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    Simple comms. What to do?

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    • S
      siringo
      last edited by

      I have a site where the two main servers (Windows) are located about 15 'cable' metres from the switch (switch A) they plug into.

      Each server has 3 NICs.

      I'm wondering what others would do?

      Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A

      or

      place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

      Thanks for any help.

      G 1 S D J 5 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • G
        gjacobse @siringo
        last edited by

        @siringo

        I believe the easiest and fastest:

        Switch at the servers and fibre to the main switch. You may need to upgrade switch a, but it’s worth it.

        J S J 3 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
        • N
          notverypunny
          last edited by

          All depends on budget and if the existing switch has enough interfaces available. @gjacobse proposes a good option but $40 worth of monoprice cables would get the job done too.

          G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
          • G
            gjacobse @notverypunny
            last edited by

            @notverypunny said in Simple comms. What to do?:

            All depends on budget and if the existing switch has enough interfaces available. @gjacobse proposes a good option but $40 worth of monoprice cables would get the job done too.

            Agreed-
            I was going over option and doing the math while driving to work.

            Fifth term meters is very well within the specifications of cat5 to still be 1GB.

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • D
              Dashrender
              last edited by

              Is everything going to a single switch at the far end? or do you have redundant switches you'll split the load over?

              Also the uplink between the any switches needs to be able to handle the full load otherwise you're introducing a bottleneck.

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • J
                JasGot @gjacobse
                last edited by

                @gjacobse said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                @siringo

                I believe the easiest and fastest:

                Switch at the servers and fibre to the main switch. You may need to upgrade switch a, but it’s worth it.

                This is what we do.

                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • 1
                  1337 @siringo
                  last edited by

                  @siringo said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                  I have a site where the two main servers (Windows) are located about 15 'cable' metres from the switch (switch A) they plug into.

                  Each server has 3 NICs.

                  I'm wondering what others would do?

                  Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A

                  or

                  place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

                  Thanks for any help.

                  15 meters (50ft) is not very long. No need for another switch.

                  The proper way IMHO is to set up a couple of patch panels. Use rackmounted if you have racks otherwise wall mounted.

                  1 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                  • 1
                    1337 @1337
                    last edited by 1337

                    @pete-s said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                    @siringo said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                    I have a site where the two main servers (Windows) are located about 15 'cable' metres from the switch (switch A) they plug into.

                    Each server has 3 NICs.

                    I'm wondering what others would do?

                    Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A

                    or

                    place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

                    Thanks for any help.

                    15 meters (50ft) is not very long. No need for another switch.

                    The proper way IMHO is to set up a couple of patch panels. Use rackmounted if you have racks otherwise wall mounted.

                    Sorry if this is obvious. Just easier with a picture than text.
                    4bbf8545-aa28-4e6b-a857-408a35fdfae6-image.png

                    T G 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 3
                    • S
                      scottalanmiller @siringo
                      last edited by

                      @siringo said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                      Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A
                      or
                      place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

                      Run cables. The fewer switches, the better.

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • S
                        scottalanmiller @gjacobse
                        last edited by

                        @gjacobse said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                        @siringo

                        I believe the easiest and fastest:

                        Switch at the servers and fibre to the main switch. You may need to upgrade switch a, but it’s worth it.

                        Why is fiber involved? No distances here that make copper a challenge.

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                        • D
                          dave247 @siringo
                          last edited by dave247

                          @siringo said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                          I have a site where the two main servers (Windows) are located about 15 'cable' metres from the switch (switch A) they plug into.

                          Each server has 3 NICs.

                          I'm wondering what others would do?

                          Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A

                          or

                          place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

                          Thanks for any help.

                          If it's just two servers and there's no expectation for growth, I'd probably just run cables to the switches.

                          In my server cage at work, we have a bunch of servers, so I have everything going to a 2-stack of switches (with dedicated UPS) and then fiber trunked to the main switch stack that everything else in our environment connects to. This helps keeps thing neat and clean with regards to cables in the server room and everything on the server LAN can still function if there is an outage somewhere else. It all depends on how you want to have it set up with regards to pricing, redundancy and availability.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • T
                            travisdh1 @1337
                            last edited by

                            @pete-s said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                            @pete-s said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                            @siringo said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                            I have a site where the two main servers (Windows) are located about 15 'cable' metres from the switch (switch A) they plug into.

                            Each server has 3 NICs.

                            I'm wondering what others would do?

                            Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A

                            or

                            place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

                            Thanks for any help.

                            15 meters (50ft) is not very long. No need for another switch.

                            The proper way IMHO is to set up a couple of patch panels. Use rackmounted if you have racks otherwise wall mounted.

                            Sorry if this is obvious. Just easier with a picture than text.
                            4bbf8545-aa28-4e6b-a857-408a35fdfae6-image.png

                            Everything that picture shows tells me you should have a single switch directly connected to the servers.

                            Do you have lots of devices not shown that use all the ports on all the switches? Even if you do, servers should still be connected to the first switch if at all possible.

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                            • S
                              siringo
                              last edited by

                              Thanks everyone for the comments & suggestions, it's been a great help.

                              Looks like I'm OK with cables.

                              Thanks again.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • J
                                JaredBusch @gjacobse
                                last edited by

                                @gjacobse said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                                Switch at the servers and fibre to the main switch.

                                This is only useful if you have better than gigabit GBIC for the fiber. Otherwise it is no different than a cable.

                                Most likely hsi existing swithc cannot support anything better than gigabit GBIC.

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                                • G
                                  gotwf @1337
                                  last edited by

                                  @pete-s +1 on the patch panels and the catV back to main switch for low cost budget solution.

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                  • J
                                    jclambert @siringo
                                    last edited by jclambert

                                    @siringo said in Simple comms. What to do?:

                                    I have a site where the two main servers (Windows) are located about 15 'cable' metres from the switch (switch A) they plug into.

                                    Each server has 3 NICs.

                                    I'm wondering what others would do?

                                    Would you run 6 cables from the servers to switch A

                                    or

                                    place a switch (switch B) near the servers and run 1 cable from switch B to switch A?

                                    Thanks for any help.

                                    Introducing new hardware (a switch) may be a stopgap, if the end intent running cables. Don't add a hardware failure point. Less is more as they say

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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