Network Infrastructure - new build

[Stormborn15]

Hi All,

 

Just after some architecture advice to get my facts straight..

 

Scenario:

2 new buildings 1 lower school 1 higher school as part of new MAT development. Both buildings near each other but not on same site.

 

Question:

Should each building have it's own data cable rather than share the same one?

 

My reason's for keeping it separate:

Have own network? if one school loses connectivity doesn't affect the other?, failover provision ie could have 2 data cables to each school and one can act as failover to the other? ( although not sure about this one as the provider would be the same so technically, if provider is down, its down for all)

 

New to this sort of thing so any thoughts and information much appreciated

 

Thanks in advance

[DavetheITguy]

I'm guessing both Academies will be part of JANET? You could setup VPNs between sites and have Domain Trust Relationship setup?

[Wave9_Lee]

Hi Stormborn15,

 

By data cable, do you mean broadband provision? If so, yes, you could have a separate ISP feed into each school and have resilience in the event of a failure. If these are new build schools, it's better to think if this as soon as possible as if you would like a leased line, there's a bit of work to be done in advance, once you know what you want.

 

There are plenty of configuration options for resilience, but in effect, the more resilience you have, the more it costs. One link into each school, that can failover is possible and a good compromise, but you'd need to have a detailed chat about how the local data networks are set up ref L3 routing and VLANs etc. The good thing is if these are new schools, you can design the LAN and downstream client config with the plan in mind.

 

Alternatively for a simple life, dual FttC or leased line/Fttc Backup can be very cost effective these days.

[Stormborn15]

Thanks for responses so far... I think I may have confused the issue a bit with the failover bit... I shall re phrase the question..

 

What could I give as legitimate reasons for keeping the 2 schools on a separate network ( so that would be the router that comes into the school to provide the IP addresses etc)

The current proposal is 1 line that will serve both buildings..

I guess that we could have

: 1 line 1 router and router directs separate traffic to each school and each school could have its own ranges (Via vlans?)

: 1 line 1 router and one large range that covers both schools

: 2 line 2 routers everything separate

 

I guess I'm after the pro's and cons of these options and / or other ideas that may work better..

Broadband/ISP provider will be the same across all sites

Plan to have separate server (for dhcp, printing etc) and domain for each building

 

Thanks again

[mavhc]

Thanks for responses so far... I think I may have confused the issue a bit with the failover bit... I shall re phrase the question..

 

What could I give as legitimate reasons for keeping the 2 schools on a separate network ( so that would be the router that comes into the school to provide the IP addresses etc)

The current proposal is 1 line that will serve both buildings..

I guess that we could have

: 1 line 1 router and router directs separate traffic to each school and each school could have its own ranges (Via vlans?)

: 1 line 1 router and one large range that covers both schools

: 2 line 2 routers everything separate

 

I guess I'm after the pro's and cons of these options and / or other ideas that may work better..

Broadband/ISP provider will be the same across all sites

Plan to have separate server (for dhcp, printing etc) and domain for each building

 

Thanks again

 

If one IT team is running both sites, I'd have the domains connected somehow, whether that's same domain with 2 AD sites, or 2 domains joined in a forest. You can share backup costs, deployment costs etc, don't have to do everything twice. When pupils from from lower to upper school it's just a matter of moving their AD objects and homedirs. Might also save on site licences in some cases.

 

If you have the money to spend on 2 entirely separate internet connections, running out of the site in 2 different directions so a rogue digger won't kill both, with 2 different ISPs so one failing won't affect the other, that would be awesome.

 

Network design kind of reflects your organisational structure.

 

I ran 4 schools that merged into 1, kept the 4 sites, so I had 1 AD with 4 AD sites, 4 servers, plus a central one for SIMS and backups.

[Stormborn15]

If one IT team is running both sites, I'd have the domains connected somehow, whether that's same domain with 2 AD sites, or 2 domains joined in a forest. You can share backup costs, deployment costs etc, don't have to do everything twice. When pupils from from lower to upper school it's just a matter of moving their AD objects and homedirs. Might also save on site licences in some cases.

 

If you have the money to spend on 2 entirely separate internet connections, running out of the site in 2 different directions so a rogue digger won't kill both, with 2 different ISPs so one failing won't affect the other, that would be awesome.

 

Network design kind of reflects your organisational structure.

 

I ran schools that merged into 1, kept the 4 sites, so I had 1 AD with 4 AD sites, 4 servers, plus a central one for SIMS and backups.

 

That's great info mavhc :-)

[Stormborn15]

ps - have pm'd you @mavhc