Configuring VLANs on Cisco Switches – Practical Networking .net (2024)

We’ve before written about VLANs and what they can do as a concept. This article will focus on configuring VLANs on Cisco switches.

We will look at each command necessary to configure the topology below. If this topology looks familiar, it is because you saw it in the article which described how VLANs operated on a conceptual level.

We will first look at what goes into configuring the access ports in the topology above, followed by what goes into configuring the trunk ports. Then we will look at some verification and show commands to validate what is configured. Finally, we will look at the default configuration for a switch port, so we know our starting point when we are applying the commands we discuss.

Contents: Configuring VLANs on Cisco Switches

• Access Ports
  • Creating the VLAN in the VLAN Database
  • Assigning the Switchport to a VLAN
• Trunk Ports
  • Native VLAN
  • Allowed VLAN List
• Show Commands
  • show vlan brief
  • show interfaces trunk
  • show interfaces switchport
  • show interfaces status
  • show spanning-tree
• Default Switchport Setting
  • Dynamic Trunking Protocol
  • Default Access Port Settings
  • Default Trunk Port Settings
• Summary

Access Ports

An access port is a switch port that is a member of only one VLAN. There are two parts to configuring an access port: creating the VLAN in the switch’s VLAN Database and assigning the switch port to a VLAN.

Creating the VLAN in the VLAN Database

Before a switch will accept or forward traffic for a VLAN, the VLAN must exist in the switch’s VLAN Database. Adding a VLAN to the VLAN database requires only one command:

SwitchX(config)# vlan 10

From this point, you can also optionally name the VLAN. While not explicitly necessary for traffic to flow, it is best practice to provide a name for each VLAN. This will make the VLAN easier to identify.

To name a VLAN, simply use the name; command directly after creating it.

SwitchX(config-vlan)# name RED

For VLAN 20, we will create and name the VLAN on SwitchX:

SwitchX(config)# vlan 20SwitchX(config-vlan)# name ORANGE

Assigning the Switchport to a VLAN

Now that the VLAN is in the VLAN database, we can configure a switch port to be an access port for a particular VLAN. There are two commands within the interface configuration mode for this step:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 0/0SwitchX(config-if)# switchport mode accessSwitchX(config-if)# switchport access vlan 10

The switchport mode access command sets the port as an access port, and the switchport access vlan <#> command designates the port as a member of VLAN 10.

Some versions of Cisco switches automatically create the VLAN in the VLAN Database when you assign an access port to a VLAN:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 0/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport mode accessSwitchX(config-if)# switchport access vlan 30% Access VLAN does not exist. Creating vlan 30

However, it is not recommended that you depend on this. Some switches will do it, some will not. Some switches will not create the VLAN and also not report any errors, leaving you confused as to why traffic might not be flowing. Moreover, this creates the VLAN with a generic name – the name for VLAN 30 above defaults to VLAN0030, which is not very helpful.

As such, we always recommend to create and name a VLAN before assigning it anywhere. If you happen to forget to name it first, you can always update the name of a VLAN in that database after the fact:

SwitchX(config)# vlan 30SwitchX(config-vlan)# name BLUE

In summary, the two steps to configure an access port:

• Create and optionally (but ideally) name the VLAN
• Set a switch port as an access port and designate it as a member of a VLAN

Both steps will also need to be accomplished for each VLAN and switch port on SwitchY. First we will create and name each VLAN:

SwitchY(config)# vlan 10SwitchY(config-vlan)# name REDSwitchY(config-vlan)# exitSwitchY(config)# vlan 20SwitchY(config-vlan)# name ORANGESwitchY(config-vlan)# exitSwitchY(config)# vlan 30SwitchY(config-vlan)# name BLUESwitchY(config-vlan)# exit

Then we will set Eth0/2 and Eth0/3 as access ports in VLANs 10 and 30, respectively:

SwitchY(config)# interface Ethernet 0/2SwitchY(config-if)# switchport mode accessSwitchY(config-if)# switchport access vlan 10SwitchY(config-if)# exitSwitchY(config)# interface Ethernet 0/3SwitchY(config-if)# switchport mode accessSwitchY(config-if)# switchport access vlan 30SwitchY(config-if)# exit

The commands above created the following configuration in the running-configuration for each switch:

SwitchX# show running-config...vlan 10 name RED!vlan 20 name ORANGE!vlan 30 name BLUE...interface Ethernet0/0 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access!interface Ethernet0/1 switchport access vlan 30 switchport mode access...

