Designating an Ethernet Port Type

Ethernet ports can be configured as access ports, trunk ports, or general ports.

Trunk links are required to pass VLAN information between switches. Access ports provide access to the network and can be configured as members of specific VLANs, thereby separating the traffic on these ports from traffic on other VLANs. General ports are user-defined ports that can have any combination of up to 20 VLAN IDs assigned.

For most ZoneFlex APs, you can set ports to be Access, Trunk and General Ports from the controller web interface, as long as at least one port on each AP is designated as a Trunk Port.

By default, all ports are enabled as Trunk Ports with Untag VLAN set as 1 (except for ZoneFlex 7025, in which front ports are enabled as Access Ports by default). If configured as an Access Port, all untagged ingress traffic is the configured Untag VLAN, and all egress traffic is untagged. If configured as a Trunk Port, all untagged ingress traffic is configured Untag VLAN (by default, 1), and all VLAN-tagged traffic on VLANs 1-4094 will be seen when present on the network.

The default Untag VLAN for each port is VLAN 1. Change the Untag VLAN to:

  • Segment all ingress traffic on this Access Port to a specific VLAN.
  • Redefine the native VLAN on this Trunk Port to match your network configuration.

When trunk port limitation is disabled using the eth-port-validate-one-trunk disable command, validation checks are not performed for the VLAN members and the AP Management VLAN. If the AP configuration for general ports and access ports do not include a member of an AP management VLAN, or the VLAN of a WAN interface configured through CLI, the AP will disconnect and the Ethernet port stops transmitting data. Make sure that you configure the correct VLAN member in the ports (general/access) and the AP management VLAN.

Note: Ensure that at least one of the general port VLANs is the same as a Management VLAN of the AP.

Parent topic: AP Ethernet Ports