Are you two ever going to get along?

(When I say this I duck. Why? Because Marines know when they are about to be attacked. You guys: back and forth back and forth. Now I may be in the cross hairs! Be afraid, very afraid. Can I quote: "Can't we all ((sniff)) jus' get along?)

Peace lovin', tree hugggin' mo fo,
Quantity

P.S. Seriously, what's the purpose of VTP?

I swear to God if I get more responses about D and J; I will hunt you all down and kill you! J/K

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VTP is a creation of CISCO. You have several VLANs in a switched network, you need something to manage them as the administrator. With VTP you can add/delete VLANs, monitor and track your VLANs' configuration etc.

By the way what gave you the impression that Dmaftei is not my pal? Everyone here is. To have an alternative opinion does not mean I cannot be your friend. In fact the diversity of opinion is supposed to enrich the quality of our discussions, that I believe, is the essence of this forum. We can all still drink from the same glass after an argument.

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Thankx for the xplanation! However, I am a U.S. Marine and need further xplanation. Can you assist?

Thanks again!

Quantity

P.S. No! I know what a forum is and I know you, and D, do not hold ill will. I was joking. Thank you for seeing through it and answering my question!

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Aha! I was ready to jump on you and ask "What on Earth makes you think Jazebel and I don't get along?!" Now, everything is clear.

Here's a VTP white paper: http://www.cisco.com/warp/public/473/21.html

It's pretty detailed, but a quick glance should give you the general idea. Let us know if we can be of further assistance.

Cheers!


[This message has been edited by dmaftei (edited 01-06-2001).]

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Dude and dudette,

I read the info but still confused. Help.



Quantity

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All right, let's give it a try. Hopefully I'll be able to keep it short.

Suppose you have four switches (s1 through s4) and six VLANs (11 through 16). You would go to s1 and create the VLANs you need there, then go to s2 and create the VLANs you need there, and so on. You may have one VLAN on more than one switch (like 11 on s1 and s2 and s3). You may have a switch with all the VLANs, other switch with only two VLANS (like s3 with 11 and 12). With what we have now, it's pretty easy provided you keep up to date documentation.

So far so good. You know you'll have to route between VLANs. You could use one port per VLAN per switch to connect to a router -- and use interfaces on the router to do this. Or you could use trunk links, and you would use one port on the switch and one interface on the router to route from all the VLANs on that switch. You can also use the trunk links to connect your switches between them.

Now, suppose that instead of our small 4 switches/6 VLANs you have a BIIIG network of 25 switches and 75 VLANs. Thinks are going to become VERY hard to manage sooner rather than later. Here's where you can use VTP (VLAN Trunk Protocol) to make your life a bit easier.

Say you configure VTP on all your switches, and you put them in server mode (that's the default, by the way). You would then go to one switch and add your VLANs there. The VLANs will appear automagically on all the other switches. You don't have to go to 24 more switches and add up to 75 VLANs on each. Also, if you delete a VLAN on a switch, it will be deleted from the other switches too; if you add a VLAN on a switch, it will be added on the other switches too. This is one of the advantages of using VTP: consistency across your network. There is also VTP pruning, but I think we shouldn't start digging here yet.

One final note: I'm pretty confident (but not absolutely positive) that you still have to go to each switch and assign ports to VLANs. There is a way around this: dynamic VLAN membership and VMPS (VLAN Membership Policy Server). More about this later (if you'll need).

Hope this helps. Cheers!

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Dmaftei;

I was just reading up on VTP, good explanation. Helped to reinforce what I read. Actually remembered it too!!


Tks

JerryL

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quote:

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Originally posted by dmaftei:
Say you configure VTP on all your switches, and you put them in server mode (that's the default, by the way).

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Shouldn't you put ONE switch in server mode and the rest in client mode?

quote:

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One final note: I'm pretty confident (but not absolutely positive) that you still have to go to each switch and assign ports to VLANs. There is a way around this: dynamic VLAN membership and VMPS (VLAN Membership Policy Server). More about this later (if you'll need).

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I agree with you on the issue of assigning ports to VLANs as long as you do not mean "go to" in the physical sense. I use rcommand on our 3500 XL switches. I guess telnet can be used on switches that does not support clustering.

As for VMPS: yes please! I've once read about MAC-based and IP-based VLANs (as opposed to the port based we are using here). At first (and so far only) glance, dynamic VLAN membership looks like a variant on the port based VLAN theme. Since I am too lazy to research this myself I would be happy to see dmafteis introduction to dynamic VLANs.

Terje

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quote:

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Originally posted by Terje:
Shouldn't you put ONE switch in server mode and the rest in client mode?

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quote:

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Originally posted by dmaftei:
Other than that, when a switch in server mode hears an advertisement from another switch, it will listen and learn what it listens.
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