Dell Switch Layer 2 Configuration

Hello Community!

This is my first time here, just purchased a Dell N1548P to add to my existing network.  Layer 3 switches are Cisco so I'm new to the PowerConnect world. With Cisco I only set up Vlans on the L3 switch and point L2 switches to the gateway address of the L3 stack.  Routing is all handled by our firewall, all configured on the L3.  Question:  Do I need to configure Vlans on the Dell L2 switches?  I've got the trunk port configured to allow traffic from all  Vlans but it seems as though that isn't enough as I'm only able to ping the switch if I'm on the management subnet, unable to reach it from my pc.  If this is the case, do I also need to add an ip-helper address on the L2 Dell switch?  Please advise.  Thanks for your help!