PowerConnect 5324 VLAN Tagging Help

Question

What must I do to tag VLAN 1 on specific ports.  I have no problem making other user created VLANs tagged or untagged, but I can't do it with VLAN 1.  What am I overlooking?     Thanks,   Brad

GregG1 · Answer

VLAN 1 cannot be explicitly tagged. As it is not a user created VLAN, there are limits as to how it can be configured.

Bradc314 · Answer

But doesn't that deviate from the standard then? I can explicitly tag VLAN 1 on HP and 3Com gear, and eventhough they don't call it 'tagging', I can do this on Cisco gear as well.

Perhaps I just bought the wrong brand.

Message Edited by Bradc314 on 01-09-2006 09:00 AM

Bradc314 · Answer

What I am trying to do, specifically, is to set up several 802.1q trunk ports where all vlans are tagged, including VLAN 1. Is this possible with this switch?

GregG1 · Answer

Nothing in the IEEE 802.1q standard specifies that the device must be capable of tagging the native VLAN.   The implementation of the 802.1q standard on the current PowerConnect switches (3300, 3400, 5324, 6024) does not allow for the tagging of traffic on VLAN 1 or the native VLAN. If you need to pass VLAN 1 traffic on a trunk, you would need to use VLAN 1 as the native (untagged) VLAN for both devices participating in the trunk.   This implementation is similar to current Cisco switches (2970, 3750) in which the native VLAN traffic is transmitted untagged.

Bradc314 · Answer

The problem arises when you try to configure teaming and VLAN support in the Intel PRO/1000MT Nic's that came with my PowerEdge 2850's. Each VLAN defined for the team must be tagged or else it won't work. You cannot create an untagged vlan virtual adapter. Our infrastructure uses VLAN 1 actively, and since we've been using 3Com, HP, and Cisco gear, it's never been an issue. Now, with the Dell Switch it is.

I'm glad I found this out now and not down the road (we've budgeted to replace all of our switches this year, and we WERE going to go with Dell).

Thanks for the help.

Networking General

PowerConnect 5324 VLAN Tagging Help

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