Help on Cisco Switch

vincetanth · ‎08-04-2008

My present LAN consist of 4 switches. 2 x 24 ports 2900XL Catalyst and 2 x 48 ports 2960G Catalyst. Crossed cables are seen connecting all these swtiches together. All the switches have only VLAN1. As I am running out of switch port and bought a 24 ports Catalyst 2960 Series SI LAN Lite image. Now i want to join this new switch to the LAN, how should i go about after configuring the swtich with an ip address up and running. Do i simply just find an available port in the last switch to plug in a cross cable to the new switchly setup switch? Do i have to use a particular port of any available port will do with the crossed cable? What are other things to take note? Any expert can help me out?

grichardson661 · ‎08-05-2008

Hi,

For complexity reasons, let's name your switches

2900 = 2900-1

2900 = 2900-2

2960G = 2960G-1

2960G = 2960G-2

2960NEW

I'm not sure about the 2900 series but if you connect the 2960NEW switch straight out of the box with a crossover cable to either 2960G-1/2960G-2 and each port on 2960G-1/2960G-2 has its default configuration then they will form a trunk with out applying any commands in the IOS due to each Fast Ethernet port by default being set to dynamic desirable.

It depends if the 2960G-1/2960G-2 series has had all non trunk ports switched to access ports. If they are access ports then the 2960NEW will form static access link with 2960G-1/2960G-2, this will still carry traffic but not VLAN traffic, which in your case is ok are I believe you are not using VLANS respectively.

Just to note, in your scenario, is this a production network? Are your switches linked in a line? Sw1 > Sw2 > Sw3 > Sw4? Do you have any redundant (backup) links between the switches, so if 1 link fails all 4 switches can still communicate with each other? If not, I would advise looking into Spanning Tree Protocol.

In regards to configuring the IP on the new 2960, you will need to connect a console cable and console in to the switch. Search round the Cisco website for a document which explains the commands with examples.

Hope this helps,

Garry

vincetanth · ‎08-05-2008

Thank you very much Gary for the reply and explanation. Yes, you are right, this is a production network. All the switches are link in a line. Switch 1->2->3->4. There isnt't any redundant backup. Looking at the switch configuration, it seems like a very simple one. Thanks alot!

grichardson661 · ‎08-05-2008

Ok, glad to be a help! Hope you get it sorted. If you have any more questions on this update this thread.

Garry