SwitchY# show running-config...vlan 10 name RED!vlan 20 name ORANGE!vlan 30 name BLUE...interface Ethernet0/2 switchport access vlan 10 switchport mode access!interface Ethernet0/3 switchport access vlan 30 switchport mode access...

Trunk Ports

As discussed before, a trunk port is a switch port that is carrying more than one VLAN.

Traffic traversing a trunk port is still in the form of 1s and 0s. To designate which 1s and 0s belong to which VLANs, a VLAN Tag is added to all traffic leaving a trunk port. The 802.1q standard specifies the ubiquitous format for the VLAN tag.

Creating a trunk port involves only one command:

SwitchY(config)# interface Ethernet1/1SwitchY(config-if)# switchport mode trunk

Just like switchport mode access set the port as an access port, switchport mode trunk will set the port as a trunk port.

Some switches support more than one method for adding the VLAN tag. Namely, some switches support the antiquated ISL method of VLAN tagging. Before these switches allow you to set a port as a trunk port, they force you to set a tagging method, also called an encapsulation method:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet1/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport mode trunkCommand rejected: An interface whose trunk encapsulation is "Auto" can not be configured to "trunk" mode.

For these switches, you simply use the switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q command before setting the switchport as a trunk port:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet1/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk encapsulation dot1qSwitchX(config-if)# switchport mode trunk

We will also configure Eth2/1 and Eth2/2 on SwitchX as trunk ports:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 2/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk encapsulation dot1qSwitchX(config-if)# switchport mode trunkSwitchX(config-if)# exitSwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 2/2SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk encapsulation dot1qSwitchX(config-if)# switchport mode trunkSwitchX(config-if)# exit

This is all you need to create a trunk port. With the configuration above, the switch will forward traffic from all VLANs in the VLAN Database out the configured trunk port.

That being said, there are some additional helpful settings you can apply to a trunk port to modify the default behavior. We will discuss two of them in the sections that follow.

Native VLAN

The Native VLAN is the one VLAN on a trunk port which is allowed to remain untagged. By default, this is set to VLAN 1, but this can be changed by an administrator.

To set the Native VLAN, you use this command:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 1/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk native vlan 2

After setting this command, any time SwitchX is sending traffic on VLAN 2 out the trunk port Eth1/1, it will do so without adding a VLAN tag. Moreover, anytime SwitchX receives untagged traffic on trunk port Eth1/1, SwitchX will assign that traffic to VLAN 2.

An important point to remember: both switches on either end of the same trunk must have the same Native VLAN. Otherwise, you easily run the risk of a host in one VLAN being able to communicate with a host in another VLAN.

Therefore, we will set the same Native VLAN on SwitchY:

SwitchY(config)# interface Ethernet 1/1SwitchY(config-if)# switchport trunk native vlan 2

We will also set another VLAN as the Native VLAN for Eth2/1 and Eth2/2 ports, facing Router1 and Router2, respectively. This is to show that the Native VLAN configuration is a per-interface configuration, not a per-device configuration. But keep in mind, in most deployments the Native VLAN is typically consistent across all ports.

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 2/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk native vlan 3SwitchX(config-if)# exitSwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 2/2SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk native vlan 3SwitchX(config-if)# exit

Allowed VLAN List

By default, when an interface is set as a trunk port, traffic from all the VLANs in the VLAN database is forwarded out that switch port.

There are times, however, where it is wise to limit which VLAN’s traffic is traversing a particular trunk. This can be done by applying what is known as an Allowed VLAN list. An Allowed VLAN list allows the administrator to manually select which VLANs are traversing a trunk port.

