Switch design - IP routing

[Brad_199]

We have a 5406ZL with a number of 2610's connected to it.  Several VLANs on each switch.

IP routing is only configured on 5406.

Is it best to enable routing on all switches?

Perhaps so each switch can route between VLANs rather than the 5406 from doing it?

[Pete W]

Just because you can, doesn't mean you should :) I would probably recommend keeping the routing functionality on the 5406zl and leaving the 2610 as L2 switches - especially if your client VLANs span multiple 2610s.

Given that the 2610 does not support any routing protocols, other designs could start getting very messy, requiring multiple static routes and resulting in (tricky to troubleshoot) asymmetric routing.

[paulgear]

I agree with Pete - if you had OSPF-capable switches on the edge then it might be different, but the 5400 has plenty of grunt, and keeping the routing in one place is a lot easier to manage.

[Brad_199]

ok thanks

[Brad_199]

would it be best for clients connected to the edge switch to have their gateway as the vlan address of the L3 core switch or the vlan of the edge switch it's connected too?

[paulgear · Accepted solution]

If you're going to take Pete's advice and only route on the core, then setting the gateway address to the core switch is the only possible choice. If the edge switches are not routing, setting them as the default gateways will not work.