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Catalyst 2950 Desktop Switch Software Configuration Guide
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Chapter 6 Clustering Switches
Planning a Sw it ch Cl uster

Management VLAN

Communication wi th the sw itch manag ement int erfaces i s through the comma nd-switch IP address. T he
IP address is a ssociate d with th e management V LAN, whic h b y def ault is VL AN 1. To manage switc hes
in a cluste r, the comm an d switch, memb er s witc hes, and c an didate switche s must be co n ne cte d th r oug h
ports a ssigne d to th e co mm an d-swi tch man ag emen t V LAN .
Note • If the com mand sw it ch is a C ata lyst 2950 runni n g R elease 12.1(9 )E A1 o r la ter, candidat e a nd
member switches can belong to different management VLANs. However, they must connect to the
comm and switc h th rou gh thei r m an ag emen t VLA N.
•Catalyst 2950 sta ndby com mand sw itch es run ning Re leas e 12 .1 (9)EA 1 or la ter can conn ec t to
candidate and member switches in VLANs different from their management VLANs.
•This section applie s Catalyst 2900 LRE X L switches on ly and is not applicab le for the C atalyst 29 50
LRE swit ch.
If you add a new, out-of-box switch to a cluster and the cluster is using a management VLAN other than
the default VLAN 1, the command switch automatically senses that the new switch has a different
management VLAN and has not been configured. The command switch issues commands to change the
managemen t VLAN of the ne w switc h to the one t he cluster is u sing. This auto matic VLAN ch ange only
occurs for new, out-of-box swi tches that do not have a config.t ext file and that have no ch anges to the
running configuration . For more inform ation , see the “Disc overy of Newly Installed Switche s” se ction
on page 6-10.
You ca n ch an ge t he m anag em en t V LA N o f a me mb er s wi tch ( not th e co mm an d s wi tc h). However, t h e
command switch will not be able to communicate with it. In this case, you will need to manage the switch
as a st anda lone swit ch.
You can global ly change the management VLAN for the cluster as long as each member switch has either
a trunk connection or a connection to the new command-switch management VLAN. From the command
switch, use the cluster management vlan glob al c on figurat ion co mm an d to c hange t he cl uste r
manage ment VLA N to a different ma nageme nt VLAN .
Caution You can change the management VLAN through a console connection without interrupt ing the console
connec tion. H owever, cha nging the m ana geme nt V LAN en ds your C MS ses sio n. Re star t yo ur CMS
session by entering the n ew IP address in the b rowser Location field (Netscape Communicator) or
Address field (Microsoft Internet Explorer), as described in the release notes.
For more information about changing the management VLAN, see the “Ma nageme nt VLAN” se ctio n on
page 6-18.

LRE P rofi les

A configuration conflict occurs if a switch cluster has Long-Reach Ethernet (LRE) switches that use both
private and public profiles. If one LRE switch in a cluster is assigned a public profile, all LRE switches
in that clu ster must h ave that same public p r ofile. Before you add an L RE switc h to a clus ter, make sur e
that yo u assign i t the sam e pub lic p rofile use d by ot her LRE s witche s in the clus ter.
A cluster can have a mix of LRE switches that use different private profiles.