Gigabit network, uplink speed

Kaka

Kaka

Kaka

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Joined
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Curitiba
Hello all,

We are looking to do a bit of a refresh on our infrastructure and upgrade our HP 100Mb switches to HP Gigabit. Had a quote back but looking for some feedback.

The supplier's suggestion is something like this:

HP Procurve gigabit switch --1Gb uplink (1Gb SFP)-- HP Procurve gigabit switch --1Gb uplink (1Gb SFP)-- Fibre panel (OM3 50/125).

Does their suggestion seem wrong to you, as I assume you will want to have 10Gb uplinks?
 
Okay :D

The network is medium sized one (approximately 650 computers) in the education sector. I suppose the main reason for the upgrade is due to the planned IP camera system and according to an online calculator, that alone will use approximately 615Mbps. My worry is whether it will have an adverse effect on the rest of the network services. I've also been led to believe it is good practise to have the uplink greater than the switches. Currently we have 1Gb uplinks with 100Mb switches.
 
10Gb uplinks will do no good if your 'core' isn't 10Gb. I think we need more information to go on - is this a single switch in a remote cabinet somewhere being replaced? Having said that, the silicon that enables switches to be built with 48x1Gb ports and 4xSFP+ cages seems to be cheap enough that every recent switch model throws in 10Gb whether you want it or not.

I would be inclined to use single-mode fibre as well, just so you never have to re-run it in ten years when your uplink might want to be 100Gb.
 
Exactly as Caged says. It really depends what your core can support.

If your core can't support 10Gb, and it isn't in budget to upgrade then you can always bond your uplinks using LACP, Etherchannel, etc to give extra bandwidth.
 
Thanks for all the replies so far. Bear with me a little as I'm no longer technical, but do have oversight of the network and general IT facilities.

Our core switches are HP Procurve 5406zl which is running 1Gb. There is provisions to have this upgraded sometime in the summer. We have approximately 25 HP L3 switches dotted around the building in several comms room. The upgrades will be done in phases due to network availability and downtime and the plan is to replace a quarter of the 25 switches by the end of Easter. In an ideal environment I would do the 2 core switches first but can't bring these down until the summer, which is why i'm starting on the L3 switches first.

I'm just little unsure of why the 1Gb uplink is recommended. For current network traffic it will be more than adequate, however with the introduction of IP CCTV and future proofing I think it might be an oversight on their part.
 
Possibly due to budget, but then we'll be looking at paying two lots of equipment and labour costs (plus additional downtime) if we find network performance is substandard and later upgrade again, whereas getting 10Gb in the first instance will avoid this expense.

The current edge switches are HP Procurve 2610 (J9088A) I believe.
The proposed replacements are HP Procurve 2530 (J9775A).

I'm not entirely sure why L3 switches are required (in truth I don't really know the difference), they were specified and installed before my time here. Thanks for the link, I'll have a look through that later this evening.
 
Kaka said:
Thanks for all the replies so far. Bear with me a little as I'm no longer technical, but do have oversight of the network and general IT facilities.
Click to expand...

I would then suggest you find some support externally from a company who can do it for you. One mistake and your job may be on the line here especially it been in education. Witnessed it first hand where mistakes are made.
 
The HP 2530s are L2 switches (as are the 2610s), you'd be looking at 2540s or 2920s for L3, but chances are you don't need L3 everywhere anyway.

Also consider PoE requirements? Most IP cameras, wireless access points etc. are all PoE capable. However a 2530 with 10G and PoE you're looking at £1500+ (exvat) per switch if i remember correctly.

Your 5406's only need 10G modules, presumably J9309A. The 5406s are similar to my 8206's so I imagine you can load them in while the device is on, no need for downtime, you'll be able to confirm that in the switches documentation though. You can hot swap modules in most modular chassis.
 
Thanks for the advice and suggestions mrbios. The project is still in the planning phase so there's still quite a few things to consider.

We currently have VOIP and wireless on our network so we're utilising POE already.
 
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