Gigabyte switch back bone

[xmario2013]

Hi All:

Running into a question see if you can provide us some suggestion

We have a data closet supports about 170 workstations and servers, started out with hubs then, go into switches (10Base T), now we have a mixture of 10 and 10/100 switches (managed and unmanaged) connected to each other via cross over cables in each switches' 10/100 ports

now we are building a second data closet down the hall, we going to use Gigabyte switch and a single CAT6 cable to run in between the 2 closets, I am hoping to use this backbone to link the 2 closet as well as putting all the servers onto this backbone so everyone can get onto the server faster, how would we accomplish this (what switches to buy)

for the existing 10BT or 10/100BTs users should we buy another 10/100 switch with dual Gigabyte uplink port to talk better with the new GB switches ? can they benefit from the Gigabyte backbone by this setup ?

Also does the little switch hurts the bandwidth ? what if I buy a bunch little 5 port gigabyte switches can they work as good as the 24 port ones ?

Thanks XM

 

[jimbopalmer]

having lots of small switches adds more bottlenecks than fewer large switches, either EVERY uplink is still 100 meg or the main Switch needs LOTS of gig ports for uplinks

gig is only 10 times faster than 100 meg so Ideally 10 clients per switch, but I bet 10 active clients is perhaps 40 devices that are just 'on'.

How wedded are you to the idea you just need to run 1 cat 6 wire? if you run 8 or so, you could support 8 24 port switches giving you 184 users, if not you need a all gig swich in closet one to take teh uploads from the user switches

So In closet 2 you may have a 24 port all gig switch, with your servers attached to it (if you have few servers, this could be smaller)

then in closet one 8 24 port 10/100 switches with a gig uplink use 8 of the ports in closet two

(one hop server to server, two hops workstation to server, three hops workstaion to workstation if they are not on the same switch)


HP Procurve 4000M can be configured with 72 10/100 ports and one gig port, so a pair of them would support 144 users in closet one with only 2 cat 6 lines to closet two, but I bet 3 switches of 60 or 4 switches of 48 give you faster useable speed. (the 4100 series HP would give you even more users per switch, if I am wrong about needing more bandwidth)

http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/switches/switch4000/overview.htm

http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/switches/switch4100glseries/summary.htm

in closet two you could use a HP 2800 series switch

http://www.hp.com/rnd/products/switches/2800_series/overview.htm

You can doo the same with many vendors, using stackable switches.


I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[netmanrick]

Have you considered fiber between the 2 closets? You could
use a light box on each end and patch up fiber capable switches.

Rick Harris
SC Dept of Motor Vehicles
Network Operations

 

[jimbopalmer]

Rick, all my backbones are fiber, I very much reccomend it, but he started with an assumtion of one strand of cat 6, I felt it was 'cheating' even to mention he needed more cat 6, let alone admit he really needed fiber.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.

 

[xmario2013]

but is fiber much more expensive ? say we compare 50 ft installation of CAT6 (even 2 or 8 strand) compare to 50 ft of fiber ?

 

[jimbopalmer]

Devil's advocate mode: The more expensive it is, the more reason to do it right. I laid down my Fiber infrastructure in 1992, in a mix of 10 meg ethernet and 100 meg FDDI, in 2004 it is running gig and looks to be good for 10gigE. The copper I laid in 1992, has minor trouble at 100 and looks doomed at gig. (in 1992 I could get cat 5 wire but only cat 4 face plates and patch panels, only about 90% of the drops will do 100 meg now) I had to pull all the (coax)copper laid 1987 to 1992 in 1996 as it was limited to 10 meg.

I am not sure I have heard from anyone whose fiber plant became 'obsolete', (mine is 62.5nm while the ideal for gig is 50 nm, and is all ST connectors) but I am betting no one is still using 1989 era copper in 2004 willingly. If doing copper twice is more expensive than doing fiber once, then long term, fiber can be cheaper. (100 meg, gig and 10gE existed for years as a fiber standard before there was a copper standard, so for those years fiber was faster, as well)


Realistically, for your distance, I am not sure cat 6 copper is a horrible choice, but fiber should at least be considered.

I tried to remain child-like, all I acheived was childish.