Question concerning 2950C Cisco switch 1

[gman10]

Hey all-

Hope everyone is doing well.. Well let me jump right into it.. I purchased 2 2950-C Cisco switches due to a building-A to building-B fiber run where video data will be viewed from building-A to building-B.... the fiber will be run and terminated for me but I am wondering if I'll need to configure these switches at all.. I was told by an associate that I shouldn't have to do much except for connecting a pc on any port on one of the switches from building B and ofcourse the video recorder on the switch at building A.. Ofcourse, building B's pc will have specific Remote View software in order to see the video stream.. As long as the DVR (which is a glorified pc with camera/video inputs) has a static IP and the PC on the other switch at Building-B has a static IP, shouldn't I essentially be good to go? If I'm wrong here, please point it out to me if anyone cares too.. I hope everyone has a great weekend!

gman

 

[lui3]

nice switches.out of the boxes they are IGMP aware and will only forward multicast packets to subscribing ports. they will also find the IGMP router ( if configured) and allow multicasts to travel across subnets. also nice switches since they run the EMI version of the IOS and you can apply plenty of policy marking/policing and qos measures to make sure that the video is treated properly.

 

[gman10]

Thx liu3,

They are definately worth the dollars spent. I believe there shouldn't be anything I'd need to really configure.. Hey, in the field... is this what would be considered a managed switch?.. so to speak?? I'm going to look into making sure the video side of this is treated right.. thx for your update on this, if you feel you can provide any additional info based on my scenario above, please feel free.. either way, this should be an interesting project..

enjoy the rest of the weekend1
gman

 

[lui3]

go to cco site and read the configuration guide regarding policing and QOS. i think it will be valuable to your situation.

you are correct about configurations for multicast video. multicast is turned on out of the box. thats one reason the switches perform so well in ghost situations etc is because they only forward to the member ports.

 

[gman10]

hi Liu3,

Thanks.. I read through the QOS and policing concepts.. Surely, these switches give you many feature sets for your dollar especially if you have the extended image.. I do have a question towards what I'm trying accomplish..

At siteA, I will connect the fiber via proper patch cable to the switch using MT-RJ to the fiber manager and will do the same at siteB using the same concept, a third party company has run and certified the fiber so there's no worries there.. Now the real question: the DVR (Digital Video Recorder) is essentially a Win 2K PC with special camera inputs and software inwhich I will need to use a straight cable and port it into the switch at SiteB.. This is what confuses me.. I was told that as long as a have a static IP address on the PC -i.e, 192.168.1.100... and a PC at siteA with a static IP -i.e, 192.168.1.101 (this pc will view the video across the fiber from SiteB's DVR) then I wouldn't need to really configure the switches themselves.. Is this true?? Don't I still need to generally go thru the Express configuration on the switches.. or can I assume that as long as my devices on both switches on each side have static (same range) IP addresses then they will communicate.. this is what's been troubling me based on the different suggestions I've received. If you can help clarify this issue, I would be most greatful..

thx, have a successful day.
gman

 

[lui3]

you can configured the express setup feature on each switch for management purposes. i would go ahead and do this anyways for security purposes.if you don't someone else could and then lock you out of everything. run the setup.

but you don't need to run the setup to bring the switches online in most cases. however some of the versions of IOS on the 2950s have had to have their vlan interface brought up in order to communicate.

i would run the setup on both switches and assign them telnet passwords etc. good luck.

Lui3
CCNP,CCDA,A+/Net+
Cisco Wireless Specialization

 

[gman10]

Your right Liu3, I will run the setup and thanks for everything.. It's worth it to minimally run it and tweak it as I go.. unfortunately, this now must get done immediately as the customer's request but shouldn't be difficult.. You mentioned something about "if I didn't run setup" I could "still get the switches online".. Will this allow a pc with a static address on SiteB's switch be seen at SiteA's switch where the DVR is as long as both had a static IP?

thx again

gman

 

[lui3]

these switches operate at layer 2(mac address) so they have no knowledge of layer 3(ip addresses static or dynamic). the answer to your question is yes. if both switches are configured with the defaults in place without changing any vlan information (which you probably won't do running the express setup) then yes you will be able to communicate between the sites via static ips. one way to check is hook everything up and then try to ping one address from the other across the sites.

if they are both on the same subnet then you will not have to worry about a router you will just have to make sure the switches are up and running.

Lui3
CCNP,CCDA,A+/Net+
Cisco Wireless Specialization

 

[gman10]

Thx Liu3,

Certainly, there is no router (layer 3) manipulation.. Strictly, strands of fiber from SiteA to SiteB with Fiber manager panels at both ends.. but I'll still run Express Setup.. You've been incredible during my learning process! You deserve more than a star of excellence!!

