GVRP - GARP VLAN Registration protocol

Many times we see VTP protocol, Many of engineers would know that GVRP is same like VTP in Cisco. In this section we will discuss about GVRP.

GVRP(GARP VLAN Registration protocol) is one application protocol defined by GARP. It is the GARP-based protocol mechanism, maintaining the VLAN information in the switch dynamically.

All switches that support GVRP can receive the VLAN registration information from other switches and updates the local VLAN registration information dynamically, including the current VLAN on the router And ports contained in the VLANs. Moreover, all switches that support GVRP can spread the local VLAN registration information to other switches, so as to make the VLAN configurations of all devices that support GVRP in one switching network consistent. 

The VLAN registration information spread by GVRP includes the static VLAN information configured manually at the local and the dynamic VLAN information from other switches. Note that the Leave message of GVRP cannot delete the VLAN configured manually at the local, that is to say, the priority of the VLAN configured manually is higher than the GVRP operation.

GVRP realizes the dynamic registration, maintenance and de-registration of the port member information in the VLAN. If VLAN does not exist, create the VLAN dynamically. If the number of the port members in the VLAN is 0, delete the VLAN dynamically, that is, add the port dynamically to VLAN or delete the port from the VLAN. In this way, the dynamic configuration of VLAN on the VLAN is realized.

GVRP can dynamically configure the VLAN, so there is no need to configure all VLANs of all devices, but only need to configure some devices especially edge devices, and some special VLANs. The other devices can be automatically configured by GVRP. Currently, the enterprise network is large and there are many VLANs. 

The GVRP function greatly reduces the configuration work of the administrator and the possibility of the manual mistakes. Moreover, when the network topology changes, the GVRP function can help to configure the VLAN automatically, so as to ensure the connectivity between VLANs.

Some Basics:

• Generic Attribute Registration Protocol (GARP) VLAN Registration Protocol(GVRP) is an application defined in the IEEE 802.1Q standard that allows for the control of VLANs.
• GVRP runs only on 802.1Q trunk links.
• GVRP prunes trunk links so that only active VLANs will be sent across trunk connections.
• GVRP expects to hear join messages from the switches before it will add a VLAN to the trunk.
• GVRP updates and hold timers can be altered.
• GVRP ports run in various modes to control how they will prune VLANs.
• GVRP can be configured to dynamically add and manage VLANS to the VLAN database for trunking purposes.

Hope you got understanding about GVRP. Its similar like VTP in Cisco. In coming post I will let you know how to configure it on Maipu switches. 

Will try to share some more information also regrading commands details. 

Hope this post is informative for you..

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