Newbie question - ASA 5540 FastEthernet Management Port

[michaelchoo]

Hi Experts!

I'm wondering if the FastEthernet mgmt port on the ASA 5540 can be configured as routed port? Or is it purely for out-of-band management?

Thanks

[JORGE RODRIGUEZ]

I understand the manage interface port can be used as a regular routed port, on models such as 5510 if Im not mistaken you would need Security plus license to make management interface a routed port but that may have changed, but in your case of asa 5540 you can use that interface as regular routed port, note that you will see in cisco documents recommends management port to exclusivately be used for management but from end user reports folks out there have used it as a routed port for regular traffic.

I would suspect if using this interface as a regular ruted port would need to remove the management-access only command statement from the interface and configure it as regular L3 port.

You may want to also recall that your model can support up to 200 VLANs using 802.1q trunking, you may want to consider exploring these alternatives as well.

Rgds

-Jorge

[michaelchoo]

Thanks for that. Shortly after I posted this question, I found the following document on Cisco.com that says exactly that (i.e. management0/0 can be configured to pass thru normal traffic):

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/vpndevc/ps2030/products_configuration_example09186a00807dac5f.shtml

[Peter Koltl]

Possible but see restrictions

Management network topology and asymmetric routing