Configure trunking in Summoit X-150 switches

[jrogerom]

Hi, We have 6 Summit X-150-48t switches ( 48 10/100 and 2 10/100/1000 ports).
I am new at the company and I already gather all the information of the company infrastructure.
The tech guys that installed the switches did not configured anything, they just pluged in the computers ports and that´s it. Also Included a 3COM switch.
I have found that the switches are cascaded using the gigabit ports. I know that in this way we have low performance.
I know how to do it in cisco, but I am new to extreme networks equipment.
My questions are.
1.- Can I configure trunking In the main switch and connect all of the switches to it? Like a star topology.
2.- What would be the impact if I connect them in star topology using 10/100 ports? (1 switch to 5 switches)
3.- Can I configure trunking only in the 10/100/1000 ports and on every switch and connect them in cascade? That is the way there are now, cascaded without trunkig.
4.-Which way you think is better, cascaded or star topology (5 switches connected to the main one)
5.- What solution do you have in mind to get better performance.
6.- Since I am new using extreme switches. What are the commands used for trunking?

We are running in the network VoIP from an USA provider, Web access to CRM in USA, users access local videos or audio for training.

Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[cixelsydmai]

When you say trunking, do you mean like VLAN trunking (like vtp) or port aggregation (grouping)?

Extreme switches do not support VTP or VLAN trunking, but they do support port aggregation/grouping.

As far as connecting the 5 switches together, all of them should have at least two 1gb ethernet ports that you can use to interconnect them, however this is not really feasible if you are trying to put them in different locations.

If all your wiring goes back to one network closet and that's where all 5 switches are, then it would porbably work okay, but if you have the switches in different buildings then its probably not going to work.

Since they do not support trunking you will have to create all vlans you want to use in those switches on every switch.

For exmaple, if you want vlan 80 (Building1) in all 5 switches, you will need to do the following on all switches:

create vlan building1
conf vlan building1 tag 80

then go ahead and add ports to the vlan:

conf vlan building1 add ports <port number or range, or comma delimited list of ports>

If the port will be a trunk port that will share multiple vlans you have to use:

conf vlan building1 add ports <port numbers> tag

The keyword "tag" tells the switch to send tagged traffic through this port, so that way you can have multiple vlans on one port.

You would repeat this procedure on all the switches and then add ports to the vlan without the keyword tag where you want to plug in end user pcs.

HTH