VTP

A VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) is a Layer 2 messaging protocol that maintains VLAN configuration consistency by managing the addition, deletion, and renaming of VLANs on a network-wide basis. VTP minimizes misconfigurations and configuration inconsistencies that can cause several problems, such as duplicate VLAN names, incorrect VLAN-type specifications, and security violations.

Before you create VLANs, you must decide whether to use VTP in your network. Using VTP, you can make configuration changes centrally on one or more switches and have those changes automatically communicated to all the other switches in the network. Without VTP, you cannot send information about VLANs to other switches.

VTP is designed to work in an environment where updates are made on a single switch and are sent through VTP to other switches in the domain. It does not work well in a situation where multiple updates to the VLAN database occur simultaneously on switches in the same domain, which would result in an inconsistency in the VLAN database.

The switch supports 1005 VLANs, but the number of configured features affects the usage of the switch hardware. If the switch is notified by VTP of a new VLAN and the switch is already using the maximum available hardware resources, it sends a message that there are not enough hardware resources available and shuts down the VLAN. The output of the show vlan user EXEC command shows the VLAN in a suspended state.

VTP version 1 and version 2 support only normal-range VLANs (VLAN IDs 1 to 1005). VTP version 3 supports the entire VLAN range (VLANs 1 to 4096). Extended range VLANs (VLANs 1006 to 4096) are supported only in VTP version 3. You cannot convert from VTP version 3 to VTP version 2 if extended VLANs are configured in the domain.

VTP Domain

A VTP domain (also called a VLAN management domain) consists of one switch or several interconnected switches under the same administrative responsibility sharing the same VTP domain name. A switch can be in only one VTP domain. You make global VLAN configuration changes for the domain.

By default, the switch is in the VTP no-management-domain state until it receives an advertisement for a domain over a trunk link (a link that carries the traffic of multiple VLANs) or until you configure a domain name. Until the management domain name is specified or learned, you cannot create or modify VLANs on a VTP server, and VLAN information is not propagated over the network.

If the switch receives a VTP advertisement over a trunk link, it inherits the management domain name and the VTP configuration revision number. The switch then ignores advertisements with a different domain name or an earlier configuration revision number.

When you make a change to the VLAN configuration on a VTP server, the change is propagated to all switches in the VTP domain. VTP advertisements are sent over all IEEE trunk connections, including IEEE 802.1Q. VTP dynamically maps VLANs with unique names and internal index associates across multiple LAN types. Mapping eliminates excessive device administration required from network administrators.

If you configure a switch for VTP transparent mode, you can create and modify VLANs, but the changes are not sent to other switches in the domain, and they affect only the individual switch. However, configuration changes made when the switch is in this mode are saved in the switch running configuration and can be saved to the switch startup configuration file.

For domain name and password configuration guidelines, see VTP Configuration Guidelines.

VTP Modes

VTP Mode Guidelines

■For VTP version 1 and version 2, if extended-range VLANs are configured on the switch, you cannot change VTP mode to client or server. You receive an error message, and the configuration is not allowed. VTP version 1 and version 2 do not propagate configuration information for extended range VLANs (VLANs 1006 to 4096). You must manually configure these VLANs on each device.

Note: For VTP version 1 and 2, before you create extended-range VLANs (VLAN IDs 1006 to 4096), you must set VTP mode to transparent by using the vtp mode transparent global configuration command. Save this configuration to the startup configuration so that the switch starts in VTP transparent mode. Otherwise, you lose the extended-range VLAN configuration if the switch resets and boots up in VTP server mode (the default).

■VTP version 3 supports extended-range VLANs. If extended VLANs are configured, you cannot convert from VTP version 3 to VTP version 2.

■If you configure the switch for VTP client mode, the switch does not create the VLAN database file (vlan.dat). If the switch is then powered off, it resets the VTP configuration to the default. To keep the VTP configuration with VTP client mode after the switch restarts, you must first configure the VTP domain name before the VTP mode.

■When a switch is in VTP server mode, you can change the VLAN configuration and have it propagated throughout the network.

■When a switch is in VTP client mode, you cannot change its VLAN configuration. The client switch receives VTP updates from a VTP server in the VTP domain and then modifies its configuration accordingly.

■When you configure the switch for VTP transparent mode, VTP is disabled on the switch. The switch does not send VTP updates and does not act on VTP updates received from other switches. However, a VTP transparent switch running VTP version 2 does forward received VTP advertisements on its trunk links.

■VTP off mode is the same as VTP transparent mode except that VTP advertisements are not forwarded.

