Switch Interface Configuration

Fundamental Configurations

Speed and Duplex

• Speed: Refers to the speed of the Ethernet link
  • Options: 10 Mbps, 100 Mbps, 1 Gbps, 10 Gbps
• Duplex: Can be set to half or full
  • Often set to automatic (negotiation between devices)
  • Manual configuration requires matching settings on both sides

Layer 3 Settings (IP Configurations)

• **Layer 3 Interfaces: ** On firewalls, routers, or VLAN interfaces on switches
• Management Interfaces: IP addresses for device communication
• **Configuration Includes: **
  • IP addresses
  • Subnet masks (dotted decimal or CIDR notation)
  • Default gateway or route
  • DNS configurations

VLAN Configuration

• Assign VLAN: Every port must be assigned to a VLAN
• Trunk Configurations: Define VLANs that can traverse the trunk
• Untagged Frames: Default VLAN or native VLAN
• Tagged Frames: VLAN tag added and removed on the other side of the trunk

Port Bonding or Link Aggregation

• Purpose: Provides additional bandwidth between switches
• Link Aggregation Control Protocol (LACP): Manages aggregated links

Port Mirroring

• Purpose: Capture traffic for analysis
• Configuration: Copy traffic from one/more interfaces to another for packet capture
• SPAN: Switch Port Analyzer, mirrors traffic to another switch
• Physical Tap: Insert directly into connections for traffic monitoring

Jumbo Frames

• Standard Ethernet Frame: Supports 1,500 bytes
• Jumbo Frame: Increases payload size up to 9,216 bytes (commonly set to 9,000 bytes)
• Requirement: All devices in the path must support jumbo frames

Flow Control

• Issue: Ethernet is non-deterministic, leading to potential traffic overload
• Solution: 802.3x Pause Frame
  • Sends a message to pause traffic
  • Includes a timer (quanta) for pause duration
• Additional Enhancements: Quality of Service (QoS) or Class of Service (CoS)

Port Security

• Purpose: Prevent unauthorized network access
• Configuration: Based on MAC addresses
  • Set a maximum number of source MAC addresses per interface
  • Specific MAC addresses can be configured
  • Interface disabled if MAC limit exceeded
  • Alerts sent to network administrator