Administrator Guide

GARP VLAN Registration (GVRP)
The Dell EMC Networking operating system supports the basic GVRP commands on the Dell EMC Networking OS.
The generic attribute registration protocol (GARP) mechanism allows the configuration of a GARP participant to propagate
through a network quickly. A GARP participant registers or de-registers its attributes with other participants by making
or withdrawing declarations of attributes. At the same time, based on received declarations or withdrawals, GARP handles
attributes of other participants.
GVRP enables a device to propagate local VLAN registration information to other participant devices and dynamically update the
VLAN registration information from other devices. The registration information updates local databases regarding active VLAN
members and through which port the VLANs can be reached.
GVRP ensures that all participants on a bridged LAN maintain the same VLAN registration information. The VLAN registration
information propagated by GVRP includes both manually configured local static entries and dynamic entries from other devices.
GVRP participants have the following components:
● The GVRP application
● GARP information propagation (GIP)
● GARP information declaration (GID)
Important Points to Remember
● GVRP is supported on Layer 2 ports only.
● All VLAN ports added by GVRP are tagged.
● GVRP is supported on untagged ports belonging to a default VLAN and tagged ports.
● GVRP cannot be enabled on untagged ports belonging to a non-default VLAN unless native VLAN is turned on.
● GVRP requires end stations with dynamic access NICs.
● Based on updates from GVRP-enabled devices, GVRP allows the system to dynamically create a port-based VLAN
(unspecified) with a specific VLAN ID and a specific port.
● On a port-by-port basis, GVRP allows the system to learn about GVRP updates to an existing port-based VLAN with that
VLAN ID and IEEE 802.1Q tagging.
● GVRP allows the system to send dynamic GVRP updates about your existing port-based VLAN.
● GVRP updates are not sent to any blocked spanning tree protocol (STP) ports. GVRP operates only on ports that are in the
forwarding state.
● GVRP operates only on ports that are in the STP forwarding state. If you enable GVRP, a port that changes to the STP
Forwarding state automatically begin to participate in GVRP. A port that changes to an STP state other than forwarding no
longer participates in GVRP.
● VLANs created dynamically with GVRP exist only as long as a GVRP-enabled device is sending updates. If the devices no
longer send updates, or GVRP is disabled, or the system is rebooted, all dynamic VLANs are removed.
● GVRP manages the active topology, not non-topological data such as VLAN protocols. If a local bridge must classify and
analyze packets by VLAN protocols, manually configure protocol-based VLANs, and simply rely on GVRP for VLAN updates.
But if the local bridge must know only how to reach a given VLAN, then GVRP provides all necessary information.
● The VLAN topologies that GVRP learns are treated differently from VLANs that are statically configured. The GVRP dynamic
updates are not saved in NVRAM, while static updates are saved in NVRAM. When GVRP is disabled, the system deletes all
VLAN interfaces that were learned through GVRP and leaves unchanged all VLANs that were manually configured.
Topics:
• clear gvrp statistics
• debug gvrp
• disable
• garp timers
• gvrp enable
• gvrp registration
• protocol gvrp
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