VTP server

erodrig · ‎03-26-2010

hi all

how many vtp servers (version 2) are recommended to configure in a switched network and at what layer (core, distribution or access)?

thanks

Giuseppe Larosa · ‎03-26-2010

Hello Erodrig,

two VTP servers for redundancy are recommended.

if you have a L3 core, the VTP servers will be at the distribution layer, two for each switch block and you will have multilple VTP domains.

if you have L2 to the core your best choice is the two core switches.

Hope to help

Giuseppe

Edison Ortiz · ‎03-26-2010

It's recommended not to use VTP for Vlan management as a security precaution.

There are pros and cons to the VTP ability to make changes easily on a network.

Many enterprises prefer a cautious approach and use VTP transparent mode for these reasons:

This practice encourages good change control because the requirement to modify a VLAN on a switch or trunk port must be considered one switch at a time.
VTP transparent mode limits the risk of an administrator error, such as accidental deletion of a VLAN. Such errors can impact the entire domain.
VLANs can be pruned from trunks down to switches that do not have ports in the VLAN. This results in frame flooding to be more bandwidth-efficient. Manual pruning also has a reduced spanning-tree diameter.

See the Dynamic Trunking Protocol section for more information. A per-switch VLAN configuration also encourages this practice.

There is no risk of the introduction into the network of a new switch with a higher VTP revision number that overwrites the entire domain

VLAN configuration.

Cisco IOS Software VTP transparent mode is supported in Campus Manager 3.2, which is part of CiscoWorks2000.

The earlier restriction that requires you to have at least one server in a VTP domain has been removed.

Regards

Edison