In order to establish inter-VLAN communication (i. e routing between hosts belonging to different VLANs) you need to have a Layer 3 routing engine in the network. Virtual Local Area Network (VLAN) helps break a large network into smaller, manageable parts, improving security and efficiency. Instead of buying five physical switches for five departments, you buy one switch and create five VLANs. Multilayer switches can forward frames based on MAC address information and can also forward IP packets based on IP. Inter-VLAN routing using the router-on-a-stick method is simple to implement for a small- to medium-sized organization. Cisco NX-OS (Nexus Operating System) is the software which is powering this new generation of switches and has many similarities (regarding command structure etc) with the traditional IOS software which has been in production for decades. I have prepared this article to showcase a simple yet.
[PDF Version]