What happened to the multi-vlan feature?

[mnewnam05]

I've read cisco documentation that discusses the multi-vlan feature on the 2900 XL series, but not for the 2950s. Is this functionality provided in a different way on the 2950s?

[Bobby Thekkekandam]

The short answer is yes, via trunking.

The multi-vlan feature was originally supported on the early 2900XL hardware since the asics used at the time did not support ISL or dot1q encapsulation. When the updated 2900XL and the 3500XL were released they had asics that did support ISL and dot1q encapsulation and so multi-vlan support was no longer required. A decision was made to keep the multi-vlan feature available for these platforms... I assume... so that customers with a mix of 'old' and 'new' hardware could configure them the same.

When the 2950 and 3550 were released a decision was made to no longer support the multi-vlan feature since the hardware of both already supported either ISL and dot1q (3550) or dot1q (2950).

HTH,

Bobby

[mnewnam05]

Thanks for the reply Bobby. This question came about because of a need for an application running on a server to communicate to devices on four different vlans. Would the best solution be for the server to have a NIC for each vlan? Or, can I connect a trunk port to the server?

[Bobby Thekkekandam]

If the server NIC supports 802.1q (most server NICs do these days) then, that would be the best solution. If not, and the server has multiple NICs, connecting them to the different VLANs would also work, or it may be better to get an 802.1q capable NIC, depending on your situation and budget.

HTH,

Bobby