VLAN connection issue

[Matt Browning]

I am trying to setup a couple of VLAN for our company and running into a problem. We have a 5400 and 3500 switch. The 5400 using as a core switch with our servers, 3500 is located on one of the floors. I have setup on the 5400 2 VLAN with IP

DEFAULT VLAN - 172.16.x.x 255.255.0.0
VLAN2 - 172.17.4.x 255.255.254.0

and same on the 3500 switch:

DEFAULT VLAN - 172.16.x.x 255.255.0.0
VLAN2 - 172.17.4.x 255.255.254.0

I have tagged the ports for VLAN2 that link the two switches. From the 3500 switch i can ping servers that are connected to the 5400. If I plug a PC in, give it a static ip of 172.17.4.x and trying to ping one of the servers, no reply, but I can ping the DEFAULT VLAN IP on the 5400. Ip routing is enabled. I know I must be overlooking something but its just not comming to me. Any help would be great. Thanks!

[Dave Costello]

As best as I can tell, you can't route ip on the default VLAN unless you use an external router.

[Matt Browning]

From what I have read I thought that if you have enabled IP routing in the configuration then the switch can route internally. Also both VLANs are port based.

[Dave Costello]

I'm having this same problem, not being about to route ip on the default vlan with using an external router. All other vlans route ip just fine. From the looks of it, the default vlan is pretty much a catch all vlan, including the management vlan. I believe this is why ip won't route via the switches on the default vlan. I'm have all my switches and clients in the default vlan and am in the process of changing things so that there is a defined management vlan that the switches belong to and a seperate vlan for my clients - neither of them being the default-vlan. At that point, once everything is on clearly and properly defined vlans, I expect routing to work with no issues.

[Dave Costello]

I'm having this same problem, not being about to route ip on the default vlan without using an external router. All other vlans route ip just fine. From the looks of it, the default vlan is pretty much a catch all vlan, including the management vlan. I believe this is why ip won't route via the switches on the default vlan. I'm have all my switches and clients in the default vlan and am in the process of changing things so that there is a defined management vlan that the switches belong to and a seperate vlan for my clients - neither of them being the default-vlan. At that point, once everything is on clearly and properly defined vlans, I expect routing to work with no issues.

[Matt Browning]

I have found what was causing the problem. All of the servers default gateway was pointing to our firewall which was not aware of the 172.17.4 subnet. Added in static route on the servers for that subnet and am now able to see computers on VLAN 4 from the DEFAULT VLAN

[Joel Belizario]

FYI the behaviour Dave is describing is caused by defining the default VLAN (1) as a management VLAN.

When a VLAN has been defined as a management VLAN the switch will disable routing for it.