I have 7 VLANs (4-10), each with about 4 ports and VLAN1 as the default, and 4 ports assigned to VLAN1- they are not part of VLAN 4-10. All ports in the VLANs are Access and UP ports. I want to know how to configure the switch(es) so that
I replicate the VLANs onto a second switch, which will provide scalability for my network as it grows. The second switch will be an active device on the network and will be used for expanding the network and the number of devices on each VLAN. So VLAN 4 on switch1 will be available as VLAN4 on switch2, with the same configurations. Devices added to either switch1 or switch2, on the configured VLANs should be able to communicate
I can assign IP addresses to the VLANs (range of ports) and the appropriate DHCP addresses are distributed from my DHCP server. I am using the GUI and cannot see how to assign the IP addresses for each VLAN's gateway.
all the computing equipment in VLAN 4-8 can access services(DHCP, DNS, file, mail, printing services) that are in VLAN 9 and 10. I have one routing device through which all the VLAN equipment will access internet services.
The Cisco SG switches don't support VTP, which is what you normally can use on Cisco Catalyst Switches to replicate VLANs from one switch to another. I'm afraid that you will have to manually create and assign VLANs on new switches.
What switch model are you using? The SG300 for example is a L2 switch, it doesn't support interVLAN routing so you can't configure IP addresses on its interfaces. Some of the SG switches do support interVLAN routing but you need to enable it globally first.
You are the Best One! One small questions to you… why we will use SMB switch ? Is there any advantage to using it over Cat/ME switch . Actually i am very new to such a Switch.Thanks
Mohammad,
A true Catalyst switch certainly has many more features, but it is all about the price. For example, a 48-port SMB switch is about $1650 USD while a low end 48 port Catalyst switch is $3200 USD. Many businesses don’t want to spend the extra money (and unfortunately mine is one of them!)
The SG300 switch has both a command line interface and a GUI interface. You are also able to use a console connection. For detailed information on how to initially connect to such a device, check out Cisco’s quick start guide.
If you are unable to connect due to lost passwords, you can follow the password recovery procedure at this Cisco support forums thread.
Finally, if you are unable to get a web interface page up and running when navigating to the correct IP address, the port being used for web access may have been changed. In this case, you should be able to change that via the CLI.
If I’m not mistaken, I believe you are referring to GVRP, or Generic VLAN Registration Protocol. This is a generic open protocol that is similar to VTP in that it shares VLAN information between multiple switches. It allows cross platform compatibility between switches of multiple vendors to share such information, whereas VTP is a proprietary protocol used by Cisco devices.
GVRP has now been replaced with MVRP or Multiple VLAN Registration Protocol which essentially does the same thing.
Can the Cisco Small Business Switch allow one configure a port with a data vlan and voice vlan to connect a phone and a computer to the same switch port? I have tried to do this on this switch many times without success. What I’ve had to do is to create a vlan for the phone and vlan for the computers and then assign one of the ports just to the phone and the another port just for computers (data vlan). Thanks in advance for all your help!
MGO
Yes, it is possible to do with the SG switches. You can take a look at this Cisco Video that describes this configuration. It is on the SG500, but this is similar to the other switches in the series.
Hello Laz,
Again thanks for all your help. I have seen this video before and I followed the instructions. The problem though is that after I set up the port with both the data and voice vlan, the phone is unable to acquire an ip address via dhcp. It is very strange because for instance, lets say I get my sg300 switch and I create vlan 10 for data and vlan 20 for voice. If I set up the port 1 as an access port with vlan 20 and connect the phone, the phone is successful in getting an ip address with dhcp. I create port 2 with vlan 10 data and vlan 20 voice, connect the phone to the switch port and daisy chain the computer to the phone. Ei:
SWITCH_PORT_2---------PHONE----------COMPUTER
Then, the computer is able to get an ip via dhcp but the phone will not get an ip. If dont know if the following is true because I vaguely remember… but I think I read somewhere that the ports on the small business series can only get one session of dhcp. I dont know how true this is. It seems like Cisco support is not very vocal on this topic as I looked on the forum for small business extensively (but again, this was a while back). Let me know your thoughts, I am interested to know what you think. Regards, MGO
Thanks for the clarification. The only thing I can suggest is when you configure the ports, make sure that the voice VLAN is indeed tagged while the data VLAN remains untagged. This is usually indicated with a “T” or a “U” that appears beside the VLAN on the configuration of the port. On the “Port VLAN Membership” page you can verify this.
Have you attempted to implement this on another SG switch? Could it be that there is an issue with the specific device?
After learning these concepts on more advanced switches, it is difficult to go to a web based system and have them work in the same way. It is not as intuitive, and because I have worked with these switches, it does take some time to fully understand the difference in philosophy.
Yes Laz,
I have attempted it on different switches of the same series, even by using the CLI, which is also very different from the cli from catalyst switches. In my organization, I have resolved that if I want a phone on its own vlan, I have to assign its own port because otherwise it will not get an ip. Thank you for all your help!
Hi Laz,
this is the first time i have to use a small business switch in my office: this is a 220 model which is very similar to the 300. So i am reading the course “small business switch configuration”
Can you answer the following questions please ?
do the SMB series come from linksys ? (i read that there are not native cisco devices)
so where do the CLI commands come from ? because there are quite different from the classic IOS i know. Did Cisco build them from classic IOS to adapt to devices small business ? (or from scratch, or do they modify existing linksys OS to look like IOS)
for example, i am very surprised that you can’t set the IP management from the console: you have to put a PC in a predefined subnet to take control of the switch. I am desappointed of this behaviour
Thanks
Regards
The SMB switches are indeed different than mainline Cisco devices. I too have had trouble understanding the logic behind their configurations for both CLI and web-based configurations. The truth is that Cisco purchased Linksys in 2003 and started providing small business level devices with the Cisco-Linksys brand name. In 2013 Cisco sold Linksys, but continued to sell their own line of small business series switches, now under the Cisco brandname alone.
It seems that Cisco kept the configuration logic of the Linksys devices in its small business series. They incorporated some logic of the IOS system, but kept the core configuration philosophy of Linksys.
I too am disappointed in some of the features and limitations of these devices, but unfortunately that is how they’ve developed them.
At work I saw some Dell switches that are configured with the tagged vlan for the uplink and the Untagged vlan for the access port at the same time in the same port.
I am not familiar with Dell networking equipment, but looking over some of their manuals, my understanding is that the above configuration places VLAN 50 on two ports: on port-channel 30 as untagged and on port-channel 100 as tagged. What this means simplly is that port-channel is an access port (I assume connected to the server in your diagram) and port-channel 100 is a trunk port that is the uplink.
In Cisco device, you would configure this like so:
Switch#conf t
Switch(config)#interface gigabitethernet 0/1
Switch(config-if)#description connection to server
Switch(config-if)#switchport access vlan 50
Switch(config-if)#exit
Switch(config)#interface gigabitethernet 1/1
Switch(config-if)#description uplink
Switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk
Switch(config-if)#switchport trunk allowed vlan add 50
Switch(config-if)#exit
Switch(config)#
According to this Dell command line reference, it looks like the command tagged followed by the interface simply adds the VLAN to the trunk configuration of that interface.
I think it may be confusing because of the fact that the configuration you show also includes an interface called VLAN 50. I’m not sure if this is an SVI or if this is simply the way that the VLANs are created, and then under this configuration, you specify on which ports the VLAN will be included, either tagged or untagged.