Take a look at the illustration. Notice that the trunk port to Router1 is only processing traffic for VLAN 10 and 20, but if the trunk port is left to its default behavior, SwitchX will be forwarding traffic to Router1 from VLANs 10, 20, and 30. The VLAN 30 traffic will simply be dropped by Router1, but it does needlessly add congestion to the link.

To solve this, we will add an Allowed VLAN list to Eth2/1 on SwitchX to restrict which VLANs are traversing the trunk port:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 2/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20

This will limit the VLANs which are traversing the trunk port to Router1 to only the VLANs which actually need to be on that link.

The trunk port to Router2 can also be limited to only carry traffic for VLAN 20 and 30. Below is another way of applying an Allowed VLAN list which shows how to add VLANs to the list after initially creating it:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet 2/2SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan 20SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan add 30

Notice the important keyword add in the second command above. This instructs the switch to add VLAN 30 traffic to whatever VLANs are already allowed on the link.

Had the keyword add been omitted, the switch will have replaced the current Allowed VLAN List (which was allowing just VLAN 20) with the new one (which was allowing just VLAN 30). If Router1 was the gateway for the traffic in VLAN 20, all that traffic would now be dropped – creating a decidedly poor experience for the users in that VLAN.

As such, it is very important to either apply the full list of VLANs in one command (as in the first example), or to use the add command to add VLANs to the current allowed VLAN list.

You also have the option of using the remove keyword to remove individual VLANs from the allowed VLAN list.

In fact, the remove keyword provides one more way to apply an allowed VLAN list to a trunk port. Take a look at the link between SwitchX and SwitchY. Notice VLAN 20 does not need to be traversing that link.

Rather than simply adding an Allowed VLAN list with VLANs 10 and 30, you can also simply remove VLAN 20 from the default configuration. We’ll show you how it works with the trunk port between the switches (Eth1/1):

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet1/1SwitchX(config-if)# switchport trunk allowed vlan remove 20

This automatically applies an Allowed VLAN list for every VLAN except VLAN 20:

SwitchX# show running-config interface Ethernet 1/1interface Ethernet1/1 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 2 switchport trunk allowed vlan 1-19,21-4094 switchport mode trunkend 

Since the default trunk port behavior was to allow all VLANs, removing VLAN 20 caused the switch to apply an Allowed VLAN list which included every VLAN (1 – 4094), except VLAN 20.

That said, this is typically not the way you would apply a new Allowed VLAN list to an interface – the remove keyword is more often used to remove individual VLANs from an already added Allowed VLAN list. We will remove the Allowed VLAN list on Eth1/1, and leave that port configured as a default trunk port – allowing traffic for all VLANs to traverse the trunk:

SwitchX(config)# interface Ethernet1/1SwitchX(config-if)# no switchport trunk allowed vlan

The commands above created the following configuration in the running-configuration for each switch:

SwitchX# show running-config...interface Ethernet1/1 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 2 switchport mode trunk!interface Ethernet2/1 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 3 switchport trunk allowed vlan 10,20 switchport mode trunk!interface Ethernet2/2 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 3 switchport trunk allowed vlan 20,30 switchport mode trunk!...

SwitchY# show running-config...interface Ethernet1/1 switchport trunk encapsulation dot1q switchport trunk native vlan 2 switchport mode trunk!...

Show Commands

The commands above explain the steps forconfiguring VLANs on Cisco Switches. The output at the end of each sectiondisplayedthe way the configurations appears in the running-configuration. However, the running-configuration will only show how a device is configured – it will not show how a device operates.

This is an important distinction – a talented network engineer needs to not only know how to configure VLANs, but also how to validate their operation as well. To that end, we will discuss five show commands that can be used to verify a device’s operation – how it is actually handling traffic.

