Configuring VLANs over physical ports

VLANs provide
Searchlogical segmentation
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networks by creating
all Support separate broadcast domains. A VLAN can span multiple
content
physical network segments. The end-stations belonging to a VLAN are related by function or application.

For example, end-stations in a VLAN might be grouped by departments, such as engineering and accounting, or by
projects, such as release1 and release2. Because physical proximity of the end-stations is not essential in a VLAN, you
can disperse the end-stations geographically and still contain the broadcast domain in a switched network.

You can manage VLANs by creating, deleting, or displaying information about them.

More information

How VLANs work

Traffic from multiple VLANs can traverse a link that interconnects two switches by using VLAN tagging. A VLAN tag is a
unique identifier that indicates the VLAN to which a frame belongs. A VLAN tag is included in the header of every frame
sent by an end-station on a VLAN.

How switches identify different VLANs

A network switch distinguishes between VLANs by associating end-stations to a specific VLAN. This is known as VLAN
membership. An end-station must become a member of a VLAN before it can share the broadcast domain with other
end-stations on that VLAN.

Advantages of VLANs
VLANs provide a number of advantages, such as ease of administration, confinement of broadcast domains, reduced
broadcast traffic, and enforcement of security policies.

How to use VLANs for tagged and untagged network traffic

You can configure an IP address for an interface with VLANs. Any untagged traffic goes to the base interface (physical
port) and the tagged traffic goes to the respective VLAN.

Creating a VLAN
You can create a VLAN for maintaining separate broadcast domains within the same network domain by using the
network port vlan create command. You cannot create a VLAN from an existing VLAN.

Deleting a VLAN
You might have to delete a VLAN before removing a NIC from its slot. When you delete a VLAN, it is automatically
removed from all failover rules and groups that use it.

Parent topic: Configuring network ports (cluster administrators only)

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Part No. 215-08748_A0
February 2014
Updated for 8.2.1