Link aggregation switch?

[Transporteur]

Hi there,

since my current switch doesn't have enough gigabit ports, I'm looking for a new (12 to 16) port switch (rack mount) that supports link aggregation.
Unfortunately, they aren't easy to find, mostly because the link aggregation standards (IEEE 802....) are pretty messed up and manufactures sites don't really give me the information I want.

Personally, I prefer D-Link products, but that's not a must. It is for home use only, so price is definitely a concern.
Throughput won't be very much (I reckon 6Gb/s tops), so high performance isn't required.

What can you guys recommend?

 

[belvdr]

I've never had any issues with Cisco gear. You can usually get items from eBay or http://www.usedcisco.com cheaply.

 

[Transporteur]

I've never had any issues with Cisco gear. You can usually get items from eBay or http://www.usedcisco.com cheaply.

Thanks!
That site seems to have only high end gear, though. Well, I'm in the UK anyway so shipping would get pretty pricy, I guess.

I checked the official Cisco site and found out about the 300 series (Small Business managed with link aggregation support). Unfortunately they come in 8 and 18+ ports only, which makes them really pricy.

Both versions have two additional shared SFP ports, but I don't really know anything about that. If they can be used as the others, the 8 port (basically 10 in that case) would be a viable option. Goes for 180 quid here which isn't too bad.

 

[assembled]

thats quite some speed, are you using 4 port NICs in combination with two onboard ?

How many ports are you wanting to link ? and what exactly are you trying to achieve ?

I used to run X Serves with 4 port Intel 10/100/1000 cards, after a card failed and we went back down to 2 ports, nobody actually noticed (design studio with ~50 users).

The entry level (web managed) HP switches are very good at LACP, I have the 24 port version of this at home with LACP trunks onto each server, and several VLANS to segregate traffic. I like the lifetime warranty with HP

 

[mh530]

Hp 1810g-24

Try the HP 1810G-24. 24 Ports, rackmount, no fans, lifetime replacement warranty, supports link aggregation, Vlans, and a few other nice features to have. I have a few in service (as well as several of the 8 port little guys), and they are great.

 

[Transporteur]

thats quite some speed, are you using 4 port NICs in combination with two onboard ?

How many ports are you wanting to link ? and what exactly are you trying to achieve ?

I used to run X Serves with 4 port Intel 10/100/1000 cards, after a card failed and we went back down to 2 ports, nobody actually noticed (design studio with ~50 users).

Oh sorry, I meant the total switching capacity of the switch, not for the bundled ports themselves.

Basically I just want to get faster transfer speeds from and to my server, which is why I thought about linking the two ports of a Mac Pro and two ports of the server. The server actually has four ports (2 on extra Intel NICs, 2 onboard), and the two Intel ports would then we exclusively linked to the Mac Pro. Both the Pro and the server have the capabilities of saturating a 2Gb/s connection, but the theoretical 250MB/s (I reckon about 200MB/s real life performance) are enough for me, so no need go aggregate more than 2.

The servers' third port would then be used to share data to other devices in the house. Speed isn't much of a concern here, since all other devices are limited to a single network port anyway.

Does that make sense?

The entry level (web managed) HP switches are very good at LACP, I have the 24 port version of this at home with LACP trunks onto each server, and several VLANS to segregate traffic. I like the lifetime warranty with HP

Try the HP 1810G-24. 24 Ports, rackmount, no fans, lifetime replacement warranty, supports link aggregation, Vlans, and a few other nice features to have. I have a few in service (as well as several of the 8 port little guys), and they are great.

24 ports, 48Gb/s capacity, lifetime warranty for 250 quid? Although this switch is completely overkill for me, I think this one is the way to go.
8 ports really isn't enough for my network when I use link aggregation and 24 ports leave a lot of room for expansion.

Thank you so much guys!

 

[Decrepit]

Try the HP 1810G-24. 24 Ports, rackmount, no fans, lifetime replacement warranty, supports link aggregation, Vlans, and a few other nice features to have. I have a few in service (as well as several of the 8 port little guys), and they are great.

I was about to throw out a Procurve referral as well. EXCELLENT switch, and even better tech support. (I'm biased. I know most of the US staff personally).

I've been using their gear since the Lan in a Can, which was an 8 port 10Mb hub w/ 3 10BT NICs in a nice pretty box.

 

[tunerX]

I had the Dlink DGS-1224T it is 26 port gig with aggregation and vlan support. I upgraded my house to a Cisco 3560G-24-PS. You can still find them new on Ebay pretty cheap or get a used one even cheaper.

There are probably newer solutions from Dlink if you want new.

I just sold mine for 100.00 USD.

 

[Transporteur]

There are probably newer solutions from Dlink if you want new.

I actually confused D-Link with 3Com. My current network gear is completely 3Com based but they don't exist any more (seems as if HP bought them).

Anyhow, I just ordered the HP 1810 with 24 ports. That thing should last the next decade.

Thank you very much guys. Can't wait to set it up next year.

 

[assembled]

Unless you want to run different VLANS and subnets and have fun with routing, just have a single connection from the server to the switch, don't have one for "the rest of the house". Going "dual homed" can certainly be done, but its much simpler to be single.

Also don't forget that even with aggregated links, you're still limited by disk speed even if you're just opening a file on the server using the mac pro, the server disks still have to be able to "serve" the file to you...

 

[Transporteur]

Unless you want to run different VLANS and subnets and have fun with routing, just have a single connection from the server to the switch, don't have one for "the rest of the house". Going "dual homed" can certainly be done, but its much simpler to be single.

Also don't forget that even with aggregated links, you're still limited by disk speed even if you're just opening a file on the server using the mac pro, the server disks still have to be able to "serve" the file to you...

Disk speed isn't a concern. The server has a 8 disc raidz2 which is totally capable of saturating two links.

However, I was just told in another thread that OS X doesn't support link aggregation the way I want it to be. There won't be a single 2Gb/s connection rather than two 1Gb/s connection with one exclusively handling input and the other one the output.
Is this true? If so, I will cancel my order on the HP switch cause I don't think that I need a managed one in that case any more.

 

[belvdr]

You can do this on OS X Server.

 

[Transporteur]

You can do this on OS X Server.

Should work on the client version as well. The mechanisms for creating a NIC team are there.

 

[assembled]

. There won't be a single 2Gb/s connection rather than two 1Gb/s connection with one exclusively handling input and the other one the output.

er, one handling input and the other output ?

whoever said this is "confused"

take a look at http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?path=Mac/10.6/en/8921.html and this shows how long they have had it for http://support.apple.com/kb/TA24277?viewlocale=en_US