Basic Operation Guide 2013/06

8 Configuring IP addressing
Overview
You can configure IP addressing through all of the switch’s interfaces. You can also:
• Easily edit a switch configuration file to allow downloading the file to multiple switches without
overwriting each switch’s unique gateway and VLAN 1 IP addressing.
• Assign up to 32 IP addresses to a VLAN (multinetting).
• Select an IP address to use as the source address for all outgoing traffic generated by a
specified software application on the switch. This allows unique identification of the software
application on the server site regardless of which local interface has been used to reach the
destination server.
Why configure IP addressing? In its factory default configuration, the switch operates as a multiport
learning bridge with network connectivity provided by the ports on the switch. However, to enable
specific management access and control through your network, you will need IP addressing. Table
7 on page 111 shows the switch features that depend on IP addressing to operate.
IP configuration
IP configuration features:
WebAgentCLIMenuDefaultFeature
page 111page 107page 107DHCP/BootpIP Address and Subnet Mask
—page 109—n/aMultiple IP Addresses on a VLAN
page 111page 107page 107noneDefault Gateway Address
—page 107page 10764 secondsPacket Time-To-Live (TTL)
—page 107page 107DHCPTime Server (Timep)
—page 120—outgoing IP
address
Single Source IP Addressing
IP address and subnet mask. TheConfiguring the switch with an IP address expands your ability
to manage the switch and use its features. By default, the switch is configured to automatically
receive IP addressing on the default VLAN from a DHCP/Bootp server that has been configured
correctly with information to support the switch. (Refer to “DHCP/Bootp operation” (page 112) for
information on setting up automatic configuration from a server.) However, if you are not using a
DHCP/Bootp server to configure IP addressing, use the menu interface or the CLI to manually
configure the initial IP values. After you have network access to a device, you can use the WebAgent
to modify the initial IP configuration if needed.
For information on how IP addressing affects switch operation, refer to “How IP addressing affects
switch operation” (page 111).
Multinetting: assigning multiple IP addresses to a VLAN. For a given VLAN you can assign up to
32 IP addresses. This allows you to combine two or more subnets on the same VLAN, which enables
devices in the combined subnets to communicate normally through the network without needing
to reconfigure the IP addressing in any of the combined subnets.
Default gateway operation. The default gateway is required when a router is needed for tasks such
as reaching off-subnet destinations or forwarding traffic across multiple VLANs. The gateway value
is the IP address of the next-hop gateway node for the switch, which is used if the requested
destination address is not on a local subnet/VLAN. If the switch does not have a manually-configured
default gateway and DHCP/Bootp is configured on the primary VLAN, then the default gateway
Overview 105