Cheap, (possibly) Managed Gigabit Switch

lotas

Morning all...

A couple years back, i managed to get myself a nice Dell Managed Gigabit switch out of a datacenter... It was 24 port, fully managed, etc, etc... Anyway, it stopped working a while back, and since then i am using an 8 port Linksys home switch, an AirPort Extreme, a 5 Port Gigabit switch (Belkin i think) and my RouterBoard RB750G... needless to say, i have too many switches and not enough management...

But, now i am wondering... Do i actually *need* management? I want to do channel bonding (my NAS, and 2 workstations connect to the switches using 2 Ethernet connections, so bonding would be handy, plus most of my servers have at least 2 ports... My Sun server has 4).

So, the 2 questions are as follows:

For Channel Bonding Ethernet connections, do i need managed switches? VLANs sound interesting, but i have no idea if i need them... so, i could get away with not having them...

and second, either way, any recommendations on what i should get?

Thanks.

agricamera

lotas wrote: »

Morning all...

A couple years back, i managed to get myself a nice Dell Managed Gigabit switch out of a datacenter... It was 24 port, fully managed, etc, etc... Anyway, it stopped working a while back, and since then i am using an 8 port Linksys home switch, an AirPort Extreme, a 5 Port Gigabit switch (Belkin i think) and my RouterBoard RB750G... needless to say, i have too many switches and not enough management...

But, now i am wondering... Do i actually *need* management? I want to do channel bonding (my NAS, and 2 workstations connect to the switches using 2 Ethernet connections, so bonding would be handy, plus most of my servers have at least 2 ports... My Sun server has 4).

Yes, you would need a managed switch so as you can do port aggregation (bonding). As to whether you need it - thats up to you But obviously it is huge overkill for a home setup.

So, the 2 questions are as follows:
y
For Channel Bonding Ethernet connections, do i need managed switches? VLANs sound interesting, but i have no idea if i need them... so, i could get away with not having them...

Think of VLANs like having 2 switches.

In VLAN1 is computer 1, computer 2 and the internet gateway (your rb750).

In VLAN2 is server 1, sever 2 and the same rb750 as in VLAN1 (you can put a port in more than one vlan).

Computer 1 can ping computer 2. Computer 1 & 2 can ping the rb750 and access the internet.

Server 1 can ping server 2 and the gateway.

But, computer 1 and computer 2 cannot ping server 1 or 2 or vice versa. The rb750 can ping both computers and both servers.

Get it? You are basically splitting the switch up into logical groups, and giving each port on the switch 'permissions' to what it can talk to.

If you want the computers and the servers to be able to talk, you would have to route between the networks. The easiest way to do this is with a router (such as your rb750). You give each VLAN a separate subnet (say 192.168.10.1/24 and 192.168.20.1/24) Your RB750 has two IP addresses, ie. 192.168.10.1/24 and 192.168.20.1/24 (one in each network).
The default gateway on each computer / server is set to the rb750's address. If you are trying to ping a server from the computer, which is not on the same subnet, the request would be routed through the rb750, which would then send it on to the other network to the server.

To connect the rb750, you could either have two network cables plugged into the switch (literally like having two separate switches) or you can have a port on the switch in both vlan 1 and vlan 2, and a single cable going to the routerboard. The packets sent to the rb will have 'tags' specifying which interface they are for, and the rb750 will route them appropriately.

and second, either way, any recommendations on what i should get?

A HP 1800-8G / 1800-16G / 1800-24G (or the updated 1810- version) is a great entry level managed switch that can do all this above and more. You can pick them up on ebay second hand quite cheaply if you keep your eye out and it's a good switch to learn on (it has a web interface instead of being forced to use the cli).

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=managed+switch&sugexp=chrome,mod%3D0&um=1&ie=UTF-8&cid=11071017368797384845&sa=X&ei=uo2OUMigKqe_0QWtgoGwAg&ved=0CEsQ8wIwBA

If you like Mikrotik, they also have their own range of little managed switches, with the familiar Winbox interface.

I would avoid really cheap managed switches by Dell, as they are horrific to use and don't follow normal conventions. Likewise I'd avoid anything with only a CLI interface if you're just getting started.

Have fun - no better way to learn than by doing!

lotas

Thanks agricamera for the info. Yea, port aggregation may be overkill, but given the machines i have in house (Dual Quad Xeon with 60Gb RAM as a workstation, Dual Dual Xeon with 12Gb RAM as a secondary server, 2 IBM E Servers with a mix of either 2 Dual or 1 Quad Xeon, a couple Dell PowerEdge servers, one of which is a Quad Core Xeon, A Sun microsystems box, a SAN, a TV server with 8 DVBS Tuners, and what ever else i here) i might aswell go all in with the networking equipment!

Them HP switches look good... and there is a 48 Port version too! which might be handy since all if i were to connect all ports on all machines in the room to it, without adding the XBox, PS3, AppleTV, and other sections of the network, i would be using 22 ports... going all hog and getting a 48 might be a good idea!

Thanks again...

agricamera

lotas wrote: »

Thanks agricamera for the info. Yea, port aggregation may be overkill, but given the machines i have in house (Dual Quad Xeon with 60Gb RAM as a workstation, Dual Dual Xeon with 12Gb RAM as a secondary server, 2 IBM E Servers with a mix of either 2 Dual or 1 Quad Xeon, a couple Dell PowerEdge servers, one of which is a Quad Core Xeon, A Sun microsystems box, a SAN, a TV server with 8 DVBS Tuners, and what ever else i here) i might aswell go all in with the networking equipment!

Them HP switches look good... and there is a 48 Port version too! which might be handy since all if i were to connect all ports on all machines in the room to it, without adding the XBox, PS3, AppleTV, and other sections of the network, i would be using 22 ports... going all hog and getting a 48 might be a good idea!

Thanks again...

You could always buy 2 x 24 (or 16) ports and learn how to stack them
Then you can also learn about sharing vlans across switches.

The benefit of the 8/16 and I think the 24 port version of the HP switches is they are silent (no fan). I think the 48 port version will have a fan which will probably be noisy.

Most other rack mount managed switches will have a fan or two in the back which will sound like a 737 taking off in your living room.

rolion

lotas wrote: »

i have in house (Dual Quad Xeon with 60Gb RAM as a workstation, Dual Dual Xeon with 12Gb RAM as a secondary server, 2 IBM E Servers with a mix of either 2 Dual or 1 Quad Xeon, a couple Dell PowerEdge servers, one of which is a Quad Core Xeon, A Sun microsystems box, a SAN, a TV server with 8 DVBS Tuners, and what ever else i here) i might aswell go all in with the networking equipment!

Do you turn/use them often !?
What you doing,doing 1+1 on NSA crypto !??

How much you pay the electricity bill !?
The MiB are "reading" any huge spikes in the bills ...they may have an eye on you already ...

lotas

agricamera: yea, given my current setup, i dont think sound is the problem... the old Dell switch was quite noisy, and it got replaced by a couple IBM Servers which make enough noise as it is... 2 24s maybe cheaper, so will look into it...

rolion: the Sun server and one of the dell servers are off at the moment... no network switch ports for them... but everything else is on and running... they mostly run VMs, servers, dev stuff, etc... Dont ask about the Electricity bill... i dont what to know! And i have not been raided as a Grow house, yet... there is still time...