Passing Tagged Packets on Accelar 1100/1200

[biltmorecomm]

Hello:

We are trying to configure either an 1100 or a 1200 Accelar with 2.1.0.0 firmware so that it will pass ALL 802.1Q vlan packets regardless of what they are tagged with.

The obvious setting which says to pass jumbo frames, did not result in anything. I even checked the MTU, and it was at 1750 with this setting on.

The other problem is that we need to have the switch respond to an "equipment" 802.1Q vlan for management purposes.

Ideas? It seems like it is a firmware bug because these commands are not listed in the 2.0.0 manual. However, I don't have access to the latest firmware, so I dont' know.

Help!
Jason

 

[jimbopalmer]

Not sure I understand.

Any VLAN port will pass packets of all VLANs it is a member of, if it is tagged, then it will pass the tags. (I have sometimes wished the Isolated Router ports passed 802.1p information, but they don't)

I am not clear what jumbo frames would have to do with that, I use a LOT of VLANs but not jumbo frames.

So long as the ports you use to monitor the switch are in the management VLAN, it ought to work. I had not considered having my gear in a seperate VLAN from the users.

Are you using Device Manager or Optivity Switch Manager?, These tools are more pleasent than the command line.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[biltmorecomm]

Well we are trying to pass 802.1Q VLAN packets on ports that are not members of those VLAN's. On the BayStacks, these are the Interconnect ports. Basicly we want our 1100 to have every port an interswitch/interconnect port, and forward all 802.1Q frames regardless if the ports on the 1100 are a true member of those VLAN's or not.

We basicly want the switch to act as a "dumb" switch, except that it passes larger frames which are 802.1Q, without stripping off the tags.

Jason

 

[jimbopalmer]

make them members of the VLANs you want them to be members of, there is not limit I know of to the number of VLANs a tagged port can be a member of

there is no hassle making every port a member of every VLAN on a 1100 if you have them all tagged. I think the limit is over 100 VLANs a switch can be a member of (we use about 50 VLANs)

Near as I can tell, the point of VLANs was NOT to pass traffic to ports which are not members, so I can see why that fails

I cannot see that working on any switch which knows anything about VLANs, and the extra bytes in the header will choke any switch which does not know about VLANs. (if it was just extra bytes in the body, the Jumbo Frames idea might work, although there is no Jumbo Frames standard)

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[biltmorecomm]

Right. Well the issue is that we are trying to pass about 800 802.1Q Vlans. And, we don't have time (or want to) to configure each port to see 800 vlans even if it could recognize that many (the limit is 128). We have found that using a 3Com 1100 or 3300, we can basicly set the switch ports to pass larger frames, and everything works great. We are simply trying to make the Nortel Accelar act the same way. So, we are really just asking the Accelar switch to forward all ethernet frames regardless of their size, and regardless of the port they arrive on.

There is a function in the Nortel IOS which says "Enable Large Frame Support". When you turn this on, the MTU jumps to 1750 from 1500 which is large enough to pass ANY 802.1Q packet I've ever heard of - yet it doesn't work.

And this is the problem.

Jason

 

[jimbopalmer]

i think you are right, when I go to the 3com site, the 1100 and 3300 are the very bottom of the workgroup line of switches, (they actively recommend you buy something else) not a core product, and I bet they are not bright enough to stop you from doing that.

http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase&sku=WEBBNC3300SYS

I do not know any way to make a 1100 or 1200 that dumb, sorry (you could try very early firmware in the hopes they did not get it right in early releases)

ftp://ftp-support.baynetworks.com/pub/swcode/accelar/1000


I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.