Route multiple VLANs through single port

[dpatino02]

Hello,

I have a series of 3560g's setup. I am going to be connecting two of them between different offices via a fiber cable. I use 3 VLANs and am unable to find a way to make this work.

Each site will have 5 switches. 2 for VLAN1, 2 for VLAN2, and one that has VLAN1-3 on it. Is it possible to link the two sites together with the single cable in a manner that allows the two connected to route the 3 VLANs through this one cable?

[Reza Sharifi]

Hi,

Yes you can.  You need to make the connection between the sites a trunk port so it can carry all the vlans.

example:

inter gi0/0

switchport

switchport mode trunk

switchport trunk enca dot1q

HTH

[dpatino02]

Alright, thanks. I'm a bit of a novice with configuring these situations. So I make each of the ports a trunk port, but then how does the switch know which VLAN to pass traffic to when it gets to the other switch?

[carlosacosta234]

All VLANs are allowed by default in a trunk link, in your case, you must create the same VLAN on both switches if you're not using a VTP server.

Regards.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

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Posting

Just to clarify, only the ports, on the link between the switches, are defined as trunk ports.

By default, each switch will send all its defined VLANs to the trunk port.  If both switches have the same VLAN, those VLANs will become logically one.