Leave switches in "Server" mode or Not

[AJ69]

I have multiple switches at different locations ( 16 ) I was hoping someone could explain wheather to leave "All" switches in vtp server mode. I have not created any vlans and I don't think that I will at this present time. So the question is, will there be any problems if ALL switches are left in "Server" mode???

[williamwbishop]

It's generally not considered a good idea to leave them all in server mode. Remember, a change on any switch in server mode replicates to all other switches.

A safe thing to add to this is to always configure a switch to be client mode before adding it to the network. You should only have one or two switches in server mode, those you manage from. All the rest should be in client mode, and rarely--in transparent mode(yes, there are times when this is useful).

[rakesh503]

Hi AJ69,

Are you trunking between the switches? Cisco does not recommend either leaving them in Server/Client or Transparent mode but many enterprises prefer transparent mode for the following reasons:

This practice encourages good change control, as the requirement to modify a VLAN on a switch or trunk port has to be considered one switch at a time.

VTP transparent mode limits the risk of an administrator error, such as deleting a VLAN accidentally, and thus impacting the entire domain.

VLANs can be pruned from trunks down to switches that do not have ports in the VLAN. This results in frame flooding that is more bandwidth efficient. Manual pruning also has a reduced spanning-tree diameter. A per switch VLAN configuration also encourages this practice.

There is no risk from a new switch being introduced into the network with a higher VTP revision number and over-writing the entire domain's VLAN configuration.

You can find more information on the following website:

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/customer/products/hw/switches/ps700/products_white_paper09186a00801b49a4.shtml

HTH,

Rakesh