• show vlan brief
• show interfaces trunk
• show interfaces switchport
• show interfaces status
• show spanning-tree

show vlan brief

The show vlan brief command provides two main pieces of information:

• The VLANs which exist in the switch’s VLAN Database
• The access ports configured in each VLAN

Here is what the output from both our switches:

SwitchX# show vlan briefVLAN Name Status Ports---- -------------------------------- --------- -------------------------------1 default active Et0/2, Et0/3, Et1/0, Et1/2 Et1/3, Et2/0, Et2/3, Et3/0 Et3/1, Et3/2, Et3/310 RED active Et0/020 ORANGE active30 BLUE active Et0/1

SwitchY# show vlan briefVLAN Name Status Ports---- -------------------------------- --------- -------------------------------1 default active Et0/0, Et0/1, Et1/0, Et1/2 Et1/3, Et2/0, Et2/1, Et2/2 Et2/3, Et3/0, Et3/1, Et3/2 Et3/310 RED active Et0/220 ORANGE active30 BLUE active Et0/3

For both switches, the command displays VLANs 1, 10, 20, and 30. These are the only VLANs that were created in the VLAN database. Should the switch receive traffic tagged for a VLAN other than these, that traffic will be discarded.

For each VLAN, the VLAN’s name is also provided. Notice VLANs 10, 20, and 30 are named RED, ORANGE, and BLUE, respectively.

Also notice VLAN 1 exists and is named default, despite us not explicitly creating it. This is because VLAN 1 is the default configuration that every switch port starts out in. The switch will not allow you to delete VLAN 1 or change its name.

The Status column reflects whether the VLAN is active on the switch. A VLAN can become inactive for two reasons. The first is explicitly using the shutdown command within the VLAN configuration mode. The second is a VLAN existing in the database, but having no access ports or trunk ports utilizing that VLAN.

On the far right of output, under the Ports column, you get a list of each access port in each VLAN. We configured SwitchX’s Eth0/0 interface in VLAN 10, and the output reflects that. Also notice the port Eth1/1 is nowhere to be found. This is because Eth1/1 was configured as a trunk port, and will not be visible in the output of show vlan brief.

show interfaces trunk

If show vlan brief is the go-to command to show you information about access ports on a switch, then show interfaces trunk is the go-to command to show you information about trunk ports on a switch.

There are four sections to the output of this command. To the untrained eye, it might appear like some of the information is duplicate – but this is not the case.

SwitchX# show interfaces trunkPort Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlanEt1/1 on 802.1q trunking 2Et2/1 on 802.1q trunking 3Et2/2 on 802.1q trunking 3Port Vlans allowed on trunkEt1/1 1-4094Et2/1 10,20Et2/2 20,30Port Vlans allowed and active in management domainEt1/1 1,10,20,30Et2/1 10,20Et2/2 20,30Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not prunedEt1/1 1,10,20,30Et2/1 10,20Et2/2 20,30

SwitchY# show interfaces trunkPort Mode Encapsulation Status Native vlanEt1/1 on 802.1q trunking 2Port Vlans allowed on trunkEt1/1 1-4094Port Vlans allowed and active in management domainEt1/1 1,10,20,30Port Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not prunedEt1/1 1,10,20,30

The first section of the output lists each interface which is operationally behaving like a trunk port. This will make more sense a little later in the article when we discuss a mechanism that lets a switch port automatically determine whether it should be a trunk port. In the case above, we explicitly configured ports Eth1/1, Eth2/1, and Eth2/2 on SwitchX and port Eth1/1 on SwitchY as trunk ports.

The first section also lists what method of Encapsulation is in use (i.e., what method of VLAN tagging), as well as the VLAN configured as the Native VLAN for each trunk.

The second section, labeled Vlans allowed on trunk, is a reflection of which VLANs have made it through any configured Allowed VLAN lists on each trunk port. On SwitchX, we created two Allowed VLAN lists, one allowing VLAN 10 and 20 on Eth2/1, and another allowing VLANs 20 and 30 on Eth2/2. Interface Eth1/1 did not have any VLANs restricted, so therefore all possible VLANs are listed as allowed on the trunk port – VLANs IDs can only be 1 – 4094.

The third section, labeled Vlans allowed and active in management domain, is a combination of the section before it (Vlans allowed on trunk) and the VLANs which are created in the VLAN database (i.e., visible in show vlan brief). Despite all VLANs being allowed on Eth1/1 (as indicated by the 1-4094 in the second section), only VLANs 1, 10, 20, and 30 exist in the VLAN database.

