To GVRP or not to GVRP?

Question

IEEE 802.1Q seems to be pretty clear on GVRP being a requirement forVLANs (certainly to claim 802.1Q compliance) and I don't know ofanother mechanism for switches to communicate VLANs registration andconfiguration information.  But I found this article: says GVRP isn't widely deployed.  If VLAN requires GVRP, thenthat implies VLAN isn't widely deployed.  Which seems wrong.  I imagineI'm missing something.  Can anyone shine some light on this for me?Thanks.                                        Chris

anoop · Accepted Answer

>imagineGVRP is a protocol used for dynamic _propagation_ of VLAN configurationfrom edge (either end-station or switch) to the core.  This means thatthe edge must first be configured by hand.  Most administrators won'ttrust end-stations with configuring the network, so I would doubt thatare any significant deployments of GVRP in end-stations.802.1Q requires implementation of GVRP to be fully conformant.  Almostall switches do implement GVRP but for some reason it hasn't beenwidely deployed.  Most network administrators prefer to hand-configureVLAN membership all the way from edge to core.  Use of VLANs doesn't_require_ GVRP.  GVRP was put in there to make the job of configurationeasier, but most people don't use it.  It's kind of like having adynamicrouting protocol but choosing to use static routes instead.Anoop

anoop · Answer

It's been around since 1998 and per IEEE 802.1Q-1998, it is mandatory.

When were these switches built? I'm guessing (but don't know for a fact) that most mid- to high-end switches built after 1998 would have GVRP just to satisfy compliance to IEEE 802.1Q.

Anoop

sean · Answer

I've been using (setting up, cinfiguring) vlans for about 7 years now, and I had never even heard of GVRP until about 2 years ago.

Really? Not any of my nortel (baystack 450 and 350) or any of the old cabletron switches (don't recall models) I had at my last job. Oddly enough one of my higer end Netgear switches does support it...

To GVRP or not to GVRP?

Join the Discussion

Didn't find your answer?