CHAPTER
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Software Configuration Guide—Release 12.2(25)EW
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Understanding and Configuring VTP
This chapter describes the VLAN Trunking Protocol (VTP) on the Catalyst 4500 series switch. It also
provides guidelines, procedures, and configuration examples.
This chapter includes the following major sections:
• Overview of VTP, page 27-1
• VTP Configuration Guidelines and Restrictions, page 27-5
• VTP Default Configuration, page 27-5
• Configuring VTP, page 27-6
Note For complete syntax and usage information for the switch commands used in this chapter, refer to the
Catalyst 4500 Series Switch Cisco IOS Command Reference and related publications at
http://www.cisco.com/univercd/cc/td/doc/product/software/ios122/122cgcr/index.htm.
Overview of VTP
VTP is a Layer 2 messaging protocol that maintains VLAN configuration consistency by managing the
addition, deletion, and renaming of VLANs within a VTP domain. A VTP domain (also called a VLAN
management domain) is made up of one or more network devices that share the same VTP domain name
and that are interconnected with trunks. VTP minimizes misconfigurations and configuration
inconsistencies that can result in a number of problems, such as duplicate VLAN names, incorrect
VLAN-type specifications, and security violations.
Before you create VLANs, you must decide whether you want to use VTP in your network. With VTP,
you can make configuration changes centrally on one or more network devices and have those changes
automatically communicated to all the other network devices in the network.
Note For complete information on configuring VLANs, see Chapter 10, “Understanding and Configuring
VLANs.”
These sections describe how VTP works:
• Understanding the VTP Domain, page 27-2
• Understanding VTP Modes, page 27-2
• Understanding VTP Advertisements, page 27-3