Spanning Switches with Port-Based VLANs

To create a port-based VLAN that spans two switches, you must do two things:
  1. Assign the port on each switch to the VLAN.
  2. Cable the two switches together using one port on each switch per VLAN.
    Single Port-based VLAN Spanning Two Switches illustrates a single VLAN that spans a BlackDiamond switch and another Extreme Networks switch. All ports on the System 1 switch belong to VLAN Sales. Ports 1 through 29 on the system 2 switch also belong to VLAN Sales. The two switches are connected using slot 8, port 4 on System 1 (the BlackDiamond switch), and port 29 on system 2 (the other switch).
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    Single Port-based VLAN Spanning Two Switches
  3. To create multiple VLANs that span two switches in a port-based VLAN, a port on System 1 must be cabled to a port on System 2 for each VLAN you want to have span across the switches.
    At least one port on each switch must be a member of the corresponding VLANs as well.
    Two Port-Based VLANs Spanning Two Switches illustrates two VLANs spanning two switches. On System 2, ports 25 through 29 are part of VLAN Accounting; ports 21 through 24 and ports 30 through 32 are part of VLAN Engineering. On System 1, all ports on slot 1 are part of VLAN Accounting; all ports on slot 8 are part of VLAN Engineering.
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    Two Port-Based VLANs Spanning Two Switches
    VLAN Accounting spans System 1 and System 2 by way of a connection between System 2, port 29 and System 1, slot 1, port 6. VLAN Engineering spans System 1 and System 2 by way of a connection between System 2, port 32, and System 1, slot 8, port 6.
  4. Using this configuration, you can create multiple port-based VLANs that span multiple switches, in a daisy-chained fashion.