Out-of-band-management systems and methods for integrated serial console and ethernet access

1. An out-of-band management (OOBM) dongle comprising:

a serial port for receiving console traffic from a console port of a managed switch;

a managed interface port for receiving management port traffic from a management port of the managed switch, the OOBM dongle uses the console traffic and the management port traffic to generate data traffic; and

an OOBM port, coupled to the serial port and the managed interface port, the OOBM port communicates the data traffic to an OOBM switch port of an OOBM switch;

wherein the OOBM dongle performs steps comprising:

in response to obtaining, from the console port of the managed switch, console output data characters at the serial port of the OOBM dongle, encapsulating the console output data characters into a first set of virtual local area network (VLAN)-tagged packets;

sending the first set of VLAN-tagged packets to a managed interface driver that injects the first set of VLAN-tagged packets into the managed interface port;

switching the first set of VLAN-tagged packets to the OOBM port towards an OOBM switch port;

in response to obtaining, at the OOBM port, a second set of VLAN-tagged packets that comprise serial input data characters, switching the second set of VLAN-tagged packets to the managed interface port; and

using the managed interface driver to perform steps comprising:

receiving the second set of VLAN-tagged packets from the managed interface port;

decapsulating the second set of VLAN-tagged packets to obtain decapsulated packets; and

injecting the decapsulated packets into the serial port to be forwarded towards the console port of the managed switch.

2. The OOBM system of claim 1 , further comprising an OOBM adapter to couple the managed switch to the OOBM dongle, the OOBM adapter comprising:

a console connector to couple to the console port;

a serial connector to couple to the serial port;

a management connector to couple to the management port; and

an Ethernet connector to couple to the managed interface port.

3. The OOBM system of claim 2 , wherein a distance between the console connector and the management connector matches a distance between the console port and the management port, and a distance between the serial connector and the Ethernet connector matches a distance between the serial port and the managed interface port.

4. The OOBM system of claim 2 , wherein the OOBM adapter and the OOBM dongle are vertically or horizontally aligned to match an alignment of the management port of the managed switch and the console port of the managed switch.

5. The OOBM system of claim 1 , wherein the OOBM dongle generates the data traffic by multiplexing the console traffic and the management port traffic to the OOBM port.

6. The OOBM system of claim 5 , wherein the OOBM switch acts as a PSE (Power Sourcing Device), the OOBM dongle acts as a powered device, and the OOBM port is an Ethernet uplink power-over-Ethernet (PoE) port.

7. The OOBM system of claim 1 , wherein the OOBM dongle comprises a system-on-chip that comprises:

a CPU core; and

a Gigabit Ethernet Switch (GES) comprising a first port to couple to the CPU core, the GES comprising:

a second port to couple to the managed interface port; and

a third port to couple to the OOBM port.

8. A processor-implemented out-of-band management (OOBM) method for console traffic processing, the method comprising:

in response to obtaining, from a console port of a managed switch, console output data characters at a serial port of an OOBM dongle, encapsulating the console output data characters into a first set of virtual local area network (VLAN)-tagged packets, the OOBM dongle comprising a managed interface port and an OOBM port;

sending the first set of VLAN-tagged packets to a managed interface driver that injects the first set of VLAN-tagged packets into the managed interface port;

switching the first set of VLAN-tagged packets to the OOBM port towards an OOBM switch port;

in response to obtaining, at the OOBM port, a second set of VLAN-tagged packets that comprise serial input data characters, switching the second set of VLAN-tagged packets to the managed interface port; and

using the managed interface driver to perform steps comprising:

receiving the second set of VLAN-tagged packets from the managed interface port;

decapsulating the second set of VLAN-tagged packets to obtain decapsulated packets; and

injecting the decapsulated packets into the serial port to be forwarded towards the console port of the managed switch.

9. The processor-implemented OOBM method according to claim 8 , wherein the OOBM switch port identifies the first set of VLAN-tagged packets as console output and maps the first set of VLAN-tagged packets to a reverse telnet console session to access the console port of the managed switch.

10. The processor-implemented OOBM method according to claim 8 , further comprising an initialization sequence comprising:

receiving from a DHCP server that operates on an OOBM switch a tagged Ethernet frame or an IP address that is assigned based on an OOBM switch port of the OOBM switch;

adding the OOBM port and a managed switch Ethernet port to an untagged VLAN to facilitate a flow of management Ethernet traffic;

initializing a console driver on an UART port;

adding the OOBM port to a tagged VLAN; and

using a Gigabit Ethernet switch to forward tagged VLAN packets received from the OOBM port to a processor.

11. The processor-implemented OOBM method according to claim 10 , further comprising, in response to the processor being energized, initializing a DHCP client on the OOBM port of the OOBM dongle.

12. The processor-implemented OOBM method according to claim 10 , wherein the serial port is coupled to a UART (universal asynchronous receiver/transmitter) port of the processor.

13. The processor-implemented OOBM method according to claim 10 , further comprising using the IP address from the DHCP server to manage or debug the OOBM dongle.

14. The processor-implemented OOBM method according to claim 10 , further comprising using a Gigabit Ethernet switch for bridging packets between the OOBM port and the managed switch.