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pzozulka

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Creating a trunk between two switches

I'm new to Cisco switches. We have two SG300-28 (small business switches), and I would like to trunk them together on ports 27 & 28. Here's what I've done so far:

* I changed both ports from Access to Trunk mode.
* Configured both ports to be Tagged on all VLANs
* GVRP is NOT enabled on either switch.

What else do I need to do to complete the trunking. Do I need to configure static routes?

Side Note: They are both configured in L3 mode.
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Don Johnston
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What else do I need to do to complete the trunking.
Run the cable between the switches. Other than that, it sounds like you've done everything else.   :-)  

Do I need to configure static routes?
Maybe, It's hard to say. But it's not relevant to trunking.
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pzozulka

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Don't I need to configure some kind of a static trunk group (I believe Cisco calls it EtherChannel)? Not to confuse it with LACP (which we don't want in this case).
Yes, (I missed that in the original post)

LACP is just a protocol that can negotiate an etherchannel group. On the two ports the IOS command on both ports is: "channel-group x mode on" (where "x" is a user defined number).
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Mohammed Rahman
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When I type "interface fa 27" it tells me the command was unrecognized -- I think because these aren't regular Cisco switches. They are the SG300 Small Business models, so I think the CLI for them is a bit different.

Is there a way to make these changes happen from within the Web Interface?
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If fa 27 doesn't work, the ports may be gigabit. Please try

SW1(config)#interface gi27

SW2(config)#interface gi28

Same applies to Range for ether channel.

To get into GUI, open web browser and type 192.168.1.254
Default username and password: cisco/cisco
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Thanks all. I thought EtherChannel meant the same thing as a Trunk in ProCurve switches. If that's the case, ProCurves have Static Trunks and Dynamic Trunks which is LACP.

Having said that, what's the cisco equivalent to a ProCurve Static Trunk? And how would you configure one using the above mentioned web gui?

I'm just curious -- it seems fairly straight forward to config LACP based on above responses.
You are correct. "EtherChannel" (Cisco) is the exact same thing as "Trunk" (HP).

The Cisco term "Trunk" is referred to as "tagged" or "tagging" in HP parlance.
What type of LAG do you guys recommend between the two switches: EtherChannel (Static LAG) or LACP (Dynamic LAG) ?
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As I'm reading through the Admin manual, I came across this:


* To add a port to the LAG, it cannot belong to any VLAN except the default VLAN.
* All the ports in a LAG must have auto-negotiation disabled, although the LAG can have auto-negotiation enabled.

As mentioned in the original post:
* I changed both ports from Access to Trunk mode.
* Configured both ports to be Tagged on all VLANs

Does that mean I have to change both ports back to Access mode, and remove all VLANs from them? If so, how do I make the LAG into a Trunk mode and TAG it on all VLANs via the web gui?
Wow... that's the most confusing thing I've read this... year!  I got ni idea what they're trying to say. Could be that VLAN 1 must be allowed.
If I make the LAG untagged on the native VLAN (1), and tagged on all other VLANs, does that mean that a server on switch 1 will NOT be able to communicate to a server on switch 2 if both of them are UNTAGGED on VLAN 2?

To be more specific the servers are ESXi hosts, and the virtual switch LAN settings are set to NONE for the storage VLAN. However, on the physical switch the ports connected to these two hosts are untagged on VLAN 2.
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