Layer 3 switching, more info?

F

feigned

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Jan 7, 2003
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So I'm upgrading our backbone to gigabit and eventually going to move some systems around to alleviate the burden on some of the network. The switches in question are D-Link 3312 SR's which are Layer 3 capable.

Image of what will be:

network061404.PNG


Currently, there are roughly 45 machines on one section, 10 on another, 20 on the third, and another 20 here and there...not accounting for printers and WAPs and such.

So, other than a lesser chance of dropped packets and much smarter "routing" table ( via IP, that is the main deal with Layer 3, is it not? ), I don't really gain all that much in useability, do I? I can put priority on certain traffic? I'm not sure what the benefits of having such a powerful switch are.

Please enlighten!
 
they also let you see and monitor traffic to each port and aggregated traffic
load % etc too

you can specify QoS bandwidth limits too

in my opinion there is no use to go with a layer 3 or layer 2 switch for user systems.
the only time it would be feasible to use a managed switch is for backbone prurpouses... hooking all the switches to the main servers, etc.
 
in other words, anything mission critical AND bandwidth intensive (but not just one or the other) should go onto the managed switch, while anything not as critical should go on standard unmanaged switches.
 
jaqie said:
in other words, anything mission critical AND bandwidth intensive (but not just one or the other) should go onto the managed switch, while anything not as critical should go on standard unmanaged switches.
Click to expand...

Absolutely. We ordered two 4-port 10/100/1000 add-on ports for the "main" switch. That one will contain three GBIC fiber adapters that will do the runs to the other places of interest, each with another Gb switch and one GBIC adapter and then at said places, unmanaged switches will come into play. But back to the "main" switch, servers will hang off of it, essentially bringing the network closer to the clients (along with more bandwidth).

In one building, the machines have to jump through three devices before seeing a server...after the upgrade it will be two for every connection.

I'm slightly concerned about enabling any other kind of service that the switch may offer. Is there a way to pipe the information to a webpage? I'm thinking MRTG, but I've never set that up.
 
two things come to mind. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid, ive had to say this to myself once in a while when thinking about things, more often then Id like to admit)

Don't fix it if it ain't broke... if you dont NEED it why enable it?
 
jaqie said:
two things come to mind. K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid, ive had to say this to myself once in a while when thinking about things, more often then Id like to admit)

Don't fix it if it ain't broke... if you dont NEED it why enable it?
Click to expand...

Well see, that's why I don't want to enable the HTTP page for any reason. Out of sight, out of mind. If the switch has "issues" I have a laptop and cable for making personal visits.
 
I am not familiar with the D-Link switches... but
A layer 3 aware switch(on a lan) is usually used to segment the lan within itself.
This could be for security, utilization, performance, or management reasons...
 
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