Network Design & Managment Vlan

IM-Design · ‎05-19-2009

Greetings,

I have a new network project and I would like to have some input regarding vlans and network management.

The network will consists of a series of 3560G switches connected via fiber uplinks. We will have multiple vlans to maintain separation between different groups of users and systems.

The networks we have designed to date use the default vlan as a 'management vlan' and additional vlans for various user and computer groups. Is there a better way to design the network for ease of management & security?

andrew.butterworth · ‎05-19-2009

What you describe wouldn't really be regarded as a 'good' design; more of an old-world design....

Spanning VLANs between access switches should be avoided to limit potential STP issues, it also allows for much easier fault isolation and trouble shooting. Have a read of the Hierarchical Campus SRND and the Routed Access Layer SRND to give you some ideas on network design:

http://www.cisco.com/go/srnd

With regards to a Management VLAN, again this concept is somewhat outdated and (IMO) isn't really needed any more - 1, because it means you end up spanning a VLAN everywhere, which as I mentioned earlier should be avoided, and 2, other mechanisms exist to restrict and police access to the control plane of your switches.

If you have specific Layer-2 requirements then obviously spanning VLANs between access switches is the only option. However I would only consider VMWare & clustering applications that specifically need Layer-2.

HTH

Andy