VLANs demonstrate the advantage of using generic or customized names. In previous releases, the VLAN was identified by the physical point of attachment (PPA) that required combining the hardware-based name of the datalink and the VLAN ID. However, now in Oracle Solaris, you can select a more meaningful name to identify the VLAN. The name must conform to the rules for naming datalinks that are provided in Rules for Valid Link Names in Configuring and Administering Network Components in Oracle Solaris 11.2 . For example, you can assign a custom VLAN name such as sales0 or marketing1.
VLAN names work in conjunction with VLAN IDs. Each VLAN in a local area network is identified by a VLAN ID, which is a part of the VLAN tag. The VLAN ID is assigned during VLAN configuration. When you configure switches to support VLANs, you need to assign a VLAN ID to each port. The VLAN ID on the port must be the same as the VLAN ID assigned to the interface that connects to the port.
By default, each port has a VLAN ID called Port VLAN ID. The packets that belong to this VLAN ID are not tagged with a VLAN tag. In Oracle Solaris, you can use the datalink property default_tag to display and change Port VLAN ID on an interface.