Switch ports roles

whiteford · ‎10-21-2007

Hi, I have just used the Cisco Network Assistant on my Cisco Catalyst 2950 and it says I should assign ports roles via the smartport tool. Some ports have routers in them and switches, is this a good idea or not?

ankbhasi · ‎10-22-2007

Hi Andy,

You can use the smartport roles and define the port roles as router or switch or desktop etc depending on what is connected to that port.

Traditionally many people do not use CNA to configure cisco switches as they are more familiar with cisco CLI but using smartport will call the pre defined macros and configure it the way you will configure using CLI.

But if you manually configure the switchport using CLIs you can have more control and can confgure the switchport with more configurations and fine tune as per the network requirement.

HTH

Ankur

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whiteford · ‎10-22-2007

Hi Ankur,

I only use the CLI normally, just thought I'd have a look at the CNA. How would I configure them in CLI?

Also should the Native VLAN point to the default?

ankbhasi · ‎10-22-2007

Hi Andy,

Now what CLI to be used it depends what configuration you want and what is connected to that port.

Presuming switch is connected to one switchport then usually trunk is configured if multiple vlans are to be allowed or else normal access port will also do if one vlan vlan data need to be passed.

Something like this

switch(config)#interface fa0/21

switch(config-if)#switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q

switch(config-if)#switchport mode trunk

If you are connecting a desktop

switch(config-if)#switchport mode access

switch(config-if)#switchport access

If you are connected a router then depending what router is doing you can configure switchport as trunk or access port. If router is doing routing between vlans then you need to configure switchpor tas trunk or else configure it as an access vlan.

Coming to native vlan you can leave it as default which is vlan 1 but still you can change it as per your network requirement.

HTH

Ankur

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