Associate
- Joined
- 19 May 2005
- Posts
- 862
Ok so its late and i think im been stupid but i can seem to get my head around how enterpise companies are providing redundancy to clients on lans
Now server redundancy is easy in terms of networking, pretty much every half decent server comes with dual nic, which you ofcourse you use teaming for redundancy and even use two sets of teamed nics to two switchs incase one switch fails, so network traffic can still flow to the server.
But then it hit me, what about if a switch fails that has 48 client computers on it? I know most people would be hopping mad if suddently 48 staff became unproductive for an hour or more while you replace and repatch a switch (that based on the fact you have a spare one).
So the question is what are people implementing to ensure client computers (not servers) are kept up and running? Now i know some bigger chassis switch uses redundant PSU's but there are really expensive and not found on the edge of networks which connect to clients very often.
Are people simply not providing redundancy for client computers? and before any one mentions stacking switchs, they are not there for redundancy they are there for providng a fast network back bone.
is there something simple im missing or do all computers need dual nics?
Because at the moment i cant see that if a switch fails there is any quick and easy way to re-route client traffic to get it working again.
Please help soothe my brain pain
Phil
Now server redundancy is easy in terms of networking, pretty much every half decent server comes with dual nic, which you ofcourse you use teaming for redundancy and even use two sets of teamed nics to two switchs incase one switch fails, so network traffic can still flow to the server.
But then it hit me, what about if a switch fails that has 48 client computers on it? I know most people would be hopping mad if suddently 48 staff became unproductive for an hour or more while you replace and repatch a switch (that based on the fact you have a spare one).
So the question is what are people implementing to ensure client computers (not servers) are kept up and running? Now i know some bigger chassis switch uses redundant PSU's but there are really expensive and not found on the edge of networks which connect to clients very often.
Are people simply not providing redundancy for client computers? and before any one mentions stacking switchs, they are not there for redundancy they are there for providng a fast network back bone.
is there something simple im missing or do all computers need dual nics?
Because at the moment i cant see that if a switch fails there is any quick and easy way to re-route client traffic to get it working again.
Please help soothe my brain pain
Phil