uplinking multiple Cisco switches

[centraladminman]

I have 5 Cisco 2960 switches. sw1, sw2, sw3, sw4, sw5 As of right now sw1 is uplinked to sw2, then sw2 uplinks to sw3, sw3 uplinks to sw4 and so on. They are all uplinked via the gigabit ports. Is this a big deal with Cisco switches?

Typically I treat one switch as the core switch and try and uplink all other switches to it to reduce switch hops.

I am not a cisco guru so I figured I would get one's input

The reason they are uplinked like this is due to distances between all the switches. The building is narrow and very long. The building has no fiber run in it either.

 

[VinceWhirlwind]

Monitor the switch Gb port traffic stats. If they max out anywhere, you will have to tell your boss that they need to fork out for installing some fibre.

 

[Quadratic]

Technically a small amount of delay would be created, but my bigger concern would be the multiple points of failure for the chain. I've seen LANs built like that, on top of a few years of growth, and that's not a pretty sight.

CCNP, CCDP

 

[baddos]

Does sw5 connect to sw1 as well to have a good loop?

 

[joepc]

No it doesn't.

Would STP need to be enabled to do that?

 

[imbadatthis]

Would STP need to be enabled to do that?

yes.

and what quadratic said.

We must go always forward, not backward
always up, not down and always twirling twirling towards infinity.