Advice on switch setup

[tony85wild]

Hi,

I have 6 Unifi switches over 3 network cabinets. They are connected by the diagram below . Can anyone tell me if this is the best way to connect them?

 

Internet in > BT Fibre > Juniper SRX300 (by fibre) > WatchGuard (CAT6) > Switch 1 (CAT6) > Switch 2 (CAT6) > Switch 3(CAT6).

 

Switch 1(none POE) has Synology server, SIGMA, SIMS server and 30 iMacs connected by CAT cable. This then goes to Switch 2 from port 48.

Switch 2 has APs, Security Cameras and Apple TVs. Switch 3 has VOIP.

 

Switch 1 connects to Cabinet A over fibre from SFP1. Switch 1 connects to Cabinet B over fibre from SFP 2.

Switches 4,5 and 6 have VOIP, Apple TVS etc.

[Primus]

Why not use the SFP+ ports on the 48 port switches to uplink with 10gb direct attach copper?

 

Also you’ve got no resilience. Think about some redundant links between switches or LAGs.

[mavhc]

Main issue is it's daisy chaining, Plug all other switches into Switch 1 if possible

[Primus]

Main issue is it's daisy chaining, Plug all other switches into Switch 1 if possible

 

He could only do that at Gigabit since each switch only has 2 SFP+ ports.

 

 

Edit

Sorry you're right I thought he had more switches.

Edited April 25, 2020 by Primus

[tony85wild]

So plug switch 2 into SFP+1 and switch 3 into SFP+2 on switch 1 instead of the copper connections?

 

Would it be best to connect switch 5 SFP 1 to switch 2 SFP 1?

 

I am new to the network game so any help is great. Thank you

[Primus]

I'd interconnect each of the switches using DAC cables at 10Gb in the SFP+ ports and avoid having both cabs running from the same switch but it doesn't really matter as much since you haven't got a properly redundant core switch - if the first switch dies everything will anyway.

[Primus]

It also depends whether your fibre runs to the cabs could sustain 10Gb - if so you need to look for something with more SFP+ connectivity - the US16-XG would work here and keep you all Unifi and be relatively cheap.

[ricki]

Main issue is it's daisy chaining, Plug all other switches into Switch 1 if possible

I agree don't daisy chain

[ITGURU]

Where possible, each switch with direct connection from core switch to edge switch.

[Davit2005]

I think you are on right track with the equipment you have.

 

But I'd probably agree to less daisy chain. Even consider in main cabinet taking each switch back to switch 1.

 

You may be limited by the SFP+ ports on switch 1 but if you have remote comms cabinets with only fibre connectivity this will be limiting. Don't be tempted into using Media converters/transceivers to convert the fibre back to copper.

 

In future you could look at getting a 10Gb core, cheap options would be Unifi US-16-XG although I'd prefer the ES-16-XG due to the more features routing. This will give you enough ports to double up on the remote comms cabinets with some spare capacity. The ES-16-XG cannot be managed by the Unifi controller but I consider the extra features and possible cheaper cost may out weigh that slight inconvenience.

 

I had a few ES-16-XG switches at home and although they do not have enterprise features they were OK, the firmware did not seem to support IPv6 routing however and I had to restart one of them a few times.

Edited April 27, 2020 by Davit2005

[dezt]

@Davit2005 i'm looking at the ES-16-XG for a core switch, ideally I would like 2 for redundancy, so each edge switch will have a fibre link back to both core switches. Would this be something that could be done do you think?

[Davit2005]

ES-16-XG as a layer 3 switch from what I am aware does not provide any layer 3 redundancy, even spanning tree is not without it's problems. If you are requiring IPv6 routing then you may need check as the 2 switches I had about a year ago did not support IPv6 layer 3 routing.

 

I had 2 for home, junked them in favour of some 2930f's but they have limited 10Gb connections.