Caution: If all switches are operating in VTP client mode, do not configure a VTP domain name. If you do, it is impossible to make changes to the VLAN configuration of that domain. Therefore, make sure you configure at least one switch as a VTP server.

VTP Advertisements

Each switch in the VTP domain sends periodic global configuration advertisements from each trunk port to a reserved multicast address. Neighboring switches receive these advertisements and update their VTP and VLAN configurations as necessary.

VTP advertisements distribute this global domain information:

■VTP domain name

■VTP configuration revision number

■Update identity and update timestamp

■MD5 digest VLAN configuration, including maximum transmission unit (MTU) size for each VLAN

■Frame format

VTP advertisements distribute this VLAN information for each configured VLAN:

■VLAN IDs (IEEE 802.1Q)

■VLAN name

■VLAN type

■VLAN state

■Additional VLAN configuration information specific to the VLAN type

In VTP version 3, VTP advertisements also include the primary server ID, an instance number, and a start index.

VTP Version 2

If you use VTP in your network, you must decide which version of VTP to use. By default, VTP operates in version 1.

VTP version 2 supports these features that are not supported in version 1:

■Token Ring support—VTP version 2 supports Token Ring Bridge Relay Function (TrBRF) and Token Ring Concentrator Relay Function (TrCRF) VLANs. For more information about Token Ring VLANs, see Normal-Range VLANs.

■Unrecognized Type-Length-Value (TLV) support—A VTP server or client propagates configuration changes to its other trunks, even for TLVs it is not able to parse. The unrecognized TLV is saved in NVRAM when the switch is operating in VTP server mode.

■Version-Dependent Transparent Mode—In VTP version 1, a VTP transparent switch inspects VTP messages for the domain name and version and forwards a message only if the version and domain name match. Although VTP version 2 supports only one domain, a VTP version 2 transparent switch forwards a message only when the domain name matches.

■Consistency Checks—In VTP version 2, VLAN consistency checks (such as VLAN names and values) are performed only when you enter new information through the CLI or SNMP. Consistency checks are not performed when new information is obtained from a VTP message or when information is read from NVRAM. If the MD5 digest on a received VTP message is correct, its information is accepted.

VTP Version 3

VTP version 3 supports these features that are not supported in version 1 or version 2:

■Enhanced authentication—You can configure the authentication as hidden or secret. When hidden, the secret key from the password string is saved in the VLAN database file, but it does not appear in plain text in the configuration. Instead, the key associated with the password is saved in hexadecimal format in the running configuration. You must reenter the password if you enter a takeover command in the domain. When you enter the secret keyword, you can directly configure the password secret key.

■Support for extended range VLAN (VLANs 1006 to 4096) database propagation. VTP versions 1 and 2 propagate only VLANs 1 to 1005. If extended VLANs are configured, you cannot convert from VTP version 3 to version 1 or 2.

VTP pruning still applies only to VLANs 1 to 1005, and VLANs 1002 to 1005 are still reserved and cannot be modified.

■Support for any database in a domain. In addition to propagating VTP information, version 3 can propagate Multiple Spanning Tree (MST) protocol database information. A separate instance of the VTP protocol runs for each application that uses VTP.

■VTP primary server and VTP secondary servers. A VTP primary server updates the database information and sends updates that are honored by all devices in the system. A VTP secondary server can only back up the updated VTP configurations received from the primary server to its NVRAM.

By default, all devices come up as secondary servers. You can enter the vtp primary privileged EXEC command to specify a primary server. Primary server status is only needed for database updates when the administrator issues a takeover message in the domain. You can have a working VTP domain without any primary servers. Primary server status is lost if the device reloads or domain parameters change, even when a password is configured on the switch.

■The option to turn VTP on or off on a per-trunk (per-port) basis. You can enable or disable VTP per port by entering the [ no ] vtp interface configuration command. When you disable VTP on trunking ports, all VTP instances for that port are disabled. You cannot set VTP to off for the MST database and on for the VLAN database on the same port.

When you globally set VTP mode to off, it applies to all the trunking ports in the system. However, you can specify on or off on a per-VTP instance basis. For example, you can configure the switch as a VTP server for the VLAN database but with VTP off for the MST database.

VTP Version Guidelines

Follow these guidelines when deciding which VTP version to implement:

■All switches in a VTP domain must have the same domain name, but they do not need to run the same VTP version.

■A VTP version 2-capable switch can operate in the same VTP domain as a switch running VTP version 1 if version 2 is disabled on the version 2-capable switch (version 2 is disabled by default).

■If a switch running VTP version 1 but capable of running VTP version 2 receives VTP version 3 advertisements, it automatically moves to VTP version 2.

