Management Server Connections

A SPARC or x86 based server can be used as the management server. Each server provides at least one 10/100/1000 (1-Gbit) network interface port, but adding additional Gbit network interface cards to the management server increases ease of management and physical separation of the corporate and provisioning networks. If you do not install additional NICs in your management server, you can configure your network to route the corporate and provisioning networks through a single 1-Gbit port as illustrated by the diagrams in Reference Configurations.

Each server also provides one or two system management ports depending on server architecture, labeled Net Mgmt (Network Management), ALOM (Advanced Lights Out Manager port), ILOM (Integrated Lights Out Manager port) on single management port manageable servers, and labeled SP0 and SP1 (Service Processor 1 and 2) on dual management port manageable servers. The management server requires only a single management port to provide connectivity with the corporate network. In this document, the management port is always shown as MGMT.

Depending on the system architecture and the operating system installed, the operating system refers to the Ethernet ports by different names. For example, the first Ethernet port on a machine is referred to as ETH0, HME0, or BGE0 depending on the operating system. This document refers to the lowest order Ethernet port on a machine as ETH0, the next port as ETH1 and so on regardless of architecture and operating system.

The following illustration provides the logical diagram for a management server with three 1-Gbyte NICs, and is used in subsequent sections to illustrate the reference architecture diagrams.