Dynamic VLANs and VMPS Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial

Dynamic VLANs and VMPS Cisco CCNP / BCMSN Exam Tutorial
As a CCNA & CCNP candidate, you know how & why to configure static VLANs. Static VLANs can be a powerful tool for reducing unnecessary broadcast & multicast traffic, but if hosts are moved from one switch port to another, you have got to make those changes physically on the switch. With Dynamic VLANs, the changes are made - how else? - dynamically.

Knowledge of Dynamic VLANs & VMPS is important in your efforts to pass the BCMSN exam & earn your CCNP, & it's also a great skill to have for your networking career.

The actual configuration of dynamic VLANs is out of the scope of the BCMSN exam, but as a CCNP candidate you want to know the basics of VMPS - a VLAN Membership owner Server.

Using VMPS results in port VLAN membership changes being performed dynamically, because the port's VLAN membership is decided by the source MAC address of the device connected to that port. (Yet another reason that the first value a switch looks at on an incoming frame is the source MAC address.)

I urge you to do additional reading regarding VMPS. Use your favorite search engine for the term configuring vmps & you'll quickly find some great official Cisco documentation on this topic.

In my home lab network, i have got a host connected to switch port fast0/1 that resides in VLAN 12. What if they had to move Host 1's connection to the switch to port 0/6? With static VLANs, we'd have to connect to the switch, configure the port as an access port, & then place the port into VLAN 12. With VMPS, the only thing we'd have to do is reconnect the cable to port 0/6, & the VMPS would dynamically place that port into VLAN 12.

To review, the VLAN membership of a host is decided by one of one factors. With static VLANs, the host's VLAN membership is the VLAN to which its switch port has been assigned. With dynamic VLANs, it's dependent upon the host's MAC address.