philb19
asked on
2 switches conected 1 vlan only - should i trunk anyway?
Just interested in experts opinion here. Clearly If its ONLY1 vlan I dont have to trunk Access port each end will be fine and work.
My question is really "Whenever connecting switches together over a switch port should i by best practice trunk the ports anyway even if  only 1 vlan in play  and not set the links as access ports in same vlan?"
Of course when i trunk native vlan match on each end.
Is there more to the answer than simply Yes trunk so that you can easily (without disruption) add vlans to trunk if more vlans are required in the future?  - lets say 2 x 2960s here  thanks
My question is really "Whenever connecting switches together over a switch port should i by best practice trunk the ports anyway even if  only 1 vlan in play  and not set the links as access ports in same vlan?"
Of course when i trunk native vlan match on each end.
Is there more to the answer than simply Yes trunk so that you can easily (without disruption) add vlans to trunk if more vlans are required in the future?  - lets say 2 x 2960s here  thanks
Predrag Jovic
In the case of 1 VLAN there is no need for trunks. Trunk interface is for more than 1 VLAN.
If you make it an access port and decide to add VLAN's later, there will be an outage when you change it to a trunk.
If you make it a trunk up front (even though you don't need it), then adding VLAN's won't cause an outage for the existing traffic.
That's the only reason I can think of for creating a trunk between switches when there's only one VLAN.
If you make it a trunk up front (even though you don't need it), then adding VLAN's won't cause an outage for the existing traffic.
That's the only reason I can think of for creating a trunk between switches when there's only one VLAN.
ASKER
Thanks very much 😊 however what I would like to know is  What is best practice to do this?  What is normally done ?  Or what would you normally do to connect the 2 switch's?   Also does making a trunk have any benefit in how it handles bpdu's.
There is no best practice in this situation.
If you only have one VLAN with no plans for more, you would typically leave the inter-switch link as an access link.
If you think you'll be adding VLAN's, make it a trunk link.
There is no difference with respect to BPDU handling.
If you only have one VLAN with no plans for more, you would typically leave the inter-switch link as an access link.
If you think you'll be adding VLAN's, make it a trunk link.
There is no difference with respect to BPDU handling.
ASKER
"If you think you'll be adding VLAN's, make it a trunk link."
Well surely you want to build your LAN/s with the ability to scale your VLANs easily without causing outages. In my experience VLAN modification/addition is common. With this in mind trunking would surely be "best practice" for inter switch links.
Well surely you want to build your LAN/s with the ability to scale your VLANs easily without causing outages. In my experience VLAN modification/addition is common. With this in mind trunking would surely be "best practice" for inter switch links.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
membership
This solution is only available to members.
To access this solution, you must be a member of Experts Exchange.