Server Farm Switch

[vineesh.viswanath]

Hi

I have 150 Servers in my ServerFarm .

Is that a good idea to have 2 3750 stack , Each stack having 4x48 port 3750 having the stackwise connection .

from servers connection goes to both the stack

Both stack connects to 6513 core .

Pls help me on this design

[ralphcarter]

It depends what kind of bandwidth requirements you have and the setup your trying to achieve.

The 3750s have 32Gbps per stack. So if you have 4 x 3750 in a stack and all your servers are cranking away, your still limited to 32 Gbps full duplex.

Personally I would go with 4948's as top of the rack switches, with the 10Gig uplinked into the 6500 core. 4948 with 10Gig cards give you 136Gbps per switch vs 32Gbps per stack.

But it really depends on your needs and budget. Also, if your going to buy 3750, make sure you buy the E series, they run at 64Gbps and perform a lot better than the non-E.

[vineesh.viswanath]

is there any design consideration for the number of switches in the 3750 stack .

I have got a plan as below .

4x48 and 1x12sfp - all edge trunks terminates to the sfp .

from 5 stackwise 8x2 2ether channel to 6513 blade with pvst .

WS-C3750G-48TS-E

• 48 Ethernet 10/100/1000 ports

• 4 SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet ports

• 32 Gbps, high-speed stacking bus

• Innovative stacking technology

• 1 RU stackable, multilayer switch

• Enterprise-class intelligent services delivered to the network edge

• IP Services Image installed

• Full IP routing with BGPv4, EIGRP, OSPF, PIM

WS-C3750G-12S-E

• 12 SFP-based Gigabit Ethernet ports

• 32 Gbps, high-speed stacking bus

• Innovative stacking technology

• 1 RU stackable multilayer switch

• Enterprise-class intelligent services delivered to the network edge

• IP Services Image installed provides full dynamic IP routing

I cannot afford to go for another 6500 .

currently i have 2x48 2x24sfp 2xsup 2xvpn in the blade

now the interlink is a gig - considering that 3750's 32gig will help me to improve the performance .

Please comment

[Joseph W. Doherty]

Assuming you haven't purchased the 3750s yet, not clear why you would need the WS-C3750G-12S-E since you can use the SFP uplinks on the "normal" 3750s.

Whether to have dual stacks, at the cost of managing two stacks instead of one, does provide the possiblity of greater performance since each stack ring contains less member units and you might provide more uplink bandwidth since your limited to, I believe, 8 ports in a Etherchannel.

Instead of dual homing, with a single stack, you might be able to Etherchannel or team the servers.

If you place the 3750 subnets not "behind" the 3750 router, but in "front", you may not need the advanced image to route.

Since you dealing with servers connected to gig ports, you might really want to consider the 3750-E series. If the extra cost is a real problem, you might consider one unit within a stack of 3750G to use its 10 gig. (When you factor in the cost of a large number of fiber gig ports within an Ethernet channel, 10 gig can cost less.)

A single stack with a 3750-E and member 3750Gs, is, for performance, somewhat like a 6500 with sup32-10gig and 6148 line cards.