Configuring Ethernet Management Port

Prerequisites for Ethernet Management Ports

When connecting a PC to the Ethernet management port, you must first assign an IP address.

Restrictions for Ethernet Management Port

The ethernet management port relay is not supported on the Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Supervisor 1 Module.

Information About the Ethernet Management Port

The Ethernet management port, also referred to as the Gi0/0 or GigabitEthernet0/0 port, is a VRF (VPN routing/forwarding) interface to which you can connect a PC. You can use the Ethernet management port instead of the device console port for network management.

In addition, Cisco Catalyst 9600 Series Switches have another Ethernet management port, TenGigabitEthernet0/1, an SFP+ interface that provides pluggable connectivity from the switch to the management network. This interface supports 10G and 1G Transceivers.

By default, GigabitEthernet0/0 is enabled.

You can disable GigabitEthernet0/0 and enable TenGigabitEthernet0/1 by setting the environment variable ETHER_PORT to 1 in the ROMMON mode and booting up the switch. You can switch back to the default management port by setting the ETHER_PORT variable to 0 in ROMMON mode and rebooting the switch: 

rommon>

Ethernet Management Port Direct Connection to a Device

Figure 1. Connecting a Switch to a PC. This figure displays how to connect the Ethernet management port to the PC for a device or a standalone device.

Ethernet Management Port and Routing

By default, the Ethernet management port is enabled. The device cannot route packets from the Ethernet management port to a network port, and the reverse. Even though the Ethernet management port does not support routing, you may need to enable routing protocols on the port.

Figure 2. Network Example with Routing Protocols Enabled. Enable routing protocols on the Ethernet management port when the PC is multiple hops away from the device and the packets must pass through multiple Layer 3 devices to reach the PC.

In the above figure , if the Ethernet management port and the network ports are associated with the same routing process, the routes are propagated as follows:

  • The routes from the Ethernet management port are propagated through the network ports to the network.

  • The routes from the network ports are propagated through the Ethernet management port to the network.

Because routing is not supported between the Ethernet management port and the network ports, traffic between these ports cannot be sent or received. If this happens, data packet loops occur between the ports, which disrupt the device and network operation. To prevent the loops, configure route filters to avoid routes between the Ethernet management port and the network ports.

Supported Features on the Ethernet Management Port

The Ethernet management port supports these features:

  • Express Setup (only in device stacks)

  • Network Assistant

  • Telnet with passwords

  • TFTP

  • Secure Shell (SSH)

  • DHCP-based autoconfiguration

  • SNMP (only ENTITY-MIB and IF-MIB)

  • IP ping

  • Interface features:

    • Speed: 10 Mb/s, 100 Mb/s, 1000 Mb/s, and autonegotiation (default)

    • Duplex mode: Full, half, and autonegotiation

    • Loopback detection

  • Cisco Discovery Protocol (CDP)

  • DHCP relay agent


Caution

Before enabling a feature on the Ethernet management port, make sure that the feature is supported. If you try to configure an unsupported feature on the Ethernet Management port, the feature might not work properly, and the device might fail.

How to Configure the Ethernet Management Port

Disabling and Enabling the Ethernet Management Port

Procedure

  Command or Action Purpose

Step 1

configure terminal

Example:

Device# configure terminal

Enters global configuration mode.

Step 2

interface gigabitethernet0/0

Example:

Device(config)# interface gigabitethernet0/0

Specifies the Ethernet management port in the CLI.

Step 3

shutdown

Example:

Device(config-if)# shutdown

Disables the Ethernet management port.

Step 4

no shutdown

Example:

Device(config-if)# no shutdown

Enables the Ethernet management port.

Step 5

exit

Example:

Device(config-if)# exit

Exits interface configuration mode.

Step 6

show interfaces gigabitethernet0/0

Example:

Device# show interfaces gigabitethernet0/0

Displays the link status.

To find out the link status to the PC, you can monitor the LED for the Ethernet management port. The LED is green (on) when the link is active, and the LED is off when the link is down. The LED is amber when there is a POST failure.

What to do next

Proceed to manage or configure your switch using the Ethernet management port. See the Network Management section.

Enable TenGigabitEthernet Management Port

Follow these steps to enable the SFP+ interface that provides pluggable connectivity from the switch to the management interface. Enabling the TenGigabitEthernet Management port on the supervisor disables the GigabitEthernet Management port.

To switch back to the GigabitEthernet Management port, set the ETHER_PORT variable to 2, that is, use either ETHER_PORT=2 or unset ETHER_PORT command in ROMMON mode and reboot the switch.

Procedure

Step 1

If the switch is running with the IOS XE image, reload the switch and bring it to the ROMMOM mode.

Example:

Device#reload

Step 2

Set the variable ETHER_PORT to 1.

Example:

rommon> ETHER_PORT=1

If the system is in the High Availability mode and is running with redundant supervisors, perform this step on both the supervisors.

Step 3

Boot the system with the IOS XE image.

Example:

rommon>boot  image_location/image

Step 4

Configure the TenGigabit Ethernet interface 0/1

Example:

Device>enable
Device#configure terminal
Device(config)#interface tengigabitethernet0/1
Device(config-if)#ip address 203.0.113.1 255.255.255.0

Example for Configuring IP Address on Ethernet Management Interface

This example shows how to configure IP address on the management interface.


		Switch# configure terminal
		Switch(config)# interface gigabitethernet1/0/1 
		Switch(config-if)# vrf forwarding Mgmt-vrf
		Switch(config-if)#ip address 192.168.247.10 255.255.0.0
		Switch(config-if)# end
		
 
Switch#show running-config interface Gi0/0
Building configuration...

Current configuration : 118 bytes
!
interface GigabitEthernet0/0
vrf forwarding Mgmt-vrf
ip address 192.168.247.10 255.255.0.0
negotiation auto
end

Additional References for Ethernet Management Ports

Related Documents

Related Topic Document Title
Bootloader configuration

See the System Management section of this guide.

Bootloader commands

See the System Management Commands section of the Command Reference (Catalyst 9600 Series Switches)

Feature History for Ethernet Management Port

This table provides release and related information for features explained in this module.

These features are available on all releases subsequent to the one they were introduced in, unless noted otherwise.

Release

Feature

Feature Information

Cisco IOS XE Gibraltar 16.11.1

Ethernet Management Port

The Ethernet management port is a VRF interface to which you can connect a PC. You can use the Ethernet management port instead of the device console port for network management.

Use Cisco Feature Navigator to find information about platform and software image support. To access Cisco Feature Navigator, go to http://www.cisco.com/go/cfn.