Cisco Switch Programming

Hey guys,
It’s been long time since I had to configure managed switches.
I have 2 Cisco switches that I need to have a basic
Configuration on them.

They are used & I need to clean off the current
Configuration, so would I need to do a “write erase” on them?

The switches I have are:
Cisco 2960 switch
Cisco ME 3400 series switch

1. I need to make sure all Ethernet ports are active.
2. How do I configure the ports to link the two switches together? Are these ports configured a certain way?
3. Also these switches have gig ports, how do I configure these & make sure there active.
4. These switches have ports for modules. I have a fiber SFP Module
Installed. How would these be configured?

After I get more knowledge about these switches maybe later I can
Configure some ports differently or turn off ports that aren’t being used.

I appreciate the help and your patience!

Ones_Zeros said:

Hey guys,
It’s been long time since I had to configure managed switches.
I have 2 Cisco switches that I need to have a basic
Configuration on them.

They are used & I need to clean off the current
Configuration, so would I need to do a “write erase” on them?

The switches I have are:
Cisco 2960 switch
Cisco ME 3400 series switch

1. I need to make sure all Ethernet ports are active.
2. How do I configure the ports to link the two switches together? Are these ports configured a certain way?
3. Also these switches have gig ports, how do I configure these & make sure there active.
4. These switches have ports for modules. I have a fiber SFP Module
Installed. How would these be configured?

After I get more knowledge about these switches maybe later I can
Configure some ports differently or turn off ports that aren’t being used.

I appreciate the help and your patience!

Click to expand...

I have a tiny bit of knowledge, mostly from repeatedly asking my IT guy and having him sigh before explaining what i need to do ...

1. Show ports /all or /full should show you the status of the ports. You can do show ? to find out what the options are. When I use switches, I wear out the ? key because I can't memorize these silly options.

2. I think that you need to define trunked ports to 'make the switches act like one switch'. But I don't know anything more than that. My IT guy doesn't trust me to do that type of config change.

3. gig, 100 MB, 10 MB .. they are all configured with the same commands. I think that SET is used for most things.

4. SFP plugs into the ports and is used OR the copper port with the same name is used. It's either or. Config of the SFP uses normal port commands.

But I have not-much-more knowledge than you do ... so that's about it for how I can help.

There are a bunch of guys on the group that will correct what I messed up above. But I tried to help.

I found that looking up the switch manual gives you a lot of information on what the switch has as well as commands to set it up, or at least the basic stuff.



It's my understanding that they can be reset via hardware... although if you already have access to them via CLI, why not reconfigure?

So if I wanted to just configure these switches
Right now to just all all ports to be open, how would I configure this?

Also if I wanted to make sure that switch A
Can connect to switch B via the gig port how do I configure this to link up?

Thanks

To turn all ports on, you would need to issue a "no shutdown" command on the ports you want to turn on.

You would need to enter the following commands:

Enable
Configure Terminal
Interface FastEthernet 0/1 - 24
No Shutdown

I would just issue the " write erase" command and clear the NVRAM. This would make sure you dont have trouble from unknown configurations.

If you dont have any VLANS set up, the gigabit port should work just find to connect to another unit.

The post above missed the word "Range" in the commands. Here is the corrected form.

Enable
Configure Terminal
Interface Range FastEthernet 0/1 - 24
No Shutdown
Report Post

It won't work for your ME-3400, but Cisco Network Assistant software will make configuring that 2960 much easier.

Don't forget to save your configuration to nvram:

Copy running-config startup-config

Or just copy run start.

Check out this: https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/td/do...r3/rpm/rpm_r1-1/configuration/guide/appc.html

Thanks for all the help!
I was able to write erase all the switches today.


One last question, now that I have all the configurations
gone. Today I was trying to configure a IP address
In each of the switches so I could mangage them.
For some reason I could not ping from switch to switch.
Is there any reason why I can not ping?


Here is how I’m configuring the IP addresses

Switch#
Switch#config terminal
Switch(config)#interface vlan 1
Switch(config-int)#ip address 192.168.30.50 255.255.255.0

Should I be able to ping this 192.168.30.50 ip from another switch?
Should I configure a default gateway?

Thanks again for helping!

Ones_Zeros said:

Thanks for all the help!
Here is how I’m configuring the IP addresses

Switch#
Switch#config terminal
Switch(config)#interface vlan 1
Switch(config-int)#ip address 192.168.30.50 255.255.255.0

Should I be able to ping this 192.168.30.50 ip from another switch?
Should I configure a default gateway?

Click to expand...

Okay, so...what you need to do is trunk those two switches if you are trying to connect them both. Try this:

switchport mode trunk such as 0/1 mode trunk

This should trunk the two switches together. Then they can see each other.

You only need to trunk if you are using separate vlans. You should be able to ping through another switch. You “might” / should need a crossover cable between two switches. You only need a gateway if you are trying to communicate with another subnet.

Did you issue a 'no shut' on the vlans?

Once you erase any past configurations, the switches should be ready to go out of the box provided you aren't doing anything special like VLANing etc. Also, you should not need any crossover cables for Cisco switches as they are auto-negotiating. In addition to the "no shutdown" command you give the port range, you might also want to set interface range "switchport mode access". This sets the ports in the range to access mode only, its possible in the future you could try and plug some new device in and the switch might try to auto-negotiate to trunk mode. I've never actually seen this happen but i'm told by certified IT guys its a best practice with Cisco switches.

Setting up the switch for remote management can be tricky. There are a lot of steps to setup an IP, setup SSH, etc so you can remotely connect to the switch with something like Putty or Hyperterminal.

If you want to be really dangerous, get an "Official" copy of a Cisco CCNA ICDN1 100-105 book. Its the manual to prepare you for Cisco certification. It even comes with a handy virtual environment software so you can setup virtual networks as you go through the book, testing out the concepts they present to you. It covers not only switching but routing as well. The book also really can expand your understanding of exactly how switching and routing really work at each layer.