Out-of-band management

OOB allows a system administrator to monitor and manage servers and other network-attached equipment by remote control regardless of whether the machine is powered on or whether an OS is installed or functional.

Out-of-band management is now considered an essential network component to ensure business continuity and many manufacturers have it as a product offering.

Settings for hardware RAID or RAM timings can also be adjusted as the management card needs no hard drives or main memory to operate.

As sending monitor output through the network is bandwidth intensive, cards like AMI's MegaRAC use built-in video compression[2] (versions of VNC are often used in implementing this[3]).

Devices like Dell DRAC also have a slot for a memory card where an administrator may keep server-related information independently from the main hard drive.

In case there is only one or just a few network devices, some of them provide AUX ports making it possible to connect a dial-in modem for direct CLI access.

A remote management card usually has at least a partially independent power supply and can switch the main machine on and off through the network.