First post here - probably first of many - I am a Cisco 'virgin' but not a network noob, I know what I want to achieve but not how to achieve it with Cisco boxes - yet.
Problem - 3 Buildings need to come back to one common 'server' location
2 Buildings currently operate a single large spanning tree network on HP ProCurve's
Building 3 has Procurves but isn't yet 'completed'. The client wanted to create a single 'large' spanning tree across all 3 buildings but I rejected this on the node hop rules - potential for more than 7 hops in the network,
I intend to create 3 spanning tree networks, 1 in each building and then link the 3 buildings into their own spanning tree / load balance ring. Each building network will be a fibre based spanning tree utilising the ProCurves, the buildings will then be linked by a fibre ring.
The switches chosen were 3560X's with IP base.
I have 3550's to play with and want to simulate the architecture.
I was going to link 3 3550-24's via Gigabit GBIC's switch 1 to 2, 2 to 3 and 3 to 1 using copper, the 3550's are running full layer 3 IOS,
but like I said I'm a Cisco virgin, some tips / pointers on where to start would help. There is a lot to take in and a short time to do it so I need to focus my studying.
Being able to learn something is not the same thing as being able to do it for real. The only thing that exams prove is your memory.
