SG300-10 VLAN Trunking (new to Cisco coming from Dell L2 PowerConnect)

[Network1Operations]

Hello. First post here. I am new (again) to Cisco products. In a former life I had a bunch of Catalyst 10/100 switches but it has been many years. In the meantime I have gotten out of the "hands on" management and was overseeing exclusively Dell PowerConnect switches (among other hardware).

Recently I purchased a couple SG300-10 switches. I should have bought two SG300-20's in hindsight but be that as it may, it is what it is. Had I purchased the SG300-20's I would have had enough ports but since I only bought the 10's, I need extra ports so I pulled a few old Dell PowerConnect 2716's out of the graveyard until we can afford to upgrade. It is making me feel very lost going from a Dell environment over to a Cisco environment  as well as having to combine them both in the same infrastructure --while at the same time knowing that the SG300 is nothing more than a re-branded Linksys... and both the 2716 and the SG300-10 happen to have Anatel stickers on their undersides. 

What are the different VLAN types? (General, Access and Trunk) Quite simply I am trying to trunk eight (8) VLANs from firewall through SG300-10 to Dell PC2716 and then on to end user devices.

I am able to set up "General" VLANs directly going to end-user devices on the SG300-10 and I was able to trunk on the Dell infrastructure but for some reason I am missing something with this setup. The SG300-10 is configured to L3. I am confused (I think) about the PVID settings and were I can enter a range of VLANs to be trunked. If I want to trunk VLANs 1000-1999 to a second switch, how should I configure the SG300-10?

Thank you.

[Tom Watts · Accepted solution]

Access port = untagged connect (no VLAN id in the packet)

Trunk = Connection designed to interconnect switches generally with a native VLAN as untagged and all additional VLANS tagged to allow traffic to pass between devices on different VLANS

General = More flexible than a trunk port as you can specific the VLANS as tagged or untagged any way you choose

So basically...

If you want to connect a client connection (a computer) on VLAN 50 the port should be configured as access port VLAN 50 untagged

If you want that VLAN 50 to work between switches from the Cisco to Dell each switch should have a trunk port with VLAN 50 tagged on to it.

[Network1Operations]

Thank you Tom. Is the inclusion of an Access VLAN simply to make it easier on the end-user? Why not have only one type [General] so the admin can specify what he/she wants tagged/untagged as needed? I think the only thing that is holding me back and making me very frustrated with this switch is the terminology. I know exactly what VLANs I want to go where and what packets I want to be tagged, untagged, included or excluded, etc. It's just that I am new to Cisco so there is a learning curve.

[Tom Watts]

Access is standard terminology with 802.1q. General port is"not normal" terminology.