The fourth section, labeled Vlans in spanning tree forwarding state and not pruned, is a combination of the last two sections and the ports the Spanning Tree Protocol deems as safe to forward traffic.

The Spanning Tree Protocol (STP) exists to ensure the L2 domain does not contain any loops. If any are detected, those ports are disabled. In our topology, there are no loops, so the output of the fourth section looks identical to the output of the third section because STP did not disable any ports. STP is a fascinating protocol, but its operation is outside the scope of this article – it will be the subject of a future article.

show interfaces switchport

The show interfaces switchport command can give you an overwhelming amount of information. Using the command by itself shows you 26 pieces of information for each interface on your switch (or more, depending on the code version you are using).

Rather than try to sift through all that, you can specify a particular interface to get those same 26 pieces of information for just the desired interface using the command show interfaces <intf> switchport.

For the sake of brevity and relevance, the output below has been trimmed to just show the lines which relate to something discussed in this article. There is an example of the full output of this command later in this article.

SwitchX# show interfaces Ethernet 0/1 switchportSwitchport: EnabledAdministrative Mode: static accessOperational Mode: static accessAdministrative Trunking Encapsulation: negotiateOperational Trunking Encapsulation: nativeNegotiation of Trunking: OffAccess Mode VLAN: 30 (BLUE)Trunking Native Mode VLAN: 1 (default)Trunking VLANs Enabled: ALL

SwitchY# show interfaces Ethernet 2/2 switchportSwitchport: EnabledAdministrative Mode: trunkOperational Mode: trunkAdministrative Trunking Encapsulation: dot1qOperational Trunking Encapsulation: dot1qNegotiation of Trunking: OnAccess Mode VLAN: 1 (default)Trunking Native Mode VLAN: 3 (Inactive)Trunking VLANs Enabled: 20,30

The description of each line in the output above is in the table that follows.

show interfaces status

Typically, the show interfaces status command is associated with seeing whether devices are plugged into a switchport or not (connected vs notconnect in the Status column). However, this command can also reveal some information about the VLAN configuration of a switchport.

Namely, if you see a number in the VLAN column, then the switchport is an access Port in the provided VLAN. And if you see the word trunk, then the switchport is configured as a trunk port.

SwitchX# show interfaces statusPort Name Status Vlan Duplex Speed TypeEt0/0 connected 10 auto auto unknownEt0/1 connected 30 auto auto unknownEt1/1 connected trunk auto auto unknownEt2/1 connected trunk auto auto unknownEt2/2 connected trunk auto auto unknown

SwitchY# show interfaces statusPort Name Status Vlan Duplex Speed TypeEt0/2 connected 10 auto auto unknownEt0/3 connected 30 auto auto unknownEt1/1 connected trunk auto auto unknown

show spanning-tree

The show spanning-tree command is obviously mostly associated with verifying the Spanning Tree Protocol, but it can also provide useful VLAN configuration information.

Earlier we talked about show vlan brief, which provides information about interfaces configured as access ports. We also talked about show interfaces trunk, which provides information about interfaces configured as trunk ports. The show spanning-tree vlan <VLAN-ID#> command provides information on both access ports and trunk ports.

Specifically, you can use this command to see every switchport a VLAN is exiting.

SwitchX# show spanning-tree vlan 10Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------Et0/0 Desg FWD 100 128.1 ShrEt1/1 Desg FWD 100 128.6 ShrEt2/1 Desg FWD 100 128.10 ShrSwitchX# show spanning-tree vlan 20Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------Et1/1 Desg FWD 100 128.6 ShrEt2/1 Desg FWD 100 128.10 ShrEt2/2 Desg FWD 100 128.11 ShrSwitchX# show spanning-tree vlan 30Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------Et0/1 Desg FWD 100 128.2 ShrEt1/1 Desg FWD 100 128.6 ShrEt2/2 Desg FWD 100 128.11 Shr

SwitchY# show spanning-tree vlan 10Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------Et0/2 Desg FWD 100 128.3 ShrEt1/1 Root FWD 100 128.6 ShrSwitchY# show spanning-tree vlan 20Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------Et1/1 Root FWD 100 128.6 ShrSwitchY# show spanning-tree vlan 30Interface Role Sts Cost Prio.Nbr Type------------------- ---- --- --------- -------- --------------------------------Et0/3 Desg FWD 100 128.4 ShrEt1/1 Root FWD 100 128.6 Shr

We configured SwitchX with one access port in VLAN 10 (Eth0/0), and two trunk ports which are permitting VLAN 10 (Eth1/1 and Eth2/1). Looking at the output of the show spanning-tree vlan 10 command on SwitchX, we can see all three of the ports that VLAN 10 traffic is egressing.

