Server Farm Switch Redundancy question

[sakhigbe]

I am trying to build switch redudndany for my server farm. I have Rack mount servers and blade servers that will be connecting to the switch. The Nics on the servers are teamed and there is redundant switch modules from the blades. I am looking into 2 48-ports 3750G switches to build a stack. I have 2 Cisco 2800 GB routers . I will be connecting to 2 different service providers to redundancy.

What is the best design.

[Giuseppe Larosa]

Hello Sade,

only one note:

C28xx are not supposed to be able to provide a real Gigabit ethernet throughoput so you may want to connect your ISP links directly to the C3750G and to use it as a L3 stack on some vlans and as a L2 stack for others.

The ability to form etherchannel using links of the two member switches looks like very attractive for your application.

I recommend to deploy LACP based bundles verify the the blade servers are capable of supporting 802.1AD (LACP).

As I wrote at the beginning depending on expected traffic volume to/from internet the C2800 can be too weak to handle it.

If no router features like NAT are required (servers have a DMZ front-end with public ip addresses) you can connect providers directly to the stack of 3750G.

If NAT or other software is required and you expect 500 Mbps throughput you need more powerful routers like C7201 or even more.

Hope to help

Giuseppe