'daisy chaining' switches

[bubarooni]

I currently have a Catalyst 2924 switch with all 24 ports being used. We are adding new offices and will require 52 total ports.

I want to replace the 2924 with Catalyst 3548 and 3512 for a total of 60 ports. How do I hook these switches together? Do I have to add the Gigastack modules to each switch?

Frankly, I think a 4006 switch would be great but, my boss poked me in the eye when I showed him the price.

Any insight will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

 

[wybnormal]

Have you audited the traffic flows yet? No? you should.. this will tell you how to wire them up. No need for gig if everyone is just surfing the web or running light duty apps. If a few are *power users* where they might be doing SQL queries, development work, access-data base stuff etc, then group them on the same switch where the server sits. That keeps the heavy traffic off the crossconnect.

You can cross the switches at 100 Full duplex which is alot of bandwidth.. even if you have two or three tied together. With some simple planning, you can normally pull it off without breaking the bank.

Normally the breakpoint for going from stackables to a chassis switch is somewhere around 100 connections..

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"The trouble with giving up civil rights is that you never get them back"

 

[bubarooni]

I kinda wondered about the need for the Giga modules. Let me ask you this: I inherited the configs on my switches. A friend of mine has seen the switches and doesn't believe they have ever been configured, that they are running the default config they were shipped with. How can I check this? Is there a 'show config' command like there is on a router?

 

[wybnormal]

Yep.. there is a show config.. see the snippet below:


Switch>en
Switch#sho config
Using 685 out of 32768 bytes
!
version 12.0
no service pad
service timestamps debug uptime
service timestamps log uptime
no service password-encryption
!
hostname Switch
!
!
!
ip subnet-zero
!
!
!
interface FastEthernet0/1
!
interface FastEthernet0/2
::snip::
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"The trouble with giving up civil rights is that you never get them back"

 

[bubarooni]

Great! I am pretty certain that my switch has just the factory default settings. One last question then: Using the factoryy default configs on the new switches Can I just hook up the two new switches by running a crossover cable from one of the front ports on one switch to another port on the front of the other switch and have the 100 full duplex? No programming required?

 

[Degg]

If you have a default setup and no VLAN's running, then you should just be able to connect them and go. if you have multiple VLAN's, then you will need to configure the ports for trunking, but it doesnt sound that way.

D

 

[jgercken]

If your corporate policies permit why not just get (2) 3548's off ebay for $2K each. The 1000-SX GBIC's are only $160 each new and should provide more than enough bandwidth. Actually, why not get (4) and aggregate them into a 2Gb full duplex trunk.

Reality is that you will probably never even come close to filling even 1 trunk line with workstations attached but sadly in the world of corporate politics it's pretty, big, and wow that matters. For a tad over $4K you can have all three.

Just my $.02

----------------------------------------
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[wybnormal]

Why not just get a pile of 2924s at 500 bucks a pop and then just use Etherchannel for bundling some ports? Thats 96 ports of 100 to the desktop minus several if you use Etherchannel. With four ports used, you get 800Mbps. I would suggest using 2 and 2.
switch---EC---switch---EC---Switch
|
EC
|
switch

The servers would go onto the middle switch and each leaf has 400Mbps link to the server switch.

He only needs 60 ports so now he is 2K ahead over buying the 3500s and gig. And again, it's a rare small office that needs gig.. Most small offices I've been have a hard time filling the 100Mbps pipe.

http://www.networkcomputing.com/1007/1007sp2.html

MikeS
Find me at

http://www.packetattack.com

"The trouble with giving up civil rights is that you never get them back"