■If a switch running VTP version 3 is connected to a switch running VTP version 1, the VTP version 1 switch moves to VTP version 2, and the VTP version 3 switch sends scaled-down versions of the VTP packets so that the VTP version 2 switch can update its database.

■A switch running VTP version 3 cannot move to version 1 or 2 if it has extended VLANs.

■Do not enable VTP version 2 on a switch unless all of the switches in the same VTP domain are version-2-capable. When you enable version 2 on a switch, all of the version-2-capable switches in the domain enable version 2. If there is a version 1-only switch, it does not exchange VTP information with switches that have version 2 enabled.

■We recommend placing VTP version 1 and 2 switches at the edge of the network because they do not forward VTP version 3 advertisements.

■If there are TrBRF and TrCRF Token Ring networks in your environment, you must enable VTP version 2 or version 3 for Token Ring VLAN switching to function properly. To run Token Ring and Token Ring-Net, disable VTP version 2.

■VTP version 1 and version 2 do not propagate configuration information for extended range VLANs (VLANs 1006 to 4096). You must configure these VLANs manually on each device. VTP version 3 supports extended-range VLANs. You cannot convert from VTP version 3 to VTP version 2 if extended VLANs are configured.

■When a VTP version 3 device trunk port receives messages from a VTP version 2 device, it sends a scaled-down version of the VLAN database on that particular trunk in VTP version 2 format. A VTP version 3 device does not send VTP version 2-formatted packets on a trunk unless it first receives VTP version 2 packets on that trunk port.

■When a VTP version 3 device detects a VTP version 2 device on a trunk port, it continues to send VTP version 3 packets, in addition to VTP version 2 packets, to allow both kinds of neighbors to coexist on the same trunk.

■A VTP version 3 device does not accept configuration information from a VTP version 2 or version 1 device.

■Two VTP version 3 regions can only communicate in transparent mode over a VTP version 1 or version 2 region.

■Devices that are only VTP version 1 capable cannot interoperate with VTP version 3 devices.

■VTP version 2 and version 3 are disabled by default.

■When you enable VTP version 2 on a switch, every VTP version 2-capable switch in the VTP domain enables version 2. To enable VTP version 3, you must manually configure it on each switch.

■With VTP versions 1 and 2, you can configure the version only on switches in VTP server or transparent mode. If a switch is running VTP version 3, you can change to version 2 when the switch is in client mode if no extended VLANs exist, no private VLANs exist, and no hidden password was configured.

Caution: In VTP version 3, both the primary and secondary servers can exist on an instance in the domain.

VTP Pruning

VTP pruning increases network available bandwidth by restricting flooded traffic to those trunk links that the traffic must use to reach the destination devices. Without VTP pruning, a switch floods broadcast, multicast, and unknown unicast traffic across all trunk links within a VTP domain even though receiving switches might discard them. VTP pruning is disabled by default.

VTP pruning blocks unneeded flooded traffic to VLANs on trunk ports that are included in the pruning-eligible list. Only VLANs included in the pruning-eligible list can be pruned. By default, VLANs 2 through 1001 are pruning eligible switch trunk ports. If the VLANs are configured as pruning-ineligible, the flooding continues. VTP pruning is supported in all VTP versions.

Figure 33 shows a switched network without VTP pruning enabled. Port 1 on Switch A and Port 2 on Switch D are assigned to the Red VLAN. If a broadcast is sent from the host connected to Switch A, Switch A floods the broadcast and every switch in the network receives it, even though Switches C, E, and F have no ports in the Red VLAN.

Figure 33 Flooding Traffic without VTP Pruning

Figure 34 shows a switched network with VTP pruning enabled. The broadcast traffic from Switch A is not forwarded to Switches C, E, and F because traffic for the Red VLAN has been pruned on the links shown (Port 5 on Switch B and Port 4 on Switch D).

Figure 34 Optimized Flooded Traffic with VTP Pruning

With VTP versions 1 and 2, enabling VTP pruning on a VTP server enables pruning for the entire management domain. Making VLANs pruning-eligible or pruning-ineligible affects pruning eligibility for those VLANs on that trunk only (not on all switches in the VTP domain). In VTP version 3, you must manually enable pruning on each switch in the domain.

See Enabling VTP Pruning. VTP pruning takes effect several seconds after you enable it. VTP pruning does not prune traffic from VLANs that are pruning-ineligible. VLAN 1 and VLANs 1002 to 1005 are always pruning-ineligible; traffic from these VLANs cannot be pruned. Extended-range VLANs (VLAN IDs higher than 1005) are also pruning-ineligible.

