Network Redundancy between switches.
Here's the scenario.
There are two comms rooms which both have two switches and are connected by a single uplink cable. What are my options for providing redundancy so that I never lose connectivity between the two comms rooms?
I need both wireless and cabled solutions.
Thanks in advance to those who answer.
Jonathan.
Software/Hardware used:
Software/Hardware used:
ASKED:
September 20, 2005 4:10 PM
UPDATED:
November 28, 2007 8:41 PM
Answer Wiki:
Use STP (Spanning Tree protocol) this allows a loop to be created in the network and will use the backup link if the main one fails. STP must be an option on at least one Switch - preferably all.
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RapidIT’s response is a good one regarding Spanning Tree. However, if your switches have it, Rapid Spanning Tree is preferable to ‘regular’ Spanning Tree (convergence time with ‘regular’ Spanning Tree is usually greater than 30 seconds, compared to a second or two with RST).
What kind of switches? IF they have the capability, do run two cables, forget STP. it’ll probably just do it’s thing if it’s IEEE 802.1d/w compliant at least. IF you want wireless, stick a WAP/router into one of the switches and don’t forget to set WEP.
HTH
Assuming – 2 switches per room – can you run an additional cables and use VRRP (if switches are capable) for a cross wired config? If you’re not using STP or don’t want to, then this would not change your network. The same thing for WLANs, but only need the WLAN router to have VRRP.
Hi guys thanks for your help.
Firstly, Rapid STP will not be necessary but I do appreciate yout point.
“IF they have the capability, do run two cables, forget STP” – What do you mean, if I run two cables, I will need to use STP to distinguish which cable to use by assigning a STP cost to each cable. I am assuming each cable you are talking about is just a CAT5/CAT6 cable between the ports of two of the switches. Is this correct?
VRRP is a layer 3 protocol, and I will be using layer 3 switching. So this is not an option.
Cable wise – You can also use a tunneling solution meaning you can take a couple of ports off of each switch and combine them into a tunnel so that if the uplink port fails for any reason you’ll have the tunnel in place to take over.