Dell Powerconnect Switch configuration

jackass3_16 · 12 May 2021 at 15:36

Hi all,

I'm currently working at small business that does not have a dedicated network engineer, and need to change the way traffic is routed on the network.

Basically the company has several application servers that share the IP range 10.5.0.X, and connect through a switch stack at 10.5.0.254, which then connects through a Windows server on 10.0.0.100 for internet traffic. The application nodes also use the Windows server as their default gateway.

Do you know if there is a way to ensure the application servers use the switch as their default gateway without having to create a new VLAN and reassign their IP addresses?

Please see the attached diagram a visual representation of this.

Does anyone have experience with Dell switches that may be able to advise?

Thanks.

the-evaluator · 13 May 2021 at 16:12

They're using a /8? Crikey, I fear the amount of broadcast traffic there.

I haven't checked, but are those Dell switches layer 3 capable? If not there's no chance that the servers can use them as their gateway. I don't think that's what you're asking for though as the 2nd diagram still shows the 2012 box doing it's RAS stuff. Can you try and explain again what you're wanting to achieve, I can't work it out.

If they're a small business then they absolutely don't need to be using a /8. Can you add some real IP addressing into the diagram, I think this could probably be reduced to a single /24 for the switch stack.

Deleted member 77746 · 13 May 2021 at 16:28

jackass3_16 said:
I'm currently working at small business that does not have a dedicated network engineer, and need to change the way traffic is routed on the network.

Why do you need to change the way the traffic is routed and what happened to the network engineer?

Armageus · 13 May 2021 at 16:31

Why are the application servers using Google DNS servers in the current configuration, and why would you want your switches using them in your proposed configuration.

Everything internal should use an internal DNS server surely?

Deleted member 77746 · 13 May 2021 at 16:33

Armageus said:
Everything internal should use an internal DNS server surely?

I was going to ask that but thought nah better not.

Hellsmk2 · 16 May 2021 at 15:19

If it's a L3 switch, enable IP routing on it, pop a default route on it pointing to that windows router, or to whatever router you have.

On the router make sure it has a route back to the switch ip (254). Job done.

Switch Conf:

# configure terminal
# ip route 0.0.0.0/0 10.0.0.100

You may need to enable IP routing on the switch too. Usually a command similar to the below:

# ip-routing enable

Server / pc / client device conf:

- Change their gateways to point to 10.5.0.254

Windows Router / new router:

- add an ip route for 10.0.0.0/8 to a destination of 10.5.0.254.

You can change the gateways over piecemeal if the windows router will still be a valid device.
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There is the question of why they'd use a /8, and I'd also question why a windows box is being used as their primary router when there's cheap alternatives that will do it infinitely better (Watchguard, fortigate, or even a decent Draytek if they're super small).