3 Procurvers, 1 VLAN...

[Kelvin.uk]

We have 3 ProCurves on our network, 1 x 4108GL
2 x 5308XL. What is the best way to link these up so we can have good performance. They will all be under the same VLAN.

My guess would be to connect the 2 5308XL using 1 gigabit connection. (or maybe 2 gigabit connections?)

Then would it be best to connect one of the 5308XL into the 4108, or connect both 5308XL into the 4108?

Your thoughts? Thanks

[Shadow13]

it's better to connect the 4108 to both switches in case the link to one of the 5308 switches fail the 4108 will have the other link active, but in this case you need to configure spanning tree to preven the loop.

Also for the links between the 5308 switches, i would recommend to trunk (link aggregation) of more than 1 gigabit connection.

[Kelvin.uk]

Ok to be honest I'm not in a position to set up STP or trunking (even if its dead easy to setup) I just want a basic setup with no loops and simple DR

Would this cause a loop?

4308 -> 5308(1)
5308(1) -> 5308(2)
5308(2) -> 4308

Thanks!

[Josh Boyer]

Hi Kelvin,

Yes that configuration would cause loops. If you do not want to configure STP as shadow suggested you would have to do one of the following:

4303-->5303(1)-->5303(2)

or

4303-->5303(1)
4303-->5303(2)

It really depends on your network setup. In the first setup if the 5303(1) switch fails then the 5303(2) switch would lose connection to the 4303 switch which would be bad if all your servers were on the 4303 switch and all your workstations were on the 5303 switches as all your users would lose connection to server if one switch fails.

The Second configuration is better as either of the 5303 switches can fail without affecting the other; however if the 4303 fails then they will lose connectivity to each other. Again it all depends on your network and what each switch will be connected to.

You mentioned you wanted to perhaps make 2GB connections what shadow suggested was correct you would need to create trunk links for this to happen if you just connected two of the gigabit links between each switch you would be creating a loop without STP enabled. Also this configuration might cause problems with the MAC table if these switches only support a single MAC address table(not sure if this 4303 or 5303s have multiple MAC table support).

Regards,

[Kelvin.uk]

Thanks for the good advice, I will look into trunking/stp later. I'm repatching our patch panel this weekend, I will be lucky to finish it in time!

[Josh Boyer]

Hello Kelvin,

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