Each VLAN sub-interface on your linux router will tag outgoing packets with the VLAN ID in a lower layer than your Ethernet header. The physical interface typically plugs into an 802.1q trunk port, so that the switch will be able to interpret the header, untag, and forward the packets to the appropriate switch port.
While you may be able to plug your routers physical interface into a non-managed / non-trunk interface, your other hosts will not be able to interpret the VLAN tag. So this will almost certainly not work. If this is just temporary, and if the number of your subnets are relatively small, you could convert your linux router sub-interfaces into non-tagged interfaces. Sure, all your hosts will be on one single layer-2 broadcast domain, but layer-3 will still work the same. They're continue to ARP for their respective gateway addresses, and the router will do the same. When you are ready to go back to an 802.1q trunk, change the sub interfaces back to tagged, and assign the appropriate VLAN's to your respective ports. -- Gilbert Mendoza PGP: 0x7403B303 Email: gmendoza at gmail.com http://www.savvyadmin.com https://launchpad.net/~gmendoza https://wiki.ubuntu.com/GilbertMendoza On Wed, May 27, 2009 at 12:18 PM, Jeff Lasman <[email protected]> wrote: > Can I use an ordinary unmanaged switch, and lose only the port > dedication? In other words, can I still use the router the set up > subnets, and then use a cheap unmanaged switch (which I already have), > so I can attach computers to a specific subnets (software, of course, > by configuring ethernet ports on the servers with ifcfg-eth:X, without > caring anything about the ports they're plugged into? > > I'll eventually go back to the Dell managed switch, but I want to do a > quick move; I know I can set up any machine as a temporary router but I > don't have access to another managed switch right now, nor do I have > the time to learn how. > > Does anyone have experience with this? > > Thanks. > > Jeff > -- > Jeff Lasman, Nobaloney Internet Services > P.O. Box 52200, Riverside, CA 92517 > Our jplists address used on lists is for list email only > voice: +1 951 643-5345, or see: > "http://www.nobaloney.net/contactus.html"; > _______________________________________________ > LinuxUsers mailing list > [email protected] > http://socallinux.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/linuxusers >