You won’t easily be able to determine whether the port is configured as an access port or a trunk port. But you will be able to easily determine to what other devices a VLAN’s traffic is going to by comparing the output of show spanning-tree to show cdp neighbors:

SwitchX# show cdp neighborsCapability Codes: R - Router, B - Source Route Bridge, S - Switch, I - IGMPDevice ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port IDrouter2 Eth 2/2 172 R B Linux Uni Eth 0/2router1 Eth 2/1 131 R B Linux Uni Eth 0/1SwitchY Eth 1/1 169 R S I Linux Uni Eth 1/1

SwitchY# show cdp neighborsCapability Codes: R - Router, B - Source Route Bridge, S - Switch, I - IGMPDevice ID Local Intrfce Holdtme Capability Platform Port IDSwitchX Eth 1/1 143 R S I Linux Uni Eth 1/1

We can see that VLAN 10 on SwitchX is going to Router1 and SwitchY, as well as a third device (which we know is Host A, who isn’t participating in CDP). VLAN 20 on SwitchY is only going to SwitchX. Using these two commands in conjunction with each other is a great way to trace the L2 path through a network between two devices.

Default Switchport Setting

Finally, before configuring VLANs with the commands discussed in this article, it is important to know the starting point for each interface.

Nearly all Cisco features come with a certain default configuration. These exist and are in place so that the device can perform (maybe with limited features, but nonetheless) without any configuration required.

Knowing the default configuration is crucial to be an effective engineer because if you know how something works innately, you know exactly what needs to change to get it to work the way you want it to. To that end, we will spend some time discussing the default switch port configuration applied to Cisco switches.

First, here is the output of show interfaces switchport for an unmodified interface. There are three items we must discuss from the output below:

SwitchX# show interfaces eth0/2 switchportName: Et0/2Switchport: EnabledAdministrative Mode: dynamic autoOperational Mode: downAdministrative Trunking Encapsulation: negotiateOperational Trunking Encapsulation: nativeNegotiation of Trunking: OnAccess Mode VLAN: 1 (default)Trunking Native Mode VLAN: 1 (default)Administrative Native VLAN tagging: enabledVoice VLAN: noneAdministrative private-vlan host-association: noneAdministrative private-vlan mapping: noneAdministrative private-vlan trunk native VLAN: noneAdministrative private-vlan trunk Native VLAN tagging: enabledAdministrative private-vlan trunk encapsulation: dot1qAdministrative private-vlan trunk normal VLANs: noneAdministrative private-vlan trunk associations: noneAdministrative private-vlan trunk mappings: noneOperational private-vlan: noneTrunking VLANs Enabled: ALLPruning VLANs Enabled: 2-1001Capture Mode DisabledCapture VLANs Allowed: ALLAppliance trust: none

Dynamic Trunking Protocol

The first items we will discuss from the default switch port configuration above have to do with the Dynamic Trunking Protocol, or DTP. Take a look at these lines from the output above:

Administrative Mode: dynamic autoOperational Mode: down

As discussed before, the two modes correlate to the configured mode (administrative) and the negotiated mode (operational). The distinction exists as a result of the Dynamic Trunking Protocol (DTP).

Cisco created DTP to further the idea of ‘plug and play’ switches. They created a protocol where if two switches were linked to each other, they could automatically determine whether their interlink should be a trunk port or an access port. It works based upon four modes an interface can be set to:

• switchport mode dynamic desirable – actively attempt to negotiate trunk
• switchport mode dynamic auto – passively attempt to negotiate trunk
• switchport mode trunk – statically set as trunk
• switchport mode access – statically set as access

The configuration of both sides of the link will determine whether the link will negotiate as a trunk port or an access port. The table below lists every possible combination

The issue with DTP is it provides a means for the other side of a link to modify the behavior of your side of the link. When you control both sides this might not seem like a terrible feature, but if you are ever in a situation where you only control your device, DTP gives too much power to the other side.

