1-11 Management VLAN ConfigurationIntroduction to Management VLANManagement VLANTo manage an Ethernet switch remotely through Telnet or the built-in Web server, the switch need to beassigned an IP address, and make sure that a route exists between the user and the switch. As for anH3C series Layer 2 Ethernet switch, only the management VLAN interface can be assigned an IPaddress.The management VLAN interface of a switch can obtain an IP address in one of the following threeways:z Through the command used to configure IP addressz Through BOOTP (In this case, the switch operates as a BOOTP client.)z Through dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) (In this case, the switch operates as a DHCPclient)The three ways of obtaining an IP address cannot be configured at the same time. That is, the latest IPaddress obtained causes the previously IP address to be released. For example, if you assign an IPaddress to a VLAN interface by using the corresponding commands and then apply for another IPaddress through BOOTP (using the ip address bootp-alloc command), the former 0IP address will bereleased, and the final IP address of the VLAN interface is the one obtained through BOOTP.For details of DHCP, refer to the DHCP module.Static RouteA static route is configured manually by an administrator. You can make a network with relatively simpletopology to operate properly by simply configuring static routes for it. Configuring and using static routeswisely helps to improve network performance and can guarantee bandwidth for important applications.The disadvantages of static route lie in that: When a fault occurs or the network topology changes, staticroutes may become unreachable, which in turn results in network failures. In this case, manualconfigurations are needed to recover the network.Default RouteThe switch uses the default route when it fails to find a matching entry in the routing table:z If the destination address of a packet fails to match any entry in the routing table, the switch usesthe default route;
