What network equipment to choose?

Question

Computer networks

Friends asked to shovel their office network.

At the moment, the entire network is built on 8 10-megabit dumb switches and the 1st 100-megabit dumb switch, which is in the rack with servers.

Each switch (8 pieces) is connected to a group of computers that belongs to the Department of Employees.
The predominant traffic in the network is VoIP + application with a large database (client-server application)
Number of computers, except servers, in the network = 69, after upgrading the network, the number of employees' computers will be around 100-130 pcs.

From each 10 megabit switch (8 pieces) there is a separate link to the 100 megabit switch.

A plan is still flashing in my head ... to replace 10 megabit switches with dumb gigabit ones + instead of 100 megabit switches, put something smart with gigabit ports too.

I would like to get advice from HabraUzers on how best (not necessarily) and what models of network equipment to use, advise those with which you worked ...

Thanks in advance and according to the old tradition, pluses from me.

Answer 1

If you want to look beautiful, then you should put something like Cisco Catalyst 3560 in the core. Connect servers and switches to it. 3 HP V1910-48G should be installed at the client connection level, and all links should be reduced to the server one. If this does not work out, then you can scatter something like HP V1910-16G around the building, and from them again bring links to the catalyst. The general principle is that the fewer switches, the better.
If the issue of financing is acute, then you can put HP V1910-48G or similar ones in the core (for the required number of ports), and scatter HP 1410-8G among departments. it will be inexpensive and reliable enough. I do not advise you to take all sorts of d-links and others like them, you suffer with them.

Answer 2

Take HP, there you will already be guided by the models. They also have adequate support (they opened a ticket when there were problems with counting packages, corrected it, posted a new firmware) and the prices are adequate. STP, VLAN everything is there, if necessary, you can also connect a web face. Now the 2910 piece of iron for 100k keeps free 4GB in the external network, in the near future 10GB will be connected, because. the hoster has no free ports yet. Everything else is 2510. I don’t remember the statistics on the internal network, but there are much more (separate VLAN).
There were problems with Allied, because the ports themselves fell off and it is very hemorrhagic to change under warranty. We have one D-Link very ancient, which has served longer for 5 years. Cisco was put for some time for tests, but somehow there was no difference with HP, so they took HP.

Answer 3

And wires from 10 Mbit to users are stretched what? Or is it planned to pull everything?

Answer 4

Actually, Anastasia above brought a fairly sound concept and an excellent principle regarding the number of switches. Some additions from me: if there is no question of price (and I did not find such an item in the description of the task), then I would put Cisco Catalyst 2960 class gigabit switches instead of HP, and in a stack. And the core would be duplicated by a second 3560 switch if they are stackable. If not, then I would put the Catalyst X3750 instead, they are definitely stackable. Thus, we get the following configuration: servers - stack of Catalysts of the 3rd level - stack of Catalysts of the 2nd level - users. Expensive but reliable. And you can also divide everything into VLANs, for ease of management, increasing the logic and security of the network.
Actually, what is the budget? Because you can theorize for a long time.

Answer 5

Everything can be done on AlliedTelesis. The vendor is not as pretentious as CISCO or HP, but more reliable than D-Link and other "links" and "nets".

Answer 6

I can speak with Boris Kulikov at 787-48-84, he has been working with Allied for 10 years now, he knows all modern lines and models. I left this thread 6 years ago.

Answer 7

try to immediately look in the direction of l2 / l3 support - QoS - so that the voice can be prioritized. and so - they beautifully painted above, a couple of core switches in a hot standby / parallel, from them there are two links per floor / block, something is already simpler there. then there will be a ring with stp and if the links are broken somewhere, monitoring from the switch will already know about it

Answer 8

When I opened the business, I turned to the "practice" company and, after consulting, I settled on HP equipment. The core is powerful. Pulls the whole office without problems. At the beginning there were many questions, support promptly helped. In general, if you are interested in the reliability of the server infrastructure and equipment, I recommend contacting these guys https://best-practice.ru.