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Cisco Catalyst Blade Switch 3130 and 3032 for Dell Software Configuration Guide
OL-12247-04
Chapter 11 Configuring Interface Characteristics
Understanding Interface Types
Connecting Interfaces
Devices within a single VLAN can communicate directly through any switch. Ports in different VLANs
cannot exchange data without going through a routing device. With a standard Layer 2 switch, ports in
different VLANs have to exchange information through a router.
By using the switch with routing enabled, when you configure both VLAN 20 and VLAN 30 with an
SVI to which an IP address is assigned, packets can be sent from Blade Server A to Blade Server B
directly through the switch with no need for an external router (
Figure 11-1
Connecting VLANs with the Blade Switch
When the IP services feature set is running on the switch or the stack master, the switch uses two
methods to forward traffic between interfaces: routing and fallback bridging. If the IP base feature set is
on the switch or the stack master, only basic routing (static routing and RIP) is supported. Whenever
possible, to maintain high performance, forwarding is done by the switch hardware. However, only IPv4
packets with Ethernet II encapsulation are routed in hardware. Non-IP traffic and traffic with other
encapsulation methods are fallback-bridged by hardware.
Host A
SVI 1
172.20.128.1
172.20.129.1
SVI 2
Layer 3 switch
with routing enabled
VLAN 20
Host B
VLAN 30
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Blade
server A
Blade
server B
SVI 1
172.20.128.1
172.20.129.1
SVI 2
Layer 3 switch
with routing enabled
VLAN 20
VLAN 30
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