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Switchport Connects to Server

johnlloyd_13
Level 9
Level 9

hi,

just want to verify that if we want to connect a server to a Cisco switchport, do we configure the switchport as access or trunk?

1 Accepted Solution

Accepted Solutions

Modern day server NIC's are capable of running 802.1q on their NIC. Put simply this means the server can form a trunk with the switch. So the server can be a member of multiple vlans and send traffic for all vlans at L2 across the trunk link.

This is seen quite often with VMWare servers where multiple virtual servers are each in different vlans but obviously you only have one physical NIC on the server.

Jon

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4 Replies 4

Jon Marshall
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

John

If the server is meant to be in one vlan which is by far the most common setup then the switchport should be configured -

int gi0/1

switchport mode access

switchport access vlan where x is the vlan number.

You would only configure the port as a trunk if you were using 802.1q vlan tagging on the server NIC.

Jon

thanks jon! i knew that it's going to be an access port. it's hard to argue with a server guy sometime :)

could you further add on your statement:

"You would only configure the port as a trunk if you were using 802.1q vlan tagging on the server NIC."

Modern day server NIC's are capable of running 802.1q on their NIC. Put simply this means the server can form a trunk with the switch. So the server can be a member of multiple vlans and send traffic for all vlans at L2 across the trunk link.

This is seen quite often with VMWare servers where multiple virtual servers are each in different vlans but obviously you only have one physical NIC on the server.

Jon

thanks for the enlightenment jon!

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