Solved: What if the compact flash of switch get crash?

shahhardik · ‎08-11-2010

Hi,

I have one doubt in my mind, it may be not valid one but it is my curiosity to know. Below question is not releated to any actual network, it is the virtual one which created doubt in my mind.

My doubt is,

If i have one switch which is configured in VTP server mode and rest all switches are in VTP client mode. In this scenario if conpact flash on my Switch configured in VTP server mode get crashed, then how i can retrive my VLAN database? Though it was on compact flash in vlan.dat file.

Should i depend on the database provided by switches configured in VTP client mode, while i set up my new switch in my network with VTP server mode?

Many thanks in advance & please correct me if i'm going in wrong direction.

Regards,

Hardik

Jon Marshall · ‎08-11-2010

Hardik

You can "promote" one of your VTP clients to be a VTP server while you fix your switch and that way you can still add/remove/modify vlans. However it is recommended to always run 2 VTP servers for just this sort of thing. Having 2 VTP servers is not an issue but you can make changes on either of them and those changes will propogate to all the VTP clients + the other VTP server.

Jon

View solution in original post

Jon Marshall · ‎08-11-2010

Hardik

You can "promote" one of your VTP clients to be a VTP server while you fix your switch and that way you can still add/remove/modify vlans. However it is recommended to always run 2 VTP servers for just this sort of thing. Having 2 VTP servers is not an issue but you can make changes on either of them and those changes will propogate to all the VTP clients + the other VTP server.

Jon

shahhardik · ‎08-12-2010

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the answer. It was really helpfull.

But i have one more querry, is it ok to connect a switch with new compact flash in the network without having any switch in VTP server mode?

Regards,

Hardik

Jon Marshall · ‎08-12-2010

shahhardik wrote:

Hi Jon,

Thanks for the answer. It was really helpfull.

But i have one more querry, is it ok to connect a switch with new compact flash in the network without having any switch in VTP server mode?

Regards,

Hardik

You need to be very careful when doing this because you could overwrite the vlan database on your other switches.

Firstly on the new switch, you must make sure that it's VTP revision number is 0. So before you connect it to the network set the switch to be in VTP transparent mode and then back to VTP client mode. Note, do not set it to be VTP server.

Then choose one of your other switches which is currently a VTP client and change it to be a VTP server. Again be careful, you need to make sure that the switch you promote to a VTP server has the lastest copy of the vlan database.

Next, connect up you new switch and it should get an update from the VTP server with all the vlan details. Once this has happened you can change it back to a VTP server. Whether or not you change the other VTP server back to a VTP client is up to you but i would recommend leaving it as VTP server so you have 2 VTP servers in case this sort of thing happens again.

Jon

shahhardik · ‎08-12-2010

Jon,

That was really very helpful suggestion. I'll keep that in mind, whenever i'll implement such scenario.

Hardik.