Techniques are provided for configuring management IP addresses to network devices in a data center that have management capabilities. Based on a received request to configure a managed network device in a network, a first connection is established between a management station and a managed switch to which the managed network device is connected. A network identifier of the managed network device is retrieved from the managed switch using the established first connection. Using the retrieved network identifier, a link-local address of the managed network device is derived. A second connection is established between the management station and the managed network device based on the derived link-local address. The management IP addresses of the managed network device are configured using the second connection.