What Are the Management VLAN and Service VLAN?

Management VLAN

A management VLAN transmits packets that are forwarded through CAPWAP tunnels, including management packets and service data packets forwarded through CAPWAP tunnels.

Typically, a management VLAN is the VLAN configured using the capwap source interface command on an AC.

• Configuration command in V200R005C00 and earlier versions:

  [AC6605] wlan
  [AC6605-wlan-view] wlan ac source interface Vlanif 100

• Configuration command in V200R005C10 and later versions:

  [AC6605] capwap source interface Vlanif 100

By default, management packets of APs are untagged, and an access switch directly connected to the APs adds VLAN tags to the management packets. In practice, the PVID of the access switch interface to which an AP directly connects needs to be configured as the management VLAN ID.

[Switch] interface GigabitEthernet 0/0/1
[Switch-GigabitEthernet0/0/1] port trunk pvid vlan 100

If no PVID is configured for the access switch to which an AP directly connects, the access switch adds the tag of VLAN 1 to the management packets by default. In this case, VLAN 1 is the management VLAN of the AP.

management-vlan

The management-vlan command is used to configure a management VLAN. In practice, the management VLAN is configured on an access switch directly connected to an AP. If the interface on the access switch directly connected to an AP is in use or has another PVID configured, run the management-vlan command to configure the management VLAN. You only need to configure the access switch connected to the AP to allow packets from the management VLAN to pass through, without the need to configure a PVID on the access switch.

The configuration method is as follows:

[AC6605] wlan 
[AC6605-wlan-view] ap-system-profile name ap-system1
[AC6605-wlan-ap-system-prof-ap-system1] management-vlan 100
Warning: The incorrect management VLAN configuration will cause the AP to go out of management. This operation will make the AP reset. Continue? [Y/N]:y

After the configuration, restart the AP to make the management VLAN take effect.

Service VLAN

A service VLAN transmits service data packets. The default service VLAN is VLAN 1.

VLAN 1

VLAN 1 is a special VLAN. Use it with caution. Interfaces on a standard Layer 3 switch are added to VLAN 1 by default to run with zero configuration.

If a switch with zero configuration is used, the broadcast domain of VLAN 1 may be large, which may easily cause broadcast flooding. Therefore, it is not recommended that VLAN 1 be used as the management VLAN or service VLAN during WLAN planning.