Out-of-band Management For Servers

In computing, out-of-band management (sometimes called lights-out management or LOM) involves the use of a dedicated management channel for device maintenance. It allows a system administrator to monitor and manage servers and other network equipment by remote control regardless of whether the machine is powered on.

By contrast, in-band management is the use of regular data channels (usually through Ethernet) to manage devices. A significant limitation of in-band management is its vulnerability to problems from the very devices that are being managed. To manage network servers and routers remotely, IT administrators need network access when problems occur. However, the same problems that cause the network to go down also result in the loss of management access to those devices.


Out-of-band management addresses this limitation by employing a management channel that is physically isolated from the data channel.

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