ProCurve GVRP

GVRP

GVRP—GARP VLAN Registration Protocol—is an application of the Generic Attribute Registration Protocol—GARP. GVRP is defined in the IEEE 802.1Q standard, and GARP is defined in the IEEE 802.1D-1998 standard.

When GVRP is enabled on a switch, the VID for any static VLANs configured on the switch is advertised (using BPDUs—Bridge Protocol Data Units) out all ports, regardless of whether a port is up or assigned to any particular VLAN.  A GVRP-aware port on another device that receives the advertisements over a link can dynamically join the advertised VLAN.

Per-Port Options for Handling GVRP “Unknown VLANs”

When you enable GVRP on a switch, you have the per-port join-request options listed in this table:

Learn            Enables the port to become a member of any unknown VLAN for which it receives an

(default)          advertisement. Allows the port to advertise other VLANs that have at least one other

                        switch port as a vlan member.

Block            Prevents the port from joining any new dynamic VLANs for which it receives an advertisement.

                     Allows the  port to advertise other VLANs that have at least one other port as a vlan member.

Disable        Causes the port to ignore and drop all GVRP advertisements it receives and also prevents the 

                      port from sending any GVRP advertisements.

Example:

      (config)# interface 1-2

         unknown-vlans disable

      #show gvrp

        ...

        GVRP Enabled [No] : Yes

        ...

        Port Type      | Unknown VLAN Join  Leave Leaveall

        ---- --------- + ------------ ----- ----- --------

        1    100/1000T | Disable      20    300   1000

        2    100/1000T | Disable      20    300   1000

        3    100/1000T | Learn        20    300   1000

        4    100/1000T | Learn        20    300   1000

        ...

Port-Leave from a Dynamic VLAN

A dynamic VLAN continues to exist on a port for as long as the port continues to receive advertisements of that VLAN from another device connected to that port or until you:

1. Convert the VLAN to a static VLAN

2. Reconfigure the port to Block or Disable

3. Disable GVRP

4. Reboot the switch

The time-to-live for dynamic VLANs is 10 seconds.

Planning for GVRP Operation

These steps outline the procedure for setting up dynamic VLANs for a segment. 

1. Determine the VLAN topology you want for each segment (broadcast domain) on your network.

2. Determine the VLANs that must be static and the VLANs that can be dynamically propagated.

3. Determine the device or devices on which you must manually create static VLANs in order to propagate VLANs throughout the segment.

4. Determine security boundaries and how the individual ports in the segment will handle dynamic VLAN advertisements.

5. Enable GVRP on all devices you want to use with dynamic VLANs and configure the appropriate “Unknown VLAN” parameter (Learn, Block, or Disable) for each port.

6. Configure the static VLANs on the switch(es) where they are needed,  along with the per-VLAN parameters (Tagged, Untagged, Auto, and Forbid) on each port.

7. Dynamic VLANs will then appear automatically, according to the configuration options you have chosen.

8. Convert dynamic VLANs to static VLANs where you want dynamic VLANs to become permanent.

Converting a Dynamic VLAN to a Static VLAN

If a port on the switch has joined a dynamic VLAN, you can use the following command to convert that dynamic VLAN to a static VLAN:

   (config)# static-vlan < dynamic-vlan-id >

For example, to convert dynamic VLAN 333 (from the previous example) to a static VLAN:

   2920(config)# static-vlan 333

When you convert a dynamic VLAN to a static VLAN, all ports on the switch are assigned to the VLAN in Auto mode.