Question on switches

[smutnpj10]

I have a question on how to add a switch to my network.  I currently have a layer 3 switch as my core with 10 vlans running EIGRP.  I want to add a 2960 CX closet switch in one area of the office.  The 2960 is running ip base.  Here are my questions:

1.  Do I trunk the connection between the two switches?  Setup an Port-Channel between them?  I have two pair of fiber running from the core to the closet.

2. Do I run VTP to carry the vlans to the closet or setup the vlans manually on the 2960?

3. Do I create new SVI's on the 2960 switch with new IP addresses?

4. Since I can't run EIGRP on the 2960, how does the routing work?

Thanks for your help.

[Jon Marshall]

The answers to your questions depends on whether you want to route on the 2960 as well as your L3 switch or just route on the L3 switch. 

Assuming you just want to route on the existing L3 switch - 

1) Yes

2) Up to you ie. you can use VTP server/client to echange vlan info or you can use transparent and add manually. 

Whichever you do before connecting switch make sure the L3 switch has a higher revision number than the new switch. 

3) If you are going to route all vlans on L3 switch then you just need an SVI on the new switch for management. 

4) You don't route ie. the 2960 is L2 only ie. all your routing between vlans is done on your L3 switch. 

If you want to route on the new switch as well let us know. 

Jon

[smutnpj10]

Thank you for the quick reply.  How would I go about routing on the 2960?

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

You would create new vlans with new IP subnets and connect to the existing L3 switch with a new IP subnet and then use EIGRP to exchange routes. 

However don't think 2960 supports EIGRP so you may end up using static routing. 

You would need to check what is supported.

Jon