Good switches for collapsed core - small business 3

[gderou]

Hello,

I am looking for a good (meaning best performance for price) solution to build a small business network.
I want gigabit connectivity (at least for servers and parts of my worstations) - let's say 10 servers and 15 workstations.
I also have around 20 desktops (which can accomodate 1000Mbps connectivity).

They would be on several VLANs and I would like fast inter VLAN routing.

What would you advise as a good switch model for the core ? (I was thinking of putting 5k$ per core switch - is it realistic) ?

What would you use for access switch (and what is the price range) ?

Any idea on a good network design would also be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

G.

PS: I am just drafting the design and evaluating its cost, I will hire someone when I come to really implementing it.

 

[unclerico]

scenario a:
2 x 3750's, 1 x RPS2300, 2 x 2960's

this will give you redundancy in your core by using the StackWise technology of the 3750's. you can configure x-stack etherchannel for your servers (if the nic's support link aggregation) or you can configure nic teaming and split each servers nics between the two 3750's. this will permit you to stay up and running should one of the switches fail. add the RPS2300 for redundant external power supplies. two 2960's for the access-layer will give you the port density needed in case one of them were to go bad. you can simply plug all of the workstations connected to the bad switch into the good switch and be back up and running while you wait for replacement. you would create a two (or more) port etherchannel to the 3750's from each of the 2960's (one link from each 2960 to each 3750) for redundancy. you may have purchased the SmartNet with 4hr replacement, but you may be down for four or more hours. you need to decide if this is acceptable. this solution is more expensive, but it gives you better availability.

scenario b:
1 x 3560, 1 x 2960

this will give you a multilayer switch in your core to provide fast intervlan routing and a good access-layer switch. you will have no redundancy so you will be down for extended periods especially if the core switch were to go down. this is less expensive, but you are more succeptable to outages.

i'm sure some of the others will have alternatives

I hate all Uppercase... I don't want my groups to seem angry at me all the time! =)
- ColdFlame (vbscript forum)

 

[gderou]

Thanks a lot for this, this is very helpful.

Do you have any idea of the costs of both solutions ?
If I look at amazon.com I get:
Scenario a:
2 x WS-C3750G-24TS-S1U @ 4 k$
1 x RPS2300 @ 1 k$ (? I could not find a price)
2 x WS-C2960G-48-TC-L @ 3 k$
That makes a total of 15 k$

Scenario b:
1 x WS-C3560X-24T-S @ 3 k$
1 x WS-C2960G-48-TC-L @ 3 k$
Total: 6 k$

Do these numbers make sense (I have no idea of the prices myself, so I looked at

http://www.router-switch.com

which I found on Google...)
I chatted with a Cisco sales rep, but they don't give out prices, and asked me to contact a distributor. I will do it, but I would prefer to have an idea of the prices before in order to avoid overly expensives solutions.
What about the support for Cisco product, how much would that add to the total to get a decent support option (I let the community define what decent is based on your experience)

If the order of magnitudes are right, I would go for the first solution because of redundancy.

In that case, what would be the limitations of such a setup (company growth, technological limitations, etc..).

Tanks again.
G.

 

[unclerico]

The beautiful thing about this setup is that the 3750's will scale out to 9 switches and you can add more 2960's as you need to. As for the cost of SmatNet, I can't remember if it's a percentage of the sales price or if it's a flat cost. I know that Cisco is contemplating making changes to this but I don't know how soon they will be making these changes.

I hate all Uppercase... I don't want my groups to seem angry at me all the time! =)
- ColdFlame (vbscript forum)