In the standard design, the primary interface is used for management of the Steelhead appliance: The GUI and CLI are accessible via it, the remote logging of system messages and SNMP traps are send out via it. Also, the traffic for CIFS pre-population and Windows Active Directory integration is send out via this interface.
To increase the manageability of the Steelhead appliance, especially the central ones in data centers, several steps can be taken:
Connect the auxiliary interface to a device on the WAN side of the Steelhead appliance. In the main routing table, configure an entry for a remote network management host going out via the IP subnet defined on the auxiliary interface. This way if the primary interface is unreachable (due to a failure of the optimization service, a fail-to-block configuration or a problem with the negotiation of the Ethernet link on the in-path interface), the device is still reachable via the auxiliary interface.
Connect the serial port to a terminal server or to a serial-over-TCP module and connect the Ethernet port of the terminal server or module to a device on the WAN side of the Steelhead appliance.
Figure 4.29. Cabling for remote management
Terminal Server .-,( ),-. __________ .-( )-. [_...__...o] ( WAN ) | ^ '-( ).-' | | Serial __________ PRI '-.( ).-' | '---------| |-----------. ^ | ________| | | | v v AUX | | v | __________ | | __________ '------------[_...__...o]<-----|_...__...o|---->[_...__...o] WAN LAN WAN router Steelhead LAN router