To GVRP or not to GVRP?

IEEE 802.1Q seems to be pretty clear on GVRP being a requirement for VLANs (certainly to claim 802.1Q compliance) and I don't know of another mechanism for switches to communicate VLANs registration and configuration information. But I found this article:

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which says GVRP isn't widely deployed. If VLAN requires GVRP, then that implies VLAN isn't widely deployed. Which seems wrong. I imagine I'm missing something. Can anyone shine some light on this for me? Thanks.

Chris

Reply to
Christopher Nelson
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imagine

GVRP is a protocol used for dynamic _propagation_ of VLAN configuration from edge (either end-station or switch) to the core. This means that the edge must first be configured by hand. Most administrators won't trust end-stations with configuring the network, so I would doubt that are any significant deployments of GVRP in end-stations.

802.1Q requires implementation of GVRP to be fully conformant. Almost all switches do implement GVRP but for some reason it hasn't been widely deployed. Most network administrators prefer to hand-configure VLAN 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 configuration easier, but most people don't use it. It's kind of like having a dynamic routing protocol but choosing to use static routes instead.

Anoop

Reply to
anoop

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

Reply to
anoop

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...

Reply to
sean

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