Patent ID: 8769129

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, with a management device, an initial transmission control protocol (TCP) synchronize (SYN) packet output by a managed device as a TCP client to request that a TCP session be initiated between the management device and the managed device; outputting a TCP synchronize-acknowledged (SYN-ACK) packet from the management device to accept the TCP session as a TCP server; after establishing the TCP session, receiving with the management device a role reversal message output by the managed device specifying an identity of the managed device; authenticating, with the management device, the managed device based on the identity of the managed device specified in the role reversal message; and based on the authentication of the managed device, initiating, with the management device, a single secure shell (SSH) connection over the TCP session in accordance with a secure shell (SSH) protocol such that the management device acts as a client for the SSH protocol and the managed device acts as the server for the SSH protocol without initiating any other SSH connections over the TCP session prior to initiating the single SSH connection over the TCP session.