I setup an IP on the mgmt port of a fiber switch, and connected it to our main 4948E switch. I was telnetting to the switch through the 4948, because I have console access to that switch. The other switches are hard to get to, so this was my work around. I'm trying to get stats back from the MDS switches by using DCNM but I need the DCNM server on the same network as the mgmt. I'm a little confused on how to make this work with the server. A buddy mentioned I use vrf management. If I have IP on one switch and another IP on the other switch in same subnet, and then connect server to another port wouldn't that work. I thought to create a mgmt VLAN so I don't waste all the other ports, but since I have an IP on that port I can't use VLAN.
I'm sorry, I really have no idea what you're asking.
re: management VRF, start up by reading on VRFs in general.
http://packetlife.net/blog/2009/apr/30/intro-vrf-lite/
How do you go about managing a bulk of MDS or Nexus 5K switches? Do you have them all connected to a Catalyst switch, via the mgmt ports on the NX-OS switches? Sorry for asking a convoluted question. Hope that clarifies my objective.
Usually cheap out-of-band (In other words, separate network) 1G switches. Yes. You can also do in-band management via a dedicated VLAN.