Network Switch Design for Maximum Redundancy

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02.18.2008 at 06:47AM PST, ID: 23171414

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Network Switch Design for Maximum Redundancy - Advise Please?

Zones: Network Design & Methodology, Network Switches & Hubs

Hi

I have recently acquired a new network, that is located at a single site, accross 2 floors (upstairs and down). This network is running so far on 2x 24 port Netgear 10/100 switches, and has been coping well.

I now have the go ahead to implement some new network equipment to increase the throughput using gigabit switches and to implement some redundancy for the network switches.

This network have approx 50 clients and 5 servers. The clients are spread over the 2 current switches, some clients in upstairs, some in down. The servers are all located on the downstairs switch.

I would like to implement as much redundancy as possible. My plan is to make every server a dual NIC server (or network team where available) and install all servers into 2 new switches downstairs (one nic in one switch, the other in the other switch). I am then planning to link each new downstairs switch to a new switch upstairs. The clients will be spread across all 4 switches.

This way the servers should always be online if a local switch fails. Some of the users will get downtime if a switch goes but that is ok.

Currently the firewall will have to be installed onto a single switch, which means if that switch goes down, we'll lose www but we can cope with that for a while.

Can a better networking person than me give me some advise whether this is the right solution to put in for these requirements?

Thanks

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Question Stats

Zone: Networking

Question Asked By: rjkirby

Solution Provided By: jasin00

Participating Experts: 2

Solution Grade: B

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02.18.2008 at 07:04AM PST, ID: 20920423

jasin00:

if your using cisco go with four switches. stack 2 high so you'll have 2 stacks of 2. have 8 crossover cables and connect the first stack together.then the second with the crossover cables. then connect the top of the first stack to the bottom of the second stack then the top of the second to the bottom of the first. so if you were to draw it out it'd be a box with an x through it. make sure you implement stp or you'll have loops. also whatever switch you have the firewall hanging off of make sure that ones priority is set to ten. if you don't you'll have congestion.

Accepted Solution

02.18.2008 at 07:22AM PST, ID: 20920558

rjkirby:

Thanks. Sounds good. One question, what is STP and what does it do?

02.18.2008 at 07:28AM PST, ID: 20920624

jasin00:

spanning tree protocol. its a cisco protocol that says traffic coming in cannot leave the way it came it basically. it prevents loops on your network. if you go with cisco get the smartnet agreement they'll help you out.

02.18.2008 at 07:40AM PST, ID: 20920757

rjkirby:

And if we dont go for cisco, Netgear or 3Com etc. What you recommend? We are not a big corporate network so budget is going to play a factor for sure!

02.18.2008 at 07:54AM PST, ID: 20920868

jasin00:

i'm a cisco shop myself. 3com would be good. they should have something similar. cisco makes a whole line of SMB products. i'd advise staying away from netgear unless its specificly requested. look at linksys smb line as well.

02.18.2008 at 08:07AM PST, ID: 20920997

rjkirby:

Presumably we are talking about managed switches here?

Thanks

02.18.2008 at 08:20AM PST, ID: 20921140

jasin00:

nope. you can use managed if you want though

02.18.2008 at 11:50AM PST, ID: 20922832

Rank: Master

bfason:

You will want managed switches otherwise you won't be able to confiure things such as STP which is a IEEE standard developed by DEC many years ago. Almost all managed switches support STP(not sure if I've seen one recently that doesn't).

You may want to look at the type of applications and the bandwidth needed to run them to determine whether you will get any true benefit going to gigabit to the desktop. In most cases it's only the backbone between switches and connections to servers that benefit from gigabit ethernet.

At the downstairs level I would try to find a switch that is truely stackable(not just connected by a ethernet cable). This way they share the same backplane speed no matter which switch they are plugged into. If both switches upstairs are in the closet then I would stack them also. You can then either have multiple singe port uplinks or multiple network teams as uplinks.

Cisco(Linksys), 3com, HP and Dell all have switches capable of this but as is the case on any product, the more features it supports the higher the cost. Personally I use Cisco where possible just for the stability and flexibility. It is easier to find help and documentation on Cisco products in my opinion.

Hope this helps
B

02.19.2008 at 07:30AM PST, ID: 20929258

rjkirby:

Thanks guys, one last thing can you recommend a switch, and give me a rough price for one with STP support that we can use for the above requirement?

www links would be good.

Thanks!

02.19.2008 at 07:56AM PST, ID: 20929527

Rank: Master

bfason:

The 3750 is a very robust switch with stacking features. Depending on your needs it has layer 3 routing for vlans and is stackable. Depending on the model of 3750 it can also do power over ethernet for voice, comes in 24 or 48 port models and the hardware has a lifetime warranty.

http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/hw/switches/ps5023/ps5225/index.html

This is the basic model but be warned they are little bit expensive but I've found them to be worth it.

B

02.19.2008 at 08:06AM PST, ID: 20929627

jasin00:

cisco 2960 and down. 3700 is kinda pricey for what your trying to do. are you using or going to use viop? if you go with cisco make sure to get the smartnet agreement.
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/default.aspx?EDC=298050

this one is 10\100 but it'll do what i think your trying to do. if you decide to go voip your going to need beefier switches.

02.19.2008 at 01:43PM PST, ID: 20932931

Rank: Master

bfason:

What is your tolerance for downtime?

If you can be up within 15 - 30 minutes of a failure would that satify your needs?

You may want to consider a n+1 scenario. Buy the switches that you need that satisfy your port density requirements. Buy one spare to keep on standby. As long as you keep current copies of your configurations then you can easily replace a defective unit within 15 to 30 minutes. So instead of buying 4 or 8 switches as has been suggested you only buy 3. This might help in keeping cost down and allow you to go with the better equipment.

Be careful of buying several switches and "daisy chaining" them. This is not the same as stacking. The 3750 is lowest model cisco switch that supports true stacking capabilities. There are several other brands that advertise as being stackable but that is really limited to managing the "stack" with a single ip address. They still depend on 1 or 2 Gb uplinks between the switches. With the 3750 they share the full 32Gb backplane between all switches in the stack.

I hope we've given you enough information to help with your decision.

Let us know if there are any other questions you may have.

B

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