Before entering into switch management VLAN, we have to know about VLAN. Now, what is VLAN? VLAN stands for Virtual Local Area Network. That means VLAN is a smaller network that is contained within the normal network. Network security can be improved by using the Virtual Local Area Network.
It is difficult for unauthorized persons to make changes to our network or to monitor to our network if all management traffic is on a separate VLAN. The switch that relies on a remote location can be managed by using the Management VLAN. This is done by using some protocols such as,
- SNMP
- SSH
- Telnet
- Syslog etc.
Since VLAN gives us a separate path to access our network, the aftereffect of broadcast storm can be minimized by the help of management VLAN.
Commonly using Management VLAN is VLAN 1. But there is no such restriction in the usage of Management VLAN, that is we can use any VLAN as Management VLAN. VLAN 1 is a management VLAN that we commonly use or in other words, we can say that it is the default VLAN. For example, the NETGEAR devices that support the management VLAN also have the default VLAN, VLAN 1.
To make Management VLAN secure,
- It should only be used for managing and controlling our network devices.
- Restrict access to the management VLAN.
- Configure other VLAN( this is done to carry all regular network traffic).
To restrict the Management VLAN from the access, first, we make sure that our device is a member if VLAN, second, adds the MAC address of the device to the ACL. If id avoids these steps, we can only log in from the allowed devices and it will lead to loss of access to the management functions.
For Management VLAN we have to configure the following two things:
- Configure Default Gateway
- Configure IP Address
For Management VLAN, we have to follow some steps for the configuration of the IP address and the default gateway:
- Enable
- #configure terminal
- #interface vlan 1
- #ip address 192.168.100.28 255.255.255.0
- #no shutdown
- #exit
- #ip default-gateway 192.168.100.1
- #exit
Also Read:
- Per-VLAN Spanning Tree (PVST), Per-VLAN Spanning Tree Plus (PVST+)
- What Does The Vlan Trunk Protocol (Vtp) Do?
- VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) Pruning In Networking
- What is Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN)
To bring the Management VLAN up, we have to use the “no shutdown” IOS interface mode command. Now we can perform the switch management functions after the configuration of the default gateway and the configuration of the IP address. Here we use some protocols such as telnet or SSH.