Embodiments of the present invention provide a method for managing a switch chip port. The method is applied in a distributed communications system and includes: detecting whether each of multiple service boards is in position; when it is detected that a service board is not in position, controlling disabling of a port corresponding to the detected not-in-position service board on a first switch chip of the main control board; and/or sending an in-position message including information about the not-in-position service board to the switch board, so that the switch board controls, according to the information about the not-in-position service board, disabling of a port corresponding to the not-in-position service board on a second switch chip of the switch board. Energy saving of a switch chip port can be efficiently implemented by adopting the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present invention, thereby efficiently reducing power consumption of the system.