Have a great evening Liu3

gman

 

[gman10]

Liu3-

I ran thru the Express setup and was generally easy. I recall the vlan portion was asking for the interface name that connects to the management network.. the user guide always claims to use vlan1 as a default, so this is what I did.. I gave it IP address 10.10.10.1, I will do the same on the second switch but don't know if I should give the vlan name 1 or 2.. (not sure about this).. but the IP of the vlan interface will most likely be 10.10.10.2, then my devices i.e - DVR pc and the workstation at siteB will fall into the range of 10.10.10.X etc.. seems to me that this would be logistical.. the express setup mandatorily asks for the interface name used to connect to the management network and didn't seem like you could answer "no" to this.
The fast ethernet ports themselves don't have IP addresses assigned to them but shouldn't be a problem for what I need to accomplish I suppose, just don't know if I should use vlan1 on switch #2 for SiteB.. I figure, if I make it a different vlan name, then perhaps both my switches won't communicate hence rendering my video transport from both switches unviable...

thx
gman

 

[lui3]

just don't know if I should use vlan1 on switch #2 for SiteB.. I figure, if I make it a different vlan name, then perhaps both my switches won't communicate hence rendering my video transport from both switches unviable...

in response to your question the vlan interface you are specifying in the express setup is that of the management interface. by default this is vlan 1. also by default all switch ports are place in vlan 1. hence the management interface and the ports all belong to the same vlan/subnet. this enables you to telnet to the management interface from any switch port. however it is common practice in some networks to run vlan trunking to ports on a switch so that you can have multiple vlan instances. this segments communication between vlans on different ports. you need a router to intercommunicate between vlans. moving on some of us use vlan 1 for the management interface (vlan 1 in the this case) and change the other ports to another vlan for security reasons. that way hosts off of switch ports cannot telnet into the switch without going through a layer3 device and being subject to access lists and other filters. so you see setting the ip address of the management interface does not affect communication between ports on the switches. as long as all the ports on the switchs belong to the same vlan then the ports will communicate. however to complicate matters vlan 1 is also used for management traffic like spanning tree and ether channel control frames so it is not easily removed from the switch since the switch relies on it for its various control plain functions. in order to run vlans other than vlan 1 across uplinks to other switches you need to enable trunking between the switches.

gets more complicated than that but that is the jist.

i would recommend leaving the management interface in vlan 1 and putting the ports in vlan 1. for added security on the switch management interfaec you can always upgrade the ios to the crypto version and run ssh although in your case it looks like you are looking for ease of use and quick setup so i would just run the express setup, set everything to vlan1, don't mess with trunking, enable portfast on all host ports like this

switch(config-if)#interface fastether 0/1
switch (config-if)# spanning-tree portfast

or even easier do all the ports at once

switch(config)#interface range fa 0/1 -24
switch(config-if)#switchport host

this will enable spanning tree, set port mode to access, and disable etherchannel negotiation on the port. all in all it helps the port come up faster and forward packets. normally its 45-50 secs without and with its more like 5.

or

switch(config-if)#spanning-tree portfast


just enables portfast

forwards in less than 10 secs

i hope this makes since. let me know if i need to clarify. glad i could help.



Lui3
CCNP,CCDA,A+/Net+
Cisco Wireless Specialization

 

[gman10]

Thank you so much Liu3 for your support!

I actually do understand all the concepts you mentioned from VLANS, trunking to QOS to policing.. Due to much reading and refamiliarlizing myself as it's been a decent amount of time since I've touched a switch.. I set spantree on for all 24 ports.. excellent! I'm forwarding packets and bringing up ports at 5 sec intervals..

Tomorrow is go day.. just curious I gave switch #2 a different IP address of 10.10.10.2 as oppossed to switch #1 which is 10.10.10.1.. both set to VLan1 over fiber.. is this correct?? logic tells me it would be.. have a great evening and thanks again!!

gman

 

[lui3]

yes this will work. both are on the same vlan (vlan 1) and both are in the same subnet. 10.10.10.0 255.255.255.0

just ping each one from one switch to the other. just make sure that you don't assign those ips to other hosts on your network or you will get an ip conflict.

isn't networking fun!!!!!!!!!good luck with everything. i am interested in the dvr performance. i am looking into doing something similar at one of my sites.

Lui3
CCNP,CCDA,A+/Net+
Cisco Wireless Specialization

 

[gman10]

Liu3-

if there's anything I can help you with please inform me.. certainly!!

gman