VLAN practice labs

CCNA L3 Switching: A New VLAN, End to End

A new building-systems VLAN has been provisioned. Carry it, route it and advertise it so its controllers reach the edge.

CCNA46 min3 objectives

CCNA Break/Fix Capstone: One Floor, Two Layers, One Ticket

A full-path break/fix capstone for CCNA troubleshooting. A single floor was renumbered and re-cabled. Users on that floor cannot reach anything — not their default gateway, not other subnets, and not the internet. The change record mentions both the access switch and the internet edge. Your job: prove the path hop-by-hop from the client outward and repair every break. Fixing only one side does not change the symptom; both layers must be corrected.

CCNA75 min5 objectives

CCNA Break/Fix: Three Circuits That Test Clean and Carry Nothing

A replacement branch router came up on three carrier handoffs. All subinterfaces and /30s look correct and line protocols are up, yet no traffic passes. Your job: read what each circuit actually puts on the wire and bring the branch into alignment with the remote ends — including the carrier-published IP MTU on one circuit — without altering addressing or static routes.

CCNA55 min5 objectives

CCNA Break/Fix Capstone: One Symptom, Two Faults

A branch user in VLAN 10 cannot reach the data center's line-of-business server, stalling the end-of-day batch upload. Two faults sit behind the one complaint, and clearing either alone leaves the user where they started. The client gets no answer from its own gateway either.

CCNA55 min4 objectives

CCNA Break/Fix: The Trunk That Carries Only Some VLANs

Your team supports a small campus access layer: two switches, one 802.1Q trunk. The help desk reports VLAN 20 users cannot reach their peers while VLAN 10 users can, and both ends read up and trunking. Campus design: VLANs 10 and 20 are the only VLANs any trunk carries; every trunk's native VLAN is 999.

CCNA35 min4 objectives

Free with an account

Layer-2 Trunk EtherChannel Carrying Multiple VLANs

Build a two-link LACP EtherChannel between SW1 and SW2 and convert the Port-channel into an 802.1Q trunk that explicitly carries VLANs 40 and 41. Validate end-to-end host reachability across VLAN 40 and confirm the trunk’s allowed VLAN list and switchport mode on the logical port-channel. Emphasis: deterministic EtherChannel configuration on member interfaces, correct trunking on the Port-channel, and verification with IOS show commands.

CCNA55 min5 objectives

EtherChannel Consistency: Repair a Mode Mismatch

Advanced CCNP troubleshooting lab: a pair of Layer-2 switches are connected by a two-link EtherChannel intended to carry VLAN 90 between access hosts. The starter configuration ships broken on purpose: the inter-switch bundle won’t form due to incompatible aggregation modes, and a trunk allow-list drift on one side prunes VLAN 90. Diagnose with IOS show commands, correct the EtherChannel mode so LACP forms the Port-channel, and restore trunk policy so same-VLAN hosts can communicate.

CCNA & CCNP45 min4 objectives

Lab 7: EtherChannel + Rapid-PVST — One Logical Link

Build an LACP Layer-2 EtherChannel between SW1 and SW2 so Rapid-PVST+ treats two parallel links as one logical Port-channel 7. Without EtherChannel, STP will block one of the two access links. With LACP active on both members and Port-channel 7 as an access port in VLAN 70, STP shows a single forwarding interface (Po7) and both physical links forward as one logical channel. Two hosts in VLAN 70 verify end-to-end connectivity.

CCNA & CCNP45 min5 objectives

STP Lab 8: Per-VLAN Load Balancing Across Two Roots

Use Rapid-PVST+ to elect different root bridges per VLAN across two parallel trunks, spreading VLAN 80 and VLAN 81 across distinct physical links without modifying path cost or port priority. Validate independent per-VLAN trees and confirm hosts in VLAN 80 can communicate over the surviving path. Includes a drift-check to diagnose/restore trunk allow-lists.

CCNA & CCNP65 min6 objectives

Root Guard on Designated Ports

Advanced Rapid-PVST+ and Root Guard implementation on a three-switch triangle with a real loop. SW1 is the intentional root for VLAN 90 and protects its designated ports with Root Guard to prevent root re-parenting. Two Alpine hosts on VLAN 90 verify end-to-end forwarding remains stable even if a superior BPDU appears downstream.

CCNA & CCNP50 min7 objectives

STP Lab 7: Rapid-PVST+ Migration on Triangle Loop

Migrate a three-switch triangle from legacy PVST to Rapid-PVST+ without changing the existing root or blocked port. SW1 remains the deterministic root for VLAN 70 (priority 4096). Verify protocol mode, link types (point-to-point vs edge), and end-to-end host reachability, then observe the faster reconvergence behavior of Rapid-PVST+.

CCNA & CCNP45 min5 objectives

STP 4: Port Priority Tie-Break on Parallel Links

Guide Rapid-PVST+ to prefer a specific parallel trunk by tuning the sender’s port priority on the root bridge. Two ioll2-xe switches (SW1, SW2) form a physical loop via two equal-speed trunks. A third L2 switch (SW3) extends the user VLAN to a second closet. One Alpine host attaches to SW1 and another to SW3 in VLAN 40 (10.1.40.0/24). You will: force SW1 to be the root for VLAN 40, lower the port priority on SW1’s Gi0/2 (Ethernet0/1) to break the tie so SW2 selects its Gi0/2 as the Root Port, enable PortFast and BPDU Guard on host-facing ports, and verify with show spanning-tree outputs and host pings.

