6500 series: Clients connect to vlans intermittently, or not at all

[sab.ryan]

I have a Cisco 6500 series with four modules, who's only job in the world is to

have 3 Vlans, 2 lacp-channel ports and a trunk port. ans will never connect to any other switches and routers

Setup required:

Module 3: is a 16 port gigabit switch.

ports 3/1-4 = lacp-channel enabled set to on

ports 3/1 = Trunk port

ports 3/5-8 = vlan10

ports 3/9-12 = vlan64

ports 3/13-16= vlan 256

This is what I did:

clear the configuration on the 6500

reset the 6500

set vtp to transparent mode

disable pruning

disable spaning tree

set up channel protocol on module 3 to LACP

set up 3/1-4 as lacp-channel

set up trunking on 3/1 and set it to on DOT1Q

setup 3 vlans as shown above

I connected a netware server running ANS (advance networking services) in ALB mode (2 nics using load balancing mode)

I am running netware IPX (four frame types) and also IP

when I do a show trunk, I see my trunk port being enabled on the 3 vlans,

My clients connect ocasionally, it takes many tries, but I may not connect at all.

If I take my clients and server to non cisco switch with vlans enabled, I am able to connect inmediately.

My Cisco will not be used for anything else, it is a simple setup.

Although my trunk port is shared among the 3 vlans, servers and client can not see each other.

Any advice from the gurus?

[edmonds_robert]

Do you have the MSFC (Multilayer Switch Feature Card)? You are going to need some kind of layer 3 funcionality to route between the VLANs.

[sab.ryan]

no, I do not, my Vlans are within the same module and my clients and server are connecting in the same module.

[edmonds_robert]

Being on the same module will not allow different VLANs to see each other. Here are your choices.

1. Purchase the appropriate MSFC card for your switch to perform multlilayer switching.

2. Purchase an external router to perfrom inter-VLAN routing (although I'm not sure if this is support on the 6000's.)

3. Bridge between the VLANs, which basically defeats the purpose of creating VLANs anyway, which is to create separate broadcast domains.

4. Put all of the ports in the same VLAN.

Remember, VLANs are implemented at layer 2 of the OSI model, along with switching/bridging. In order for traffic to move between VLANs, which should be separate IP subnets, you need a device that operates at layer 3 of the OSI model. That means a router (MSFC).