As such, it is often recommended to avoid DTP automatically determining the trunk status and instead manually set a port as trunk or access using the commands we discussed earlier in this article (switchport mode trunk or switchport mode access).

Even with the switch port mode statically set, however, your switch will still send DTP frames. This is how the other side knows how your side is configured. Again, if you own both sides the risk is negligible, but if you might not control the other side, then this is undesirable.

You can disable the sending of DTP frames by also adding to the interface configuration this command: switchport nonegotiate. This will disable the periodic sending of DTP frames to advertise the switch port mode of the local switch.

You can view whether a switch port has negotiation disabled in the output of the command above. The specific line which indicates it is the following:

Negotiation of Trunking: On

To summarize, the default DTP behavior of an unmodified interface is:

• switchport mode dynamic auto
• negotiation of DTP enabled

Which means the link will automatically become a trunk if the other side is configured with switchport mode dynamic desirable or if the other side is configured with switchport mode trunk and switchport nonegotiate is not applied.

Default Access Port Settings

From the output above, the following line correlates to the access port configuration:

Access Mode VLAN: 1 (default)

Whether a switch port is statically set (or negotiated) as an access port or not, this attribute exists and is configurable via the switchport access vlan <#> command. Of course, it doesn’t affect the behavior of the switchport unless the switchport becomes an access port.

A potential use case is if you are transitioning a port from a trunk port to an access port, you can “preset” the access-port VLAN so that once you apply the switchport mode access command, it is already in the appropriate VLAN.

In any case, notice the default configuration has every switchport in VLAN 1.

A switch is a device which facilitates communication within networks. You can take a Cisco switch and simply connect two hosts and everything will “just work”. It will do so because all the ports start in VLAN 1, so that there is no L2 segregation between the switch ports on switch’s default configuration. This lines up with Cisco’s goal of making their switches “plug and play”.

Default Trunk Port Settings

Lastly, the following lines in the output above correlate to the trunk port configuration:

Administrative Trunking Encapsulation: negotiateOperational Trunking Encapsulation: native...Trunking Native Mode VLAN: 1 (default)...Trunking VLANs Enabled: ALL

We discussed DTP earlier, but we did not mention that DTP also negotiates the encapsulation method.

Administrative Trunking Encapsulation indicates whether DTP will determine the encapsulation method or whether it is statically set via the switchport trunk encapsulation command.

Operational Trunking Encapsulation indicates the chosen or configured encapsulation method. If the port becomes a trunk port, there are only two options for this attribute: the ubiquitous 802.1q and the archaic ISL. On an access port, this line will display native (as above), indicating no VLAN tag will be added to traffic leaving this switch port.

Trunking Native Mode VLAN indicates the Native VLAN on the port. Once again, this setting will only take place if the port becomes a trunk port. This setting can be modified with the switchport trunk native vlan <#> command.

Trunking VLANs Enabled reflects the Allowed VLAN list applied to the port. ALL indicates no VLANs have been restricted from the trunk, and therefore every VLAN in the VLAN database will traverse down the trunk. As with the other trunk configurations, this has no effect if the port is in access mode.

Configuring VLANs — Summary

This article is meant to follow the article discussing VLANs as a concept. The focus of this article was to understand the different configuration and verification commands that exist to modify or validate how a switch is behaving in regards to its VLANs.

As with all written guides, practice is key. We encourage you to build out the topology above in a lab or emulator (GNS3 / Packet-Tracer) and to practice configuring VLANs using the commands described above.

If you want an additional challenge, build out the topology in the VLAN Challenge from the other article. Note, you will need to disable CDP and DTP on most of your interfaces to avoid warnings.

If you are able to successfully build out that topology (as well as answer the two challenge questions in the previous article), then you can rest assured knowing you havemastered the concept of Configuring VLANs on Cisco switches.