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fgilain

1 Rookie

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32 Posts

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August 1st, 2006 13:00

Nic teaming and 5324 HOWTO ?

Hi all,
 
I actually have 1 powerconnect 5324 switchs where all my servers (Dell PE2600,2800,1850) are connected.
 
Now, i should receive tomorrow, 1 or 2 new 5324.
 
My goal was to find an HOWTO about connecting all my servers to 2 5324 switchs instead of only 1 in order to have a better availability and bandwidth...
 
thanks for your help.
 
Is there a special setting to activate or will i just have to add a second RJ45 cable between the second nic of each server to the new switch ?
 
Ps : my first 5324 is actually connected to 1 HP Procurve 2524 10/100Mo switch using a Rj45 cable...(and this 2524 is linked to 2 other 2524 switchs using an HP transceiver kit).
 
Florent

DELL-Cuong N.

1K Posts

August 1st, 2006 14:00

The 5324 is not stackable so if you want to connect the two NICs on the PC to two different 5324 then you must use a switch independent NIC teaming mode.  If you had a stackable switch then you could also use 802.3ad (Link Aggregation or LAG) mode to team the NIC.
 
Anyway, given your setup you will probably need to use a NIC based switch transparent teaming mode (Intel calls it the SFT mode).  Here is a whitepaper that describes NIC teaming modes on an Intel NIC and a Dell server platform.  Hopefully it will be of some help.
 
 
Also here is a link to a discussion thread on this issue:
 
 
Cuong.

Message Edited by DELL-Cuong N. on 08-01-200610:21 AM

fgilain

1 Rookie

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32 Posts

August 3rd, 2006 10:00

Hi,

I'm not sure to understand the problem, i'm really a beginner à network switch setup...

I actually have 3 Dell PC5324 (1 is actually used, 2 others are not used for the moment) and 3 HP Procurve 2524 (10/100 actually used).

The 3 HP are stacked using the HP stacking transceiver kit, so 1 is "master" and 2 others are "members". the Dell Pc5324 is connected to the master HP swtich using a simple RJ45 wire.

all my servers are connected to the Pc5324, and all the rest are connected to the 10/100 HP switchs...so  i suppose that my network is slow because only 1 RJ45 at 10/100 speed is wired between my PC5324 and the HP switchs....

Imagine i would re-design the entire network switching with all this hardware, what would be the best solution ?

I have 20 Dell servers (i would like that each server would be connected to 2 switch for high availability) and 60 workstations (plus router or firewall...)

Ps : Which models could be ok for : "If you had a stackable switch then you could also use 802.3ad (Link Aggregation or LAG) mode to team the NIC." ?

Thanks

Florent

DELL-Cuong N.

1K Posts

August 7th, 2006 14:00

If you are not at all familiar with networking then you might need to do some research first to understand the technology before attempting to replan your whole network.  There are two many issues involving security, IP address management, etc for me to easily provide you a simple answer.  If you do some searches in google you will find plenty of information.  Additionally there are several books such as "The Switch Book" by Seifert and "Network Analysis, Architecture, And Design" by McCabe which are good resources.  To do justice to the design we would need to sit down and discuss how you use your network.  Who should have access to which resources.  How you plan to allocate your IP addresses.  Do you intend to grow your network and how much room to allow for growth in the future.  What type of traffic traverse the network, etc.  The problem is that a question like this is too broad a scope and I don't want to provide an incomplete answer which may lead to future problems for you.

As for the question specific to which switch is stackable.  Our 3000 series of switches are all stackable.

Cuong.

 

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