Quick Question Re Catalyst 2960G-8TCL Uplink Port

[bscisco11]

Hello Everyone,

I'd like to know if there is any difference between the dedicate uplink port on a 2960G-8TCL, and one of the other 8 ports on the switch configured as a trunk port (to be used to uplink to another 2960)?

Thanks a lot!

Mike

[Jon Marshall · Accepted solution]

Mike

Do you mean the uplinks port vs the 7 other available ports ?

If so the uplink port can be dual purpose either copper or fibre. The standard 7 other ports are not dual purpose. Apart from that you can use any of the ports on the switch to uplink to another switch, there is nothing special about the uplink port other than it being dual purpose.

Edit - obviously uplinking with copper means you are more restricted as to how far apart your switches can be.

Jon

[boss.silva · Accepted solution]

Just as a side note, it is also important to mention that for modular switches, it is very important to use the uplink ports as real uplinks, since they are directly attached to the supervisor, and should only experience an outage when there is an issue in the supervisor itself.

You don't want to run in the trouble of having an outage because a port module is having hardware issues that are not critical to the box itself.

-Bruno Silva.

[bscisco11]

Hi Bruno,

Thanks for pointing that out!  Luckily in this current case the switches are all various flavours of 2960.  I do have some work coming up involving 4500s though, and that issue may come into play.

Cheers,

Mike

[bscisco11]

Hi Jon,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

You've confirmed pretty much what I was thinking.  I just wanted to make sure there was no particular difference (other than the option for copper/sfp on the link port).

Luckily the switches are all in the same rack so cable length won't be an issue.

Thanks again!

Cheers,

Mike