Joining a switch to VTP domain

[Ryanmatthew23]

I am trying to join a Cisco Catalyst 3560X-24T-L to an existing VTP domain, my question is what configurations should I do to this switch?

I have already gave it a hostname, setup passwords, enabled telnet, created a management address on port g0/24.

I would like it to be on VLAN 13, is this done from my server switch, or done on the new switch?

[Reza Sharifi]

Since you are adding this switch to an existing VTP domain, I am assuming you are adding it as VTP client.  You can add the switch with this command:

vtp mode client

also if you need to add port 0/24 to vlan.  If vlan 13 is not already configured, you need to wait for it, so the vtp server propagates vlan 13 to this switch.

than under interface g0/24 add this command

switchport

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan 13

HTH

[Ryanmatthew23]

But how can I tell it what VLAN I want it to be on? I want it to be on VLAN 13, where is this done at? On the main VTP server switch, or on the new switch?

[Jon Marshall]

What do you mean by "be on vlan 13".

Do you mean you want to manage the switch with vlan 13 or do you mean you simply want vlan 13 to show up in the vlan database ?

Jon

[Reza Sharifi]

Since you are using vtp, you configure vlan 13 on the vtp server and than vtp server will propagate it to the client.

If you have limited number of switches, I would not worry about VTP at all.  Configure them in transparent mode and than manually configure your vlans on all switches.  VTP can sometimes be a major headache if you are not careful.

HTH

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Ryan

Depends. If you are using VTP server/client model then as Reza says configure "vtp client mode". However before doing this make sure the VTP revision number on the new switch is lower than on your existing switches. If you want to set ti to 0 which you probably should on the new switch then -

1) set the new switch to VTP transparent

2) set it to vtp client mode

by doing step 1) it will set the revision number to 0.

Not sure what you mean by you want it to be in vlan 13 and you have set a mangement address on port gi0/24.

Once you set it up as a VTP client the VTP server switch (assuming you have one) will send the vlan info to the new switch so if vlan 13 is one of them it will know about it. If you mean you want a vlan 13 SVI ie. int vlan 13 with an IP then you need to add that yourself. If this is to be used for managing the switch then you don't need the management address on gi0/24.

Perhaps you could clarify exactly what you meant ?

Jon

[Ryanmatthew23]

Ok, so I am trying to figure out the best way to explain this. I have many VLAN within my VTP domain, I know once I setup the switch as a vtp client it will propagate to the switch, but won't it propagate all vlans to the new switch? How can I tell it that all host setup on the new switch should be on VLAN 13? As for the management stuff, I put all management interfaces on vlan 5, this is so I can telnet into the switch to manage it, I always put management addresses on port g0/24. Also, VTP Server/Client is already setup on my network, I just want to know how to specify that I want the new switch to issue ip addresses from vlan 13, vlan 13 is already setup in my vtp domain, I have other switches using vlan 13.

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Ryan

1) It will propogate all vlans to the new switch. To setup the ports for vlan 13 you need to maunally configure the ports to be in vlan 13 ie. this will not be done with VTP. So -

switch(config)# int range gi0/1 - gi0/24

switch(config-if-range)'# switchport access vlan 13

then all ports are in vlan 13 (assuming a 24 port switch).

2) If only want to use vlan 13 on this switch then you may only want to allow this vlan + vlan 5 on the trunk link to the switch (unles you have another switch hanging off this one). So you can use the "switchport trunk vlan allowed ... " config command under the trunk port config to only allow vlan 5  + 13.

Note you don't have to do the above but it cuts down on unnecessary vlan traffic to the new switch.

3) Still not sure what you mean by an IP on gi0/24. If you use vlan 5 for management you don't assign an IP to a specific port you would simply -

switch(config)# int vlan 5

switch(config-if)# ip address x.x.x.x <--- where x.x.x.x is an IP from vlan 5 subnet

if the switch is L2 only then you need to also set the default-gateway ie.

switch(config)# ip default-gateway y.y.y.y <-- where y.y.y.y is an IP from vlan 5 subnet that is assigned to the vlan 5 interface on your L3 switch.

So i'm not clear what you use gi0/24 for exactly ?

If it is still unclear then please come back with more details.

Jon

[glen.grant]

  If you just put all your ports into vlan 13  and make sure vlan  13 and vlan 5  is allowed across your trunk , it should pull an address from the vlan 13 pool if you already have a dhcp server setup to handle this.   Also make sure your vtp domain name matches the vtp server.

[Ryanmatthew23]

Thanks, this really did help. gi0/24 is a management port, I'm not sure what better way to explain this, I have 4 switches on vlan 13, each switch has an ip assigned to gi0/24 with different ip addresses so I can manage each switches individually. I'm sure there is an easier way to do this, but I didn't design the original topology.

[Jon Marshall]

Ryan

Perhaps you could post config of one of the existing switches with the management port setup ?

So the switches are interconnected using a port (but not port gi0/24) that is configured as a trunk link + you then use gi0/24 on each switch and assign an IP ? So if you do a sh run | begin int gi0/24 and you see an IP address assigned there then this is a L3 routed port.

i am still unclear how this would then connect to other switches so you can manage them. Generally for managing switches you either -

1) L2 switch - use a L3 SVI eg. nt vlan xx and assign it an IP from vlan 10. Then set the default-gateway of the switch to point to the L3 SVI for vlan 10 on your switch doing the inter-vlan routing

2) L3 switch. You can do the same as 1) or you can use a loopback address but that still isn't assigned to a specific port.

Some switches do have specific management ports eg. 4948s but i didn't think 3560s did (unless it's been added to the X series).

Usually the only time you have an IP assigned to a specific port is if you are interconnecting 2 L3 switches but then in that case you usually don't exchange VTP information between them.

Jon