Chapter 10. Connecting switches using trunk links
The switch I’ve been working with in this book has only 24 ports. Yours may have 24 or 48, but regardless of the exact number, in an organization of any size, you can imagine that one switch isn’t going to cut it. As you add more devices to a network, eventually you’re going to run out of switch ports. When that happens, you’ll have to add another switch.
In this chapter, you’re going to connect your second switch, Switch2, to Switch1. You’ll then move Executive-PC1 from Switch1 to Switch2. Before starting this chapter, be sure you’ve configured Switch2 using the lab setup instructions found under the Source Code link at https://www.manning.com/books/learn-cisco-network-administration-in-a-month-of-lunches. If you haven’t, you won’t be able to complete the labs in this chapter.
Adding another switch isn’t as simple as connecting the new switch to an existing switch and powering it on. It’s almost that simple, but you have to perform a few key steps to get everything working. Here’s a quick overview of those steps:
- Physically connect the new switch.
- Configure the switch ports to form a VLAN trunk.
- Configure VLANs on the new switch.