vtp why?

a switch in your network fails and needs to be replaced... you get a new one next day, what do you do?  take it out of the box, slap a console cable on it, rev it up, configure it with a hostname, give it a default gateway, give it a management vlan and ip address, password protect the vty's and console, assign the vlans and ports as access to those vlans, assign the trunk ports where necessary, manually to trunk mode, copy run start and put it in the closet...  this takes about five minutes...

and what about vtp... turn that shit off...


sw2950_02(config)#int vlan 5
sw2950_02(config-if)#vtp mode off
                     ^
% Invalid input detected at '^' marker.

sw2950_02(config-if)#vtp mode trans
Setting device to VTP TRANSPARENT mode.
sw2950_02(config)#

whoops...
wait, i think i'll create a new vlan today and propagate it across the network from my vtp server.. no...

what if i want to use isl?  don't...

set the access ports to portfast, the trunks to on and stp to rapid-...

so why did i spend all this time learning these things...  so you know to turn that shit off...

saran wrap...

when you receive a cisco switch it is by default set to server mode out of the box...  be sure to set it to transparent mode before deployment...

Server
 can create, add, delete  and/or change vlan information.  these changes are added throughout the VTP domain

Client
  listen for advertisements and modify their own configurations as a result.  a server is required by the client    for vlan changes. a client cannot create, add or delete vlans

Transparent
  can forward or receive vlan advertisements but otherwise do not participate in the domain...

you can see right through them... so there...