v1910 "problem" solved

[Rural]

I mentioned that we were looking a v1910 as a "core" switch in another thread. (No. I'm not kidding. Money is tight.) I also mentioned that I was having problems with it.

 

The issue was very simple: The first thing we do when we get a switch is set it up with a trunk port that connects to another switch and carries our management VLAN. The management VLAN is what we use to configure all of our networking devices. We then move the switch's managment interface (telnet, SSH, web, whatever) to that VLAN. With that done, we do all further configuration on the management VLAN.

 

And that's where my problem occurred. When I moved the management VLAN from the default VLAN, I would lose access to the management interface (on either VLAN) and it seemed like all VLANs would stop working (ie. a port configured as untagged on the management VLAN couldn't access devices on the rest of the network). I'm still not sure if the problem was just me, but I'm leaning towards that fact.

 

In any case, I dumped the web GUI and started learning the CLI. Didn't take long before I had VLANs up and running. Some help from a forum member (@Ashm) got me the reference manual for equipment with a similar CLI (HP A5500 EI & A5500 SI). It began to come together. I was able to get the management interface working on the VLAN I wanted except that there was no way of changing the default gateway to whatever was appropriate for that VLAN. I ended up searching the v1910 manual and found that one could do it through the web GUI.

 

It seems to be working now. I'll be sticking with the CLI for further configuration and hope that someone will point out that I just missed where this setting could be altered via the CLI. I'm thinking that it could be done with the ipsetup command. This makes some sense, although the documentation does point out that it only applies to the interface on VLAN1.

Edited November 8, 2012 by Rural

[SYNACK]

Usually you use VLAN1 as the management VLAN and dump everything else on other VLANs, why did you choose to go the other route?

[Rural]

Just to be clear: Our aim is to avoid using the VLAN 1 for any kind of user traffic, including management.

 

Admittedly, I've went back and forth on whether to use the default VLAN as the management VLAN, but it basically comes down to two things: 1) The default VLAN gets used by the switches and routers for a bunch of stuff. I noticed this when doing captures. Mostly, I don't like this traffic messing up my captures, but I also don't want to interfere with it in any way. An example would be STP converging to a solution. I'd like that to happen as quickly as possible. 2) I've read in several places that it is generally considered best practise to avoid the default VLAN as much as possible, mostly for security reasons.

 

Don't get me wrong, I don't know enough to really argue whether it is a good idea or not. I'd certainly be interested in any discussion.

[Ashm]

You need to define the ip address of the switch on the VLAN interface. For example our management VLAN is 20 so the config for our v1910 is:

 

interface Vlan-interface20
ip address 10.0.20.61 255.255.255.0

 

After that I'm able to telnet or use the web interface using 10.0.20.61.

[Rural]

Correct. But without the default gateway set to whatever it happens to be on 10.0.20.0/24, you'll be unable to get to the interface unless you are directly connected to that VLAN. So you have to use ipsetup on the CLI or work through the web GUI's wizard to set the default gateway on the management VLAN.

 

That totally threw me when I first messed with it. But now, my faith in the v1910's web interface has been (somewhat) improved as a result.

 

You need to define the ip address of the switch on the VLAN interface. For example our management VLAN is 20 so the config for our v1910 is:

 

interface Vlan-interface20
ip address 10.0.20.61 255.255.255.0

 

After that I'm able to telnet or use the web interface using 10.0.20.61.

[Ashm]

Ahh okay, we're using our 5500G's to do the layer 3 routing.

[Rural]

That makes sense...even to me. I'll be playing with the v1910's routing capability eventually. I'll make a point to test this then. It kind of makes sense if you assume that the switch is going to be doing the routing.

 

Ahh okay, we're using our 5500G's to do the layer 3 routing.

[saadallahchebaro]

Hello,

 

I am having the exact same problem with the same switch. Can you kindly state how you solved the issue through CLI as its very limited. I want my mgmt and default traffic on VLAN 10 instead of 1 but there seems to be no way to change or set the default VLAN .

 

Appreciate your help.

 

Thanks.

[Oaktech]

You have discovered the same thing that we have. The gui is OK for seeing what is going on, but forget it for config. CLI all the way. It's not that hard to use.