CCNA55 min6 objectives

STP Lab 6: BPDU Guard — Protecting the Edge

Continue the STP series on a three-switch triangle with a real loop. SW1 is the deterministic root for VLAN 60, and access ports already use PortFast. In this lab you will harden the edge by enabling BPDU Guard on the two host-facing access ports on SW2 and SW3, while leaving the inter-switch trunks untouched. Verify with show commands that BPDU Guard is active only on the edge and that hosts still communicate normally.

CCNA35 min5 objectives

STP 2: Controlling the Root Bridge with Priority

Beginner CCNA STP lab on a three-switch triangle with two hosts in VLAN 20. You will deliberately control the Spanning Tree root election using the root primary/secondary macros so SW1 is the active root and SW2 is the standby. The baseline already provides VLANs and trunks; your job is to set root priorities deterministically and verify the resulting roles and port states without introducing any Layer-3.

CCNA35 min5 objectives

STP 5: PortFast on Access Ports (VLAN 50 Triangle)

Configure PortFast correctly on access ports in a triangle switch loop while maintaining normal STP protection on inter-switch trunks. Force SW1 as the root for VLAN 50 and verify that only edge ports are fast-tracked. Observe the difference in host convergence with and without PortFast.

CCNA45 min5 objectives

STP 3: Path Cost — Choose the Forwarding Link (VLAN 30)

Engineer which trunk forwards by tuning STP path cost in a 3-switch triangle. Force SW1 as the VLAN 30 root at a deterministic priority, enable Rapid-PVST+, harden edge ports with PortFast and BPDU Guard, and raise the STP cost on SW3’s direct uplink to SW1 so SW3 prefers the longer, indirect path via SW2. Verify the resulting root port, alternate (blocked) port, and host reachability across the chosen path.

CCNA55 min5 objectives

Inter-VLAN Routing: Router-on-a-Stick Across a Branch

Deploy router-on-a-stick inter-VLAN routing across a compact branch topology with a distribution and access switch, a hardened 802.1Q trunk, and two user VLANs. Configure VLANs and access/trunk ports, build router subinterfaces, verify end-to-end user reachability, and troubleshoot trunk/native-VLAN/subinterface mismatches.

CCNA55 min5 objectives

Router-on-a-Stick Troubleshooting Capstone

Advanced CCNA capstone: diagnose and repair a fully-broken three-VLAN router-on-a-stick deployment. One iol-xe router uplinks by 802.1Q trunk to a pure layer-2 ioll2-xe switch, with three alpine PCs on their own access VLANs (10 Sales, 20 Voice, 30 CCTV); after a recent switch and router change, inter-VLAN connectivity is broken or intermittent across all three VLANs. Trace VLAN intent end-to-end from each host through the trunk to the router's subinterfaces, repair whatever faults you find, and verify with end-host pings/traceroutes and IOS show commands.

CCNA68 min5 objectives

Diagnosing a Broken Router-on-a-Stick

Advanced CCNA troubleshooting lab on a router-on-a-stick design. VLAN 10 users can reach their gateway and other hosts, but VLAN 20 users cannot reach their gateway or any resources in VLAN 10. Methodically trace L2/L3 intent end-to-end - from the access ports through the trunks up to the router subinterfaces - to isolate the first-hop failure and implement fixes that restore inter-VLAN routing while maintaining enterprise trunk hardening and clean configurations.

CCNA60 min5 objectives

Router-on-a-Stick Fundamentals: Two VLANs, One Trunk

Configure inter-VLAN routing using router-on-a-stick with one router, one Layer-2 switch, and two hosts. Build VLAN 10 and VLAN 20, trunk the router uplink, create subinterfaces for each VLAN, and verify that hosts can now reach each other across VLANs.

CCNA45 min5 objectives

Free with an account

Native VLAN on a Router-on-a-Stick Trunk

Build and verify inter-VLAN routing using router-on-a-stick with a native (untagged) VLAN on the trunk. Configure one router (subinterfaces only), one Layer-2 access switch (VLANs, access ports, and a single 802.1Q trunk), and two end hosts in different VLANs. The management VLAN 99 rides untagged as the trunk's native VLAN, so the router subinterface must use 'encapsulation dot1Q 99 native' and the switch trunk must match 'switchport trunk native vlan 99'. Verify from Linux hosts and IOS 'show' commands, then practice troubleshooting common native-VLAN faults.

CCNA50 min4 objectives

dot1Q Subinterfaces: The Router Side

Practice creating 802.1Q subinterfaces on a single router uplink to deliver inter-VLAN routing using router-on-a-stick. The Layer-2 switch is already fully configured with VLAN 10 and VLAN 20, access ports for two hosts, and a working 802.1Q trunk to the router. Your job: leave the router's physical Ethernet0/0 unnumbered and add exactly two subinterfaces with the correct encapsulation tags and gateway IPs so hosts can reach their gateways and each other.

CCNA35 min4 objectives

Multi-Dept Campus Inter-VLAN with Router-on-a-Stick

Design and implement a three-department campus edge using a single router-on-a-stick to provide inter-VLAN routing for Sales (VLAN 10), Engineering (VLAN 20), and Servers (VLAN 30). Map the addressing plan directly to router subinterfaces and build an 802.1Q trunk on the access switch. Verify end-to-end reachability and troubleshoot an allow-list drift scenario.

CCNA55 min5 objectives

Switch Trunk and Access Ports for Router-on-a-Stick

Configure the Layer-2 switch side of a router-on-a-stick design. A single IOS router already provides inter-VLAN routing on Ethernet0/0.10 (10.0.10.1/24) and Ethernet0/0.20 (10.0.20.1/24). Bring up VLAN transport by creating VLANs on the switch, assigning host access ports, and converting the router-facing link into an 802.1Q trunk that carries VLANs 10 and 20. Validate with show commands on the switch and with cross-VLAN pings from the hosts.

CCNA30 min4 objectives