GVRP Saves On “Moves Adds & Changes”
Are you running the basics of managing your network as efficiently as you can? Could one set of design features be better suited to getting management of your network done?
One of the most common tasks of any network management staff is getting devices into the correct departmental network so that group traffic on the network really only mingles with others from the group in a secure enough manner. This is the management problem of “moves, adds, & changes.”
Our networking group at a major university has always valued efficient network management with our users/customers coming first. The network is for our customers; making them “adapt” to the design/features of the network costs them and the organization time and money. Thus we have always used network features that allow us quickly to make changes and to automate the management process as much as possible.
There are plenty of stories where an organizations network requires users to “adapt” work to the network. Some networks limit one network to a building or group of buildings. Some staffs take hours or days to get a network change made taking into account minimum notifications. Our users would kill us if that were the case! How do we quickly, efficiently and securely get devices in their proper network?
We do this by using several unique network design features. We put vlans (virtual networks, virtual lans) in major trunks in large segments of our network. This way some 90%+ of the time we know all the vlans we need are in the trunk to a building. We use GVRP (generic vlan registration protocol) to dynamically distribute vlans in this manner. We do not spend time logging into device after device, setting up trunks or adding loads of statements to network electronics as many other networks have to do. We have executable commands we can run and gui management software we use to get this done. We have even automated this is a very safe way for a small group of changes that does not require human intervention. We like to say that while we route less than most networks we have more ports in routed vlans that many networks we hear about that have more routers than we do. The point of this is not to cast aspersions on routing or some other aspects of design but it is an example of design features that are fast, safe, powerful and exponentially more efficient than other design features for doing vlans.
This design feature of GVRP and our management tools for adds, moves and changes is one of the biggest time savers we have in getting our users in the right network. Are you limiting your users or are you getting them into the networks they need as quickly as possible so they can get on with work?
Mike Hawkins
Associate Director of Networking
UNC Chapel Hill