We have five HP 4108gl switches as our set of core switches. Currently we have them in a cascaded arrangement, with a two port trunk per cascade connection, eg
SW-1 to SW-2 (2 port trunk) SW-2 to SW-3 (2 port trunk) SW-3 to SW-4 (2 port trunk) SW-4 to SW-5 (2 port trunk)
This configuration has served us extremely well except on the rare occasion when one of the middle switches has failed, resulting in a split network.
Due to the length of the stacking port cables (1/2 metre) it is impossible for us to connect SW-1 to SW-5 in a cascade loop. We propose to break the trunked stacking ports and configure the switches in a staggered switch format, ie
SW-1 to SW-2 and to SW-3 SW-2 to SW-3 and to SW-4 SW-3 to SW-4 and to SW-5 SW-4 to SW-5
Is this configuration likely to cause any problems?
All suggestions/recommendations greatly appreciated.
Seems sound as long as you have a stp/rstp setup to block redundant links. But it is really hard to say since we dont know what your enviromnet entails.
