A methods and apparatus for remote management of switching network nodes in a stack via in-band messaging are presented. Switching nodes in the stack default to reserved switching node identifiers and stacking ports default to a blocking state upon startup, restart, and reset. Each command frame received via a blocking state is forwarded to a command engine at each switching node and is acknowledged with the current switching node identifier. Each acknowledgement frame bearing the reserved network node identifier triggers configuration of the acknowledging switching node. Switching nodes and the management processor track interrupt state vectors regarding events. An interrupt acknowledgement process is employed to track raised interrupts. Configuration of switching node is performed via command frames transmitted by the management processor and destined to a command engine associated with the switching node. Services provided by the management processor are requested via control frames destined to the switching node to which the management processor is attached and destined to the management port thereof. The advantages are derived from engineered switching node deployments wherein an appropriate number of management processors, less than the number of switching nodes in the stack, are employed to provide services to corresponding switching nodes in the stack, based on processing, control, and configuration bandwidth requirements. The in-band configuration and control of the switching nodes in the stack reduce deployment, configuration, management, and maintenance overheads.