Can I use 3com's baseline switches 2024 in a VLAN?

[Starriol]

Good afternoon.

We need to implement VLANs on my company's network. We are going to buy a new Cisco router and would like to create VLANs.

Our topology includes a central switch, that we need to change, since it's a cheap & old model, that links with other 4 switches (model 3com baseline switch 2024). Our question is, can I buy a certain model of Cisco switch and create a VLAN trunk with the router, and make a VLAN for each of the 3 com switches? Consider they cannot be administrated, they are basic models.

I hope you got my point.

 

[xphil3]

Absolutely. This is what many business do with unmanaged access switches to save on the budget. You got it exactly right, your Cisco switch would be your core switch with uplinks to the 3coms. Each uplink would be set to a static access vlan putting everything behind that switch port on that switch ports VLAN.

 

[archivalbackup]

I think xphile3 has the best solution. You would be much better off using the Cisco switch, as the ASIC switching processors will be a huge performance advantage, especially when you start doing QoS and other fun stuff

You will set up each port connecting to the 'dumb' 3com switch as an 'access port' so that it connects untagged to a specific VLAN.

Also, I'll put in a plug for the Cisco 3750 Gig ... with the smart-stack ports you can get performance that is rivaled only by a Cat 6500; however it gives you the opportunity to increase your core switch size incrementally.

 

[xphil3]

I think xphile3 has the best solution. You would be much better off using the Cisco switch, as the ASIC switching processors will be a huge performance advantage, especially when you start doing QoS and other fun stuff

You will set up each port connecting to the 'dumb' 3com switch as an 'access port' so that it connects untagged to a specific VLAN.

Also, I'll put in a plug for the Cisco 3750 Gig ... with the smart-stack ports you can get performance that is rivaled only by a Cat 6500; however it gives you the opportunity to increase your core switch size incrementally.

Yet again, another solid post with good info. The ASICs will drastically change your performance. To elaborate a bit, ASICs = dedicated switching hardware = extremely low latency fast switching. The 3coms are going to switch with software which will utilize CPU(interrupts, etc).

 

[Starriol]

Please take a look here, this is what I want:


The 3 switches connected to the PCs are un manageables 3com baseline switches.

 

[xphil3]

Please take a look here, this is what I want:

The 3 switches connected to the PCs are un manageables 3com baseline switches.

Everything looks good except for the 3 links going into the "core" switch. You will want only one Trunk link connecting your router and your core switch. One the router create subinterfaces for each VLAN that you have. Its called routing on a stick.
http://www.tech-recipes.com/rx/1853/Cisco_switch_802_1q_trunk_to_router_on_a_stick - config.

Also, the unmanaged switches are in ONE VLAN each, not just the PCs that are connecting to the switch. You will need to make those "trunk" links from your core switch to your access switch's static access VLAN ports.

 

[archivalbackup]

Please take a look here, this is what I want:


The 3 switches connected to the PCs are un manageables 3com baseline switches.

Like Xplie3 said, either trunk from the core switch to the router on one link, or do your routing in the core switch.

I think that you can accomplish what you want to do, by treating your 3com switches as unmanaged, and putting each switch in it's own vlan access port (untagged, not trunked). If you plan on having communication between VLAN segments, definitely do the routing in your core switch.

 

[Starriol]

Thanks!

Perhaps I should look into a layer 3 switch, to save processing time on the router.

What do you think?

 

[xphil3]

Thanks!

Perhaps I should look into a layer 3 switch, to save processing time on the router.

What do you think?

L3 switching is always a great option and should be used when it can... it will be significantly faster due to ASIC and CEF, you will have one less device to manage, you can implement QoS more efficiently, etc.

If you're going to have a little bit of a budget I would also suggest that you implement a collapsed core L3 switch architecture(for redundancy and overall throughput. So, you would need two of the L3 switches of your choice, connect them, multi-path connect you access switches(the 3coms)....You can check out the Cisco universe knowledge base for a more detailed explanation... but im fairly certian this is the route you are going to want to take. Also, if you go this route, look into HSRP as well.