VLAN IP Address

Hey... had a question about assigning an IP Address to VLANs. I know that we give VLAN1 an IP Address in order to remotely manage the switch. But suppose we have a few VLANs set up on the switch as well. We have VLAN100, VLAN200, and VLAN300. Do we need to give an IP Address to all VLAN interfaces? Or is giving an IP to VLAN1 good enough...? If VLAN1 has an IP we can still get to the switch... so I am not sure if assigning an IP to all other VLAN interfaces makes sense. Thanks everyone!

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hypnotoad

up2thetime wrote: »

Hey... had a question about assigning an IP Address to VLANs. I know that we give VLAN1 an IP Address in order to remotely manage the switch. But suppose we have a few VLANs set up on the switch as well. We have VLAN100, VLAN200, and VLAN300. Do we need to give an IP Address to all VLAN interfaces? Or is giving an IP to VLAN1 good enough...? If VLAN1 has an IP we can still get to the switch... so I am not sure if assigning an IP to all other VLAN interfaces makes sense. Thanks everyone!

If you want to just get to the switch, the VLAN1 IP is enough. You could give an IP to VLAN100 etc if you wanted to do L3 switching or set up some ACLs for security...but for plain old management all you need is the VLAN1 IP.

kalebksp

Assuming that we are only discussing layer 2 switches you would generally assign an IP address to your management VLAN interface (SVI). Which may or may not be VLAN1 (best practices are to not use VLAN 1).

You would need to use router on a stick or a layer 3 switch to route between the VLANs so that you can access the management SVI on your layer 2 switch from outside the management VLAN.

jason_lunde

Ya, on a layer 2 switch such as a 2950, you will generally just have one management vlan such as VLAN 1 with an IP address. As Kale mentioned it is best practice to change that management vlan to something else since 1 is the known default. Note that on a L2 switch though when you assign an IP address to say vlan 100 and give it the no shut command, it will be the only active Vlan interface on the switch; all others will be shut down. It will have the be the vlan used for remote access.

You will assign more than one SVI an ip address however on a L3 switch where you want to perform some inter-vlan routing. Switches like 3550's, 3560's, 3750's, 4500's, etc.... are capable of performing these types of actions. HTH's

up2thetime

Thank you everyone. That helps!