VTP pruning is not designed to function in VTP transparent mode. If one or more switches in the network are in VTP transparent mode, you should do one of these:

■Turn off VTP pruning in the entire network.

■Turn off VTP pruning by making all VLANs on the trunk of the switch upstream to the VTP transparent switch pruning ineligible.

To configure VTP pruning on an interface, use the switchport trunk pruning vlan interface configuration command. VTP pruning operates when an interface is trunking. You can set VLAN pruning-eligibility, whether or not VTP pruning is enabled for the VTP domain, whether or not any given VLAN exists, and whether or not the interface is currently trunking.

Default VTP Settings

VTP Configuration Guidelines

You use the vtp global configuration command to set the VTP password, the version, the VTP filename, the interface providing updated VTP information, the domain name, and the mode, and to disable or enable pruning. The VTP information is saved in the VTP VLAN database. When VTP mode is transparent, the VTP domain name and mode are also saved in the switch running configuration file, and you can save it in the switch startup configuration file by entering the copy running-config startup-config privileged EXEC command. You must use this command if you want to save VTP mode as transparent if the switch resets.

When you save VTP information in the switch startup configuration file and restart the switch, the configuration is selected as follows:

■If the VTP mode is transparent in both the startup configuration and the VLAN database and the VTP domain name from the VLAN database matches that in the startup configuration file, the VLAN database is ignored (cleared). The VTP and VLAN configurations in the startup configuration file are used. The VLAN database revision number remains unchanged in the VLAN database.

■If the VTP mode or the domain name in the startup configuration do not match the VLAN database, the domain name and the VTP mode and configuration for the first 1005 VLANs use the VLAN database information.

Domain Names

When configuring VTP for the first time, you must always assign a domain name. You must configure all switches in the VTP domain with the same domain name. Switches in VTP transparent mode do not exchange VTP messages with other switches, and you do not need to configure a VTP domain name for them.

Note: If NVRAM and DRAM storage is sufficient, all switches in a VTP domain should be in VTP server mode.

Caution: Do not configure a VTP domain if all switches are operating in VTP client mode. If you configure the domain, it is impossible to make changes to the VLAN configuration of that domain. Make sure that you configure at least one switch in the VTP domain for VTP server mode.

Passwords

You can configure a password for the VTP domain, but it is not required. If you do configure a domain password, all domain switches must share the same password and you must configure the password on each switch in the management domain. Switches without a password or with the wrong password reject VTP advertisements.

If you configure a VTP password for a domain, a switch that is booted without a VTP configuration does not accept VTP advertisements until you configure it with the correct password. After the configuration, the switch accepts the next VTP advertisement that uses the same password and domain name in the advertisement.

If you are adding a new switch to an existing network with VTP capability, the new switch learns the domain name only after the applicable password has been configured on it.

Caution: When you configure a VTP domain password, the management domain does not function properly if you do not assign a management domain password to each switch in the domain.

Adding a VTP Client Switch to a VTP Domain

Before adding a VTP client to a VTP domain, always verify that its VTP configuration revision number is lower than the configuration revision number of the other switches in the VTP domain. Switches in a VTP domain always use the VLAN configuration of the switch with the highest VTP configuration revision number. With VTP versions 1 and 2, adding a switch that has a revision number higher than the revision number in the VTP domain can erase all VLAN information from the VTP server and VTP domain. With VTP version 3, the VLAN information is not erased.

Configuring VTP Domain and Parameters

Before You Begin

You should configure the VTP domain before configuring other VTP parameters.

Configuring a VTP Version 3 Password

Enabling the VTP Version

Enabling VTP Pruning

Configuring VTP on a Per-Port Basis

Adding a VTP Client Switch to a VTP Domain

Before You Begin

Before adding a VTP client to a VTP domain, always verify that its VTP configuration revision number is lower than the configuration revision number of the other switches in the VTP domain. Switches in a VTP domain always use the VLAN configuration of the switch with the highest VTP configuration revision number. With VTP versions 1 and 2, adding a switch that has a revision number higher than the revision number in the VTP domain can erase all VLAN information from the VTP server and VTP domain. With VTP version 3, the VLAN information is not erased.

Configuring a VTP Server: Example

This example shows how to configure the switch as a VTP server with the domain name eng_group and the password mypassword :

Configuring a Hidden VTP Password: Example

This example shows how to configure a hidden password and how it appears:

Configuring a VTP Version 3 Primary Server: Example

This example shows how to configure a switch as the primary server for the VLAN database (the default) when a hidden or secret password was configured:

Related Documents

Standards

MIBs

RFCs