This connection method uses the console port on a device to configure it. Physical access to the device is required when directly connected to a workstation (laptop or desktop) computer. In a data center environment where there are many devices within one or more racks, console ports are typically connected to a console server to aggregate the console connections in the rack.

A single console server usually provides enough ports to manage all of the devices in a rack. There are several third-party manufacturers to choose from that offer console servers. These devices offer an Ethernet NIC port to allow an uplink to an Ethernet network, such as in-band or OOB, as shown in Figure 2. Depending on the console server model, multiple network administrators can use application layer protocols such as SSH, Telnet, HTTP, and others, to log in to the console server and access the console ports of the devices attached.

The application layer protocols are only used on the Ethernet network to connect to the console server. The console server then provides the console port access of the devices being managed.