Cisco 2960 IP Routing
Network administrators in Cisco networking business do come across the question – Whether Cisco 2960 switches support IP Routing?
Another important fact to share is that since competitors like Juniper have small end Switches like EX2200 (though starting models) which support layer 2 Static and Dynamic Routing, it was time for Cisco to introduce Routing function on 2960x series.
And rightly so, from IOS version 12.2(55)SE onwards, catalyst 2960 switches have become Layer 3 devices though with limitations.
Note – The switch supports 8 Routed SVIs and 16 static routes (including user-configured routes and the default route) and any directly connected routes and default routes for the management interface.
The switch can have an IP address assigned to each of 8 SVI. Before enabling routing, enter the sdm prefer lanbase-routing global configuration command and reload the switch.
Related – Cisco 2960s Guide
A reboot is (always) needed after changing the SDM template. After reboot, it’s just like enabling routing on any other L3 switch with the command “ip routing” from global config.
Changes to the running SDM preferences have been stored, but cannot take effect until the next reload.
Use ‘show sdm prefer’ to see what SDM preference is currently active.
Switch(config)#^Z
Switch#reload
System configuration has been modified. Save? [yes/no]: y
Proceed with reload? [confirm]
After changing the SDM template and reboot, below command is issued to verify the change .
Now we verify:
The current template is “lanbase-routing” template.
The selected template optimizes the resources in
the switch to support this level of features for
8 routed interfaces and 255 VLANs.
number of unicast mac addresses: 4K
number of IPv4 IGMP groups + multicast routes: 0.25K
number of IPv4 unicast routes: 4.25K
number of directly-connected IPv4 hosts: 4K
number of indirect IPv4 routes: 0.25K
number of IPv4 policy based routing aces: 0
number of IPv4/MAC qos aces: 0.125k
number of IPv4/MAC security aces: 0.375k
At this point, the 2960s don’t support routed physical interfaces (“no switchport”).
Another important note is that we’re only allowed 16 static routes with no no dynamic routing capability.
Now we’ll enable IP routing and configure SVIs:
Switch(config)#ip routing
Switch(config)#
Switch(config)#int vlan 10
Switch(config-if)#ip add 192.168.10.1 255.255.255.0
Switch(config)#^Z
Switch#sh ip route
…C 192.168.10.0/24 is directly connected, Vlan10
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I am here to share my knowledge and experience in the field of networking with the goal being – “The more you share, the more you learn.”
I am a biotechnologist by qualification and a Network Enthusiast by interest. I developed interest in networking being in the company of a passionate Network Professional, my husband.
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Keep it up good work