VLANs - cant access switch unless in VLAN1

Question

On our 2724 switches we have VLANs configured. Inter vlan communication works fine. (the switch connects to a cisco 1841 router for inter vlan connectivity) However the problem is that unless im on a computer that is plugged into a port that is a member of VLAN1 i cannot connect to the switches management interface. E.g. VLAN2,3,4,5,6 etc cannot open the Switch Administrator web page. This was never a problem, i would just leave one port in a switch on VLAN1 and plug a laptop into the port when i needed to change something, but now with the company growing i do not have any spare ports to leave in VLAN1. I thought i could just keep myself and the other I.T in VLAN1 but it cannot be edited. How can i manage a switch from a different VLAN? thanks.

bh1633 · Answer

27xx can only be managed on vlan 1.  If any of your ports has only tagged vlans, you can set the PVID of only those ports  to VLAN 1.  Then untagged traffic will be in VLAN 1 and can be used to manage the switch.

LucaSalvatore · Answer

How about on 5324 and 34xx switches? the way i have my VLANs configured is that the PVID is the VLAN that the port is in. So all ports in vlan2 have a PVID of 2, all ports in VLAN3 have PVID of 3 etc etc. Since all ports on my 5324 switch and 34xx switches are in VLANs that are not VLAN1 how can i get someone that is say in VLAN4 to manage the switch?

bh1633 · Answer

The 5324 and 34xx can be managed from any vlan.  Just assign an ip address to the vlan(s) you want to manage the switches from.   Are you doing tagged or untagged traffic?  If you are doing all untagged, then VLANs only have meaning within the individual switches.  If you are doing all tagged, you can set the PVID to 4095 so that untagged traffic is dropped.

LucaSalvatore · Answer

Im doing tagged VLANs and trunking between 3 other switches, and also routing between all VLANs. So your saying set the PVID on all VLANs to 4095, and then assign ip addresses to vlans so i can manage them from a certain VLAN?

bh1633 · Answer

To manage on a vlan, assign an IP address to the vlan.   Setting the PVID on a port to 4095 prevents untagged packets from entering the switch.

Networking General

VLANs - cant access switch unless in VLAN1

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