absolute noob question

[guitarwolf]

i'm doing 1st term of a 2 year IT program where i'm going to do my concentration in networking.

i'm trying to design a network as follows:

2 floor warehouse

55 workstations

3 servers

network backbone is fibre optic

communication between servers is 1GB/s over cat6

communication between computers and the network is 100MB/s over cat 5

so. here's what i'm thinking...

fibre optic-->router-->servers-->switches-->workstations

i have 3 servers and 3 switches.

should each server be connected to all 3 switches?

or, does the fact that all 3 servers connect to the router suffice.

i may actually only go with 2 switches, anyway.

any input would be appreciated.

thanks!

[ankbhasi]

Hi Guitar,

You can connect 1 server each on one switch so incase any switch goes down your all servers are not affected. Interconnect your switches with each other via fiber optic and configure trunk between them and if possible configure your one switch to router via etherchannel for redundancy.

You can play with different network designs and the one I posted above is one example.

HTH

Ankur

*Pls rate all helpfull post

[guitarwolf]

hi Ankur,

thanks, that was a lot of help.

just to recap...

here's what's required:

-fibre optic backbone

-1GB/s Cat6 UTP from router to 3 servers

-100MB/s Cat 5 UTP between switches and workstations

what is best to use from server to switches?

i was thinking 1GB/s Cat 6, but i'm not sure if that's right.

it does make sense to me

i like your suggestion of fibre optic between switches. should the switches be connected together anyway, or is that just something that you are sugessting?

right now i have router to server to switch to computers...repeated for each server.

i hope all that makes some sort of sense. lol!

anyways, i really appreciate your suggestions.

thanks!

[ankbhasi]

Hi Guitar,

Router always have less port density, so does your router have etherswitch module or its a router with all layer 3 interfaces?

I will always recommend to connect servers to switches till the time there is some special requirement to connect routers to servers.

You have have 1GB link between switches using Cat5 or Cat6 cable.

HTH

Ankur

[guitarwolf]

hi ankur,

i actually haven't chosen the router or switches yet.

so, if i understand you correctly, you are saying it is best to go: router--> 3 switches-->

then connect 1 server to 1 switch for all switches.

so, the server and workstations would come off the switch.

ok...

i've attached a visio layout of my original concept...i would be grateful for a critique.

thanks!

[ankbhasi]

Hi Guitar,

Can you repost the drwaing in some word file or something like tha tcause my visio does not support your attachment.

Ankur

[guitarwolf]

here it is in Word format.

thanks!

[ankbhasi]

Hey Guitar,

Got the doc this time and I too believe and recommend that servers place should replace by switches.

Now I am not sure if this servers provide some kind of bridging or routing between router and your switches because as per the doc I am not sure how your design will work and how will the computers connected to switch will communicate with router and rest of the network.

If they are not the servers doing some routing or bridging then I will always recommend to connect servers to switches and then connect all switches together and finally one switch back to router.

Always try to save ports on router because the port density on routers is always less and the cost per post is more compared to switches.

HTH

Ankur

*Pls rate all helpfull post

[guitarwolf]

here is another layout i tried.

the servers are for the "Finance Dept", "Sales Dept", and "Engineering Dept".

let me know what you think of this.

otherwise, if i understand you correctly, you are suggesting 1 main switch coming off the router, and the other 2 switches connect to that.

thanks!

[ankbhasi]

Hi Guitar,

This design looks to be perfect too. As I mentioned there can be many designs which can be implemented and what I suggested was one of them.

Also only one thing which I find in your design is you have now utilized 3 routers ports and if you have enough router ports you are good to go with this design OR else you can go with the design which I suggested connecting one main switch to the router and connect other 2 swicthes to the main switch and for redundancy you can have etherchannel between switches.

Also as you mentioned your servers are for Finance , Sales and Engineering you can also divide them into different VLANS and if you also want all of these to communoicate with each other you can have inter-vlan routing between them.

HTH

Ankur

*Pls rate all post if you find them helpfull

[guitarwolf]

i really appreciate the time you have been taking to answer my questions.

i think i'm going to go with the 2nd design i sent you. i'll connect the switches to the routers with 1GBs Cat6, and connect the servers to the switches with 1GBs Cat6 as well. does this make sense to you?

so, the servers should be able to talk to each other. or, should they be connected some other way.

am i right in assuming that i've created 3 separate collision domains that can all talk to each other through the router?

i look forward to the day when i can look back on these questions and laugh! lol!

thanks!

fabian

[ankbhasi · Accepted solution]

Hey Fabian,

So I got your real name now. Good One.

Anyways yeah the second design you posted will work fine.

And because you are connecting the 3 switches now to 3 different ports on router they will be in 3 different subnets and because all will be directly connected on router they will be able to talk to each other without any special configuration on router.

And your design of connecting the switches to the routers with 1GBs Cat6, and connecting the servers to the switches with 1GBs Cat6 as well. does this make sense.

HTH

Ankur

*Pls rate all helpfull post

[guitarwolf]

hey ankur,

thanks again for all the help.

now that i finally have a design that works, i'm going to start my search for a router and switches.

wish me luck!

fabian

p.s. this is a great place to seek advice.