Cabletron Systems SmartCell 6A000 Switch User Manual


 
3-6 SmartCell 6A000 User Guide
3.2.2 ELANs Across Multiple Switches
ELANs can exist within a single switch or they can span multiple switches through IISP routes. When an ELAN spans
multiple switches, it's important that all switches within the group use the same LECS. The general rule is "Within an
administration domain (a group of switches with related ELANs), there should be exactly one LECS."
To assure that there is only one LECS, you can take one of the following actions:
1. Turn off the LECS using the stop lecs command on all but one switch. The switch with the LECS
left running provides LECS support for the rest of the group. Use the
set lecsaddress command
on all the other switches so that they point to the switch with the running LECS for LECS support.
2. Use the add wellknownaddress command on all other switches to map the Well Known LECS
Address to the LECS address of the switch with the running LECS. Now, all devices and clients
configured to use the Well Known LECS Address automatically register with the switch with the
running LECS.
Note Use IISP routing to connect multiple SmartCell 6A000 switches to form
administration domains. See Chapter 4, "Switch Administration." for information
on setting up IISP routes.
3.2.3 Switch Clients
The concept of SmartCell 6A000 switch client connections is an important concept to understand. A client connection
is actually a connection between the VLAN and the SmartCell 6A000 CPU; this CPU connection appears as if the
switch is an end station on the VLAN. The SmartCell 6A000 uses local clients to connect itself to the VLANs that it
supports.
This is analogous to a phone company that supports a communication system. Even though the phone company
maintains the circuits, a call to the phone company itself cannot be made unless the phone company has its own number
and connection on its own phone system. Similarly, VLAN membership (and reachability) of a SmartCell 6A000 on
any particular VLAN depends upon whether the SmartCell 6A000 has a local client connection for that VLAN.
Clients are created using the
add laneclient command for LAN emulation, and add ipatmclient for IP over ATM.
For example, the following adds a switch LANE client to the ELAN elan1:
SmartCell ZX# add laneclient
ClientNumber(0) : 1
LanName(ELAN001) : elan1
ServerType(LECS) :
ServerAddress() :
IPAddress() : 128.213.77.95
NetMask(255.255.0.0) :
MTU(1516) :
SmartCell ZX#
Prior to creating this local client connection, end devices could communicate with each other through elan1, but they
could not communicate with the SmartCell 6A000.