Do you configure the VLANs on the distribution or access layer switches or both?

drbx19 · 19 Jun 2012 at 13:31

Do you configure the VLANs on the distribution or access layer switches? What about things like DTP, STP and so on? Are these configured on the distribution or access layer?

drbx19 · 19 Jun 2012 at 16:24

Stelly said:
personally I think it depends on what access your need for your VLANs, if you only want local access then access layer is good enough, if you have servers that you VLANs need access to and the server is at the distrub layer then you are going to need to give some VLANS access to the distrub layer of the network, have you considered VTP at all? STP is normally on by default... what do you need to know about STP?

Stelly

Hi

Thanks for the response

I want all machines on all VLANs to have the ability to communicate if need-be. I was thinking of putting the servers on their own VLAN, thus all VLANs would need to be able to communicate in order to use the servers' resources.

If I use VTP will both the access and distribution servers be configured? That is an idea...

drbx19 · 19 Jun 2012 at 22:56

ots3go said:
VTP will distribute the VLAN database to switches with a lower VTP revision number that is set to Client or Server mode.

Transparent switches will not be configured with VTP.

So if I configure one switch (distribution for example), the access layer switches will be configured as well, which will allow for a successful hierarchial topology?

drbx19 · 20 Jun 2012 at 09:21

ots3go said:
As long they all have have VTP running correctly and not in transparent mode, yes. You'll still have to assign ports to specific VLANS (or trunks) mind.

Also, as above, you'll need some inter-VLAN routing.

Thanks a lot for your help!