We have a nice and simple private Class C private address space on 4x Dell 6248 switches. We are running out of IP addresses. We could change the netmask (add more bits) but that involves touching every node and potentially finding devices that won't work with anything other than /24. We have lots of old hardware that we have to keep functioning. In addition, we would like to limit the broadcasts since we have projects here that do a lot of UDP broadcasts. If each project were in a VLAN, the load on the switches would be less. Hosts on VLANs have to get to common servers though.

So I did some reading and thought that we would use VLAN's, routing and such to have multiple Class C spaces. We move hardware around the office at an alarming rate so I thought a IP based VLAN would be a great solution. I am having trouble with the documentation and configuration to make this work.

We have 2x Dell 2716 and 2x Dell 2724 switches in the mix as well. They are connected to the 6248s as dumb switches and it all seems to work right now.

I created VLAN 2 and it reports a follows:

curetes#show ip interface vlan 2

Routing Interface Status....................... Down   
Primary IP Address............................. 192.168.3.1/255.255.255.0
Routing Mode................................... Enable
Administrative Mode............................ Enable
Forward Net Directed Broadcasts................ Disable
Proxy ARP...................................... Enable
Local Proxy ARP................................ Disable
Active State................................... Inactive
MAC Address.................................... 0019.B998.E71E
Encapsulation Type............................. Ethernet
IP MTU......................................... 1500
Bandwidth...................................... 10000 kbps
Destination Unreachables....................... Enabled
ICMP Redirects................................. Enabled

I am running V3.3.3.3 of the firmware. I upgraded the switches on the weekend from 2.2.0.3 as I read that VLANs didn't work well with that version.

I can't find in the documentation "Configuration Guide" or "CLI_EN.pdf" how to get the "Routing Interface Status" as Up.

My running config is quite simple:

!Current Configuration:
!System Description "PowerConnect 6248, 3.3.3.3, VxWorks 6.5"
!System Software Version 3.3.3.3
!Cut-through mode is configured as disabled
!
configure
vlan database
vlan 2-3,10-11
vlan routing 2 1
vlan routing 3 2
vlan association subnet 192.168.3.0 255.255.255.0 2
exit
hostname "curetes"
sntp broadcast client enable
sntp server 192.139.238.68
stack
member 1 2
member 2 2
member 3 2
member 4 2
exit

                     
ip address 192.139.238.79 255.255.255.0
ip default-gateway 192.139.238.27
ip routing
interface vlan 2
name "192-168-3-x-Address"
routing
ip address 192.168.3.1 255.255.255.0
exit
interface vlan 3
routing
exit
username "admin" password XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX level 15 encrypted
exit

Question (in order of importance):

Is this the best way to go to solve my problem (Ip address space exhaustion/limit broadcast domain)?

How do I get "Routing Interface Status" on VLAN 2 up? Do I need it up?

How do I configure a VLAN to do what I want?

Many thanks in advance.

Don