Network Design with Catalyst 500 & 2960

[magicrjm]

Currently, I am using a Cisco Catalyst 500-24PC switch that has (2) 10/100/1000BASE-T or SFP uplink ports, Linksys 48-port SRW2048 (10/100/1000 4 shared mini gigabit) switch, and 2 24-port 3Com Superstack Dual Speed Hub 500s.

I am going to replace the 3Com Hubs with a Cisco Catalyst 2960-48TT 48 port switch that has (2) 10/100/1000BASE-T uplink ports. I want to be able to utilize the UPLINK ports.

It is my understanding that utilizing the uplink ports will manage network traffic more efficiently because I will be able to run traffic between the switches via a 1 gigabyte pipe rather than a 100MB pipe.

My thought was to plug my 100MB firewall port into the Linksys switch 10/100/1000 port 1, take a patch cable from Linksys 10/100/1000 port 48 to Cisco 500 uplink 1 and a link patch cable from Cisco 500 uplink 2 to Cisco 2960 uplink 1. Which I believe will be a configuration for all the switches to be using a 1GB pipe and the LAN will run more efficiently. My next step is to get a Gigabyte switch by the servers to connect into the network. Does anyone see anything wrong with that design? Are there utilities on a Cisco switch that I should be utilizing and need to research?

 

[brianinms]

You want the 2960 to become the core of the network and home run all switches off that switch.

 

[joshsmtech]

You should try and limit "Daisy Chaining" devices whenever possible. This will improve overall performance and is easier to manage and support. Establish a layered design using core and access layers. The 2960 switch is best suited as your core switch, since it has the best specs out of the others. Connect your firewall to the core 2960 for an uplink to the outside world using one of the 100Mbps ports. Also any servers, critical devices or high network utilization devices should be connected to the core 2960 switch.

You should consider the Linksys hub and CE500 as your access layer. You can connect each of these to the 2 Gigabit ports on the 2960 for the uplinks. The access layer is where you may want any workstations, printers, lower utilization devices, etc... connected.

This is how I would design your switch layout, based on the info you have provided.

 

[magicrjm]

Thanks joshsmtech for informative response.

Ryan