifications that provide standardized interfaces to the so-called “platform management” services. In this context, the term “Platform Management” refers to monitoring hardware (system temperatures, fans, power supplies and so forth), their control (booting and shutting down the server) and the documentation (logging) of “out-of-range” states.
Doing so, requires to have dedicated subnets and IP addresses for this network.
This is is neither an error nor a behavior 8-) - it's design, and all intentional.
