Vlan Network Configuration on Layer 3 Switch

[NewbieCCNA]

Is it uncommon to use just vlans on switch interfaces/ports instead of ip addresses? When I went through the Cisco classes I remember we used ip addresses on the interfaces, whether it was a LAN connection or between other switches and routers. We used vlans too and also assigned ip addresses to the interfaces. 

I now work for a company in IT where it looks like just 1 interface to another switch has an ip address when I do a "show run" from our 6500-E series layer 3 switch that has about 144+ ports on it. These ports lead to end devices or other switches. We have about 15 more switches and really I have just seen an ip address for vlan 1 so that we can log onto it and manage it. The rest of the ports are in various vlans. 

I am about to set up a new small business network for a friend and will use 2 2960s switches and confused if I should put ip address on interfaces like we had done in my Cisco training or just use vlans to put the access ports in. I will be using about 3 vlans. 

Any guidance would be appreciated.  

[Georg Pauwen · Accepted solution]

Hello,

in general, you put physical interfaces in VLANs, and you use VLAN interfaces for layer 3 routing.

Putting IP addresses on physical interfaces is usually done to connect other layer 3 devices which are directly connected to that port/device.

Below is a typical switch configuration sample:

interface FastEthernet0/0

switchport access vlan 10

spanning-tree portfast

!

interface FastEthernet0/1

switchport access vlan 20

spanning-tree portfast

!

interface FastEthernet0/2

switchport access vlan 30

spanning-tree portfast

!

interface Vlan 10

ip address 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0

!

interface Vlan 20

ip address 192.168.20.1 255.255.255.0

!

interface Vlan 30

ip address 192.168.30.1 255.255.255.0

Is that what you are asking ?

[NewbieCCNA]

Thank you for the response. That does make sense and I took another look at my Cisco books and they do show routers with IP addresses, not the switches. Because our switch is used also as a router that got me a bit confused. For our Cisco classes/labs we mainly used Layer 2 switches and routers, not layer 3 switches that did the routing.  

I appreciate you taking the time to explain and remind me.