Hey I'm Clint Garrett (Ace Networker) and I've been asked the question many times What
is a managed switch and what does that mean? What does "manage" mean? And it's important
to know what that means when you're first starting out in computer networking because
it's one of the most pivotal aspects of being a network technician,
a network admin or a network engineer. This video is to continue in our series
on networking switches and switching for what you need to know to pass the Network+
and possibly CCNA, CCNP exam. So if you haven't already make sure to click the subscribe button
below and click the bell to be notified when the next video is posted here and make sure to watch
all the other videos in this series where we cover all the different aspects of Layer 2 switches.
So what is a managed switch? In this short video I'm going to show you the difference between
an unmanaged switch versus managed switch and why this is something that will be an everyday
common thing for you as you get into a networking career or business. When we use the word managed
we're talking about exactly that - you manage or control it. This management is typically
done remotely. In other words, not right there physically with the switch hardware. Therefore
when you manage a switch you can change or alter the configuration either remotely or when the
switch is physically nearby. And the fact that you can change the configuration and settings on a
switch is ultimately what defines it as a managed switch. An unmanaged switch is a Layer 2 switch
hardware component that's usually plug-n-play. You cannot change the configuration on it or
alter how it handles traffic coming and going through it. In other words you can't change the
VLAN configuration on it you can't change the (in fact most unmanaged switches don't really have
VLANs but) you can't change the way it handles traffic. Does it prioritize certain types of
traffic over other types of traffic? Can it block certain types of traffic that type of thing. Those
type of configuration changes cannot be made on an unmanaged switch. It does simple Layer
2 switching and it's just connected on the network and powered on. So I wanted to go down most of the
primary differences that you'll find between a managed switch and an unmanaged switch. So
if you look at an unmanaged switch here it's going to have a fixed configuration which is
what i just talked about, it's not changeable. You can't change the configuration on it. It doesn't
support any configuration interface or any options for interfacing with it because it's not a managed
switch, it's an unmanaged switch. You'll also find on an unmanaged switch that it is typically
plug-n-play with limited configuration like default QOS settings (now QOS stands for Quality
Of Service and we're going to get into that in later videos) also. But you don't need to know
that for necessarily for Network+ You'll also find that an unmanaged switch is really not very good
in most situations. You're not going to have any security on it other than the accessories such as
a lockable port cover and that's kind of physical security on it if somebody's physically near the
actual component. But it's not going to allow you to secure it against being accessed or vulnerable
over a network connection or the connections that you have on it. You'll also find that an unmanaged
switch is very small in size. It's used on smaller networks typically. It's typically found on a a
small business or small size business network or in a home or in a lab or in a conference
room that type of thing. So whereas you have those limitations on an unmanaged switch, on a managed
switch you're going to find things that you can alter and tweak the way you want to. Things like
dynamic arp inspection, ipv4, dhcp snooping, qos which stands for quality of service, snmp, vlan
configuration, cli interfaces, cli changes and commands that you can give it, IP Routing on some
Layer 2 or Layer 3 switches, port mirroring redundancy. You're going to find all these things,
these features, that are available on a managed switch. As far as performance on a managed
switch a managed switch can have its control configured over access control over LAN traffic.
You can have priority, snmp, you can allow for remote troubleshooting of your network through
that switch and through the management of that switch that type of thing. As far as security on
a managed switch, you can have priority uh snmp you can have allow remote troubleshooting in the
network over a managed switch so those are some of the performance aspects that you will get over a
managed switch compared to an unmanaged switch and as far as security you can make a managed switch
is very good with security. Typically you can provide protection of your data plane your control
plane and your management plane on a managed switch because you can control access to it in the
configuration settings and as far as places where you will typically see a managed switch you're
going to see that on the larger size networks like in data centers or large size enterprise
type networks now if you haven't watched it be sure to check out this video on how to set
up a network switch and router because in this video i go into detail on the different ways to
access configuration settings on a managed switch the easiest way to remember the how and why on a
managed switch is to keep in mind that even a switch is like a hardware or in some cases a
software version of a standalone computer or pc and that standalone computer has a specific task
on your network to determine where traffic arriving on a port of ports needs to be sent
in other words what port reports it needs to be sent out or what needs to be done with it
before it's sent out now looking at it this way it will also need a primary ip address assigned
to it just like a pc would on your network and that's either statically or dynamically by a dhcp
server and that ip address which is known as the primary ip address on a switch will allow remote
management of that switch over the network i'm also going to get into what's known as
out-of-band management on layer 2 switches now when you get into out-of-band management you don't
necessarily need a management ip on a switch now in some cases that depends on the manufacturer but
in most cases you're going to find that with layer 2 switches and we're going to talk about this out
of band management in in a later video but for now and again for the network plus certification exam
just remember that a managed switch is one that allows the one controlling or running the network
which is probably going to be you to make those changes to its configuration and settings and an
unmanaged switch is unchangeable and only performs basic switching functions now you can think of it
kind of like a smart hub it doesn't work like a hub an actual switch an unmanaged switch is not
going to work like a hub but it's going to be very similar in that you cannot make any changes to it
you just plug it in and connect it and it whatever the settings are on it however it is designed to
handle traffic that's exactly what it's going to do so this begins to wrap up our series on layer
2 switches on computer networks if you haven't checked out the other videos in this series again
make sure you do that i'm clint garrett ace networker and i'll see you on the next video
you