VLANs are a very important topic for the CCNA, CCNP, and CCIE certification. This is a very basic switching scenario where you will learn to configure three Cisco level 2 switches with multiple VLAN’s and propagate those VLANs across all three switches. You will also configure VTP to help manage the VLANs on a network wide basis.
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VLAN Lab:
This lab can be completed using Cisco 2900 or 3500 series level 2 switches. Alternatively it can also be complete using GNS3 using 3600 series router with the NM-16ESW module installed.
VLAN Description:
A virtual LAN also known as VLAN is a switched network that is logically segmented by function, team, or application, without regard to the physical location of the users. Any switch port can belong to any VLAN and all traffic is forwarded and flooded only to stations within the VLAN.
VTP Description:
VTP is a layer 2 messaging protocol that maintains VLAN configuration consistency by managing the addition, deletion and renaming of VLAN’s on a network wide basis.
Switch Management:
- Configure each switch with the hostname shown in the drawing.
- Configure the enable secret password to be cisco.
- Configure all other passwords to be sanfran.
- Configure the IP address for VLAN1 on each switch as shown in the drawing.
Configuring VTP:
- Configure the VTP domain name on each of the switches to be SwitchLab.
- Configure the VTP password to be cisco.
- Configure SW1 as a VTP server.
- Configure SW2 and SW3 as VTP client.
Create New VLANs:
- Create VLAN 10 and 20 on switch SW1.
- Assign a name to each of the VLAN created.
- Verify that the new VLAN exist in the VLAN table.
Create VLAN trunks:
A trunk is a point-to-point connection that transmits and receives traffic between the switches. Trunks carry the traffic for all the VLANS and can extend the VLANs across the entire network. There are two basic trunk protocols the default protocol from Cisco is ISL Inter-Switch-Link and only work with Cisco switches and Routers. The industry standard is 802.1Q.
- Configure SW1 E0/2 and E0/3 as VLAN trunks.
- Configure SW1 E0/2 and E0/3 with dot1q encapsulation.
- Configure SW2 and SW3 E0/24 as a VLAN trunk.
- Configure SW2 and SW3 with dot1q encapsulation.
- Verify that VLAN 10 and 20 now appear in the VLAN table of SW2 and SW3.
Save configuration on all switches.
Download this GNS3 lab scenario: {filelink=18}
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