How to check is switch Level 2 or 3?

[webstd.design]

Hi,

is Feature Navigator is enough to determine which Level is the switch?

I want to see proper note: Level 2 or Level 3. Is there some way?

http://tools.cisco.com/ITDIT/CFN/jsp/index.jsp    

Many thanks

[JohnTylerPearce]

3550's and up should be able to do both. You can always look up the model on cisco.com and check from there.

Another way is to just go to an interface and do a 'no switchport' command which will basically make it a L3

interface, if it does that then you have a L3 switch.

[Leo Laohoo]

Look at the product code of the switch.  If the switch ends with "EMI" then it's a Layer 3 switch.  If it's "SMI" then it could be a layer 2 only switch.

TO convert the appliance from Layer 2 to Layer 3, you need to have a hardware upgrade.  I am not sure how to determine if your appliance was upgraded from SMI to EMI.

[hobbe]

Hi

I do not think you can use the feature navigator to check if the switch is a L3 or a L2.

One of the reasons is that Cisco rarely has strict L2 switches. Cisco have something they atleast used to call L2+.

L2+ is a L2 switch with some L3 features.

so basically no switch is today L2 only. on the other hand if you find L3 or even L4 features it still does not conclude that the switch is a L3 switch.

The same hardware can be both a L2+ or a L3+ type switch. fx 3750x or 3560x exists in 3 versions.

the Lan base, Ipbase and adv ip services all with or without PoE.

There is a special book that costs half a fortune and is hard to get at but that describes the different switches and what their capabilities and placements are.

Good luck

HTH

[Somasundaram Jayaraman]

Hi,

If you able to configure ip routing on the switch then it is a layer 3 switch or else it is a layer 2 switch.

++ From the feature navigator, please check with the image whether it supports ip routing.

++ if its not supporting then it layer 2 switch. Otherwise it is a layer 3 switch.

You can also check the license level in the switch. If it is lanbase, then it is meant only for layer 2.

If the license level is either ip base or ipservices it is a layer 3 switch.

++ sh license detail all

Hope this helps.

Cheers

Somu

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[Joseph W. Doherty]

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Not easily. The latest switch feature often come in shades of grey, where even software version can make a difference.  For example, the 2960-S was only L2, now I believe the later IOS images support basic routing, i.e. statics or as a stub.

On the 3560/3750 switches, what kind of L3 dynamic routing varies on the feature set.  Base version supports statics, EIGRP stub (?) and RIP, I believe. Services added full dynamic routing, e.g. EIGRP and OSPF, although you used to need Advanced Services for BGP, but BGP was added into the later IOS Services version.