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Out-of-Band (OOB) remote SAN management is achieved by sending the
remote management requests over a LAN using the Ethernet TCP/IP protocol
to remote hosts.
In-Band management is achieved by sending the remote management requests
over a SAN using the FC protocol to remote hosts.
The following list describes the principle differences between In-Band
and Out-of-Band SAN Management.
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A management host with an HBA installed does not need to be connected
to a fabric to manage other hosts.
You can manage many more hosts since OOB is not
constrained by the boundaries of a fabric or zoning. An OOB management host can manage all of the HBAs
in a remote host, not just the ones connected to the same fabric. In-band
can only manage HBAs connected to the same fabric. True board status (e.g. link down) is available
since the in-band path is not used to send a status request to the remote
host. HBA security in an OOB environment is much more
important since many more hosts are available for management and OOB access
is not affected by fabrics or zoning. Discovery of hosts in an OOB environment is much
more difficult than in-band discovery. A host may be able to manage a remote host by
sending management requests either in-band or out-of-band. | 