Lessons · Network switches · server, client, transparent

Server, client, transparent

The VTP mode decides where a switch keeps its VLANs: transparent puts them in the running configuration, server and client keep them in vlan.dat.

Hone is a place to practise programming. This is one of its lessons, written out in full and free to read without an account.

What it is for

It is the difference between a config file being the whole truth about a switch and being most of it. On a site managed as text files, transparent is the mode that makes the files honest.

How to think about it

`show vtp status` is one of the first five commands to type on an unfamiliar switch, because everything about backing it up depends on the answer.

Worked example

enable

In.

show vtp status

Operating Mode: Server. That is what a switch ships as.

configure terminal

Change it deliberately.

vtp mode transparent

Announced, the way IOS announces it.

vlan 10

Now make a VLAN.

name STAFF

Named.

exit

Out.

exit

And out.

show running-config | include vlan 10

In transparent mode it IS in the configuration.

Your turn

Find out which VTP mode this switch is in.

show vtp

The trap

Assuming the mode because the site is small. A switch nobody has touched in years is a server with no domain name, and its VLANs are in a file.

Practise server, client, transparent on HoneA question on it now, a coding challenge where there is one, and it is remembered for review. Free, no email needed.