Could Someone VERY PATIENT Explain Something? (VoIP, VLANs, Gateways)

[JRA]

Get the sock puppets and crayons out, I'm struggling...

 

So, we are putting in a new VoIP phone system. We sort of have one but it's been horrid.

 

Currently, VoIP has its own VLAN, very nice. Our core switch is the gateway. We'll be getting (as part of the new one) a Draytek router, new PBX server and the Draytek router will do the DHCP for the subnet and VLAN (currently the IP phones are on static addresses.)

 

I think I am right in thinking that the new Draytek will be our gateway out of the VLAN once it's set up, and the core switch won't be. My questions (and things I'm not fully getting) are:

 

1 - How will I administer the phone system (DHCP etc) from then on? If my core switch is no longer the gateway, would I stick, say a VM in the VoIP VLAN and give that a static in the new Draytek and administer it from that? Would it even be possible?

 

2 - If the core switch (HP ZL) is no longer the gateway for the VLAN, how do I "keep" the VLAN itself and point the gateway to something that's not the core switch anymore? Is that something you can "just do" or not?

 

3 - If I'm confused beyond help here, would it be in any way easier to just get a set of switches JUST for the phones?

 

Thanks everyone, I'm sorry. :/

[djm968]

1 - You can just set the IP address/Subnet and Gateway details of the device you are using to administer the phone system to an addresses in the same range as the Draytek router.

2 - Yes you can just do this, you just need to set the gateway of the VLAN to the address of the Draytek router.

Edited July 23, 2019 by djm968

[Davit2005]

Why has it been suggested to move the gateway of the voice vlan to the DrayTek. Normally you need to set specific settings for phones on DHCP servers i.e.tftp servers etc.

 

Personally I'd leave the VOIP gateway on the core and use your windows DHCP which will have much better managebility/options than a DrayTek will. Seems like going backwards and I have never experienced/administered such a setup.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Davit2005

[Davit2005]

I've even had the debate with BT who moved my home phone over to Cloud Voice system saying I needed to use their Hub for the VOIP phone to work. Of course it didn't :-) .

 

Admitedly I did set an IP reservation for the phone and let the traffic flow freely to the Internet but only for SIP/VOIP related traffic from my over protective firewalls :-) . It still has it's gateway on the core switch I have at home and gets its DHCP settings from my Windows server.

Edited July 23, 2019 by Davit2005

[Davit2005]

In answer to your questions yes you could just remove the gateway from the core switch and then present it either tagged or untagged to an interface on the Draytek that you would set up with the VOIP gateway.

 

As for administrating the phone system I guess would need to be done through the gateway some how but maybe a question for them, maybe that is why they want it seperate.

[mavhc]

Managed VoIP services always want to control as much as possible as SIP is fragile, for smaller deployments they like to provide the internet, router, and phones.

 

If you already have the vlans setup then I'd just put the router after the core switch

 

phones>switches>core switch>router>connect to actual internet via core switch or direct to whatever else you have

 

Then set gateway on core switch for the phone vlan to the draytek.

 

At the simplest level VLANs are a way to have a virtual separate set of switches for another purpose. The only problem is when you have to trunk, route, or allow traffic from one to another.