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Equipment selection and situation analysis

Seuss
Level 1
Level 1

Hello, I'm new here and we were tasked with a project that includes network design and layout. I would like to ask what are the best equipment to be used for this kind of situation. We are to design a server room that will accommodate 3 departments. We will follow the standard of structured cabling.

Department 1 (Regular) has 30 employees and 2 managers.

Department 2 (Creative) has 40 employees and 2 managers.

Department 3 (Admin) has 18 employees and 3 managers.

Each employee is assigned with 2 ethernet ports and each manager have 5 ports.

We should implement a 3-layer hierarchy and that the equipment chosen should include a detailed explanation of why they were chosen.

 

5 Replies 5

Joseph W. Doherty
Hall of Fame
Hall of Fame

Student project?

If so, what has been your approach so far?

Seuss
Level 1
Level 1

Yes but since I'm only on basic networking, I never expected on actually deciding what equipment to use or taking on a project that requires me to create a floor plan and a network layout with a CCTV system and a full implementation of a wifi 6 network. The only experience I had was on Cisco 2800 routers and Cisco 3650 switches and connecting 2-4 terminals.

As for the approach, I'm still stuck designing the floor plan. I tried using the cisco switch selector where I ended up choosing a C9500-16X SKU as a core layer for the 3 layer hierarchy yet I honestly don't know how to  rationalize why that would be best to chose.

Help me understand what are the proper equipment to use. Thank you 

 

The project you describe seems a lot for just "basic networking", at least to do it well.

In general, you select the devices for their features and performance capabilities.  For instance, a core device is generally a bit more "powerful" then distribution or access devices, devices supporting servers