Noob Q on configuring IP's

[Zen216]

Hello all,
We currently have about 15 Cisco Catalyst 3500's and a few 2950's. It looks like (well the 2950 anyways) had gotten its IP from our DHCP server. It is a flat network, the switches are just chained together, not VLAN's or anything.
I wanted to monitor them, and really just learn more about Cisco. So I downloaded the management software from Cisco, and wanted to assign all of the switches a static IP. I was wondering if I change the IP on the switch, (same subnet) will it drop the connections it has, or will it just continue along without any disruption.
Thanks

 

[jeter]

everthing should run as normal...

Make your changes via the console port.

Test by pinging or telneting in the switch.

You can also type show cisco cdp neighbor detail and review the output. It will show you your neighbor devices and ip address.

The ip address is for management prupose only, it is not routing in this case...




SPC NVARNG
Tek-TIP Member 19,650

 

[Zen216]

Thank You,,, definately eases my mind a bit...
(Would have hated to disrupt the network)

 

[pbundschuh]

Small correction to one of above posts: the command should be "show cdp neighbor detail

 

[jeter]

thanks for the correction!!!!


SPC NVARNG
Tek-TIP Member 19,650

 

[jneiberger]

Changing the management IP address on the switch won't affect your network in any way. You could potentially lose administrative access and it's possible to lock yourself out. But it won't affect network traffic.

 

[bobbyforhire]

that is unless one of the switches is doing some sort of L3 and is being used as a gateway.

 

[jneiberger]

Good point. I was just referring to the management address on a layer two switch. If you're using an active VLAN on a layer three switch for management purposes, then changing that IP address will affect traffic.

Good catch.

 

[Zen216]

Thanks everyone,,,
I was able to assign an IP to all of the switches.. (there were 2 that grabbed one from our DHCP, but the others never had an IP)
I have been playing with the Network Assistant,, pretty neat stuff,,, now to figure out what they all do...
one more question (for now..lol),,, The software is reccomending to assign a coule of ports as smartports,,
what exactly would that do?
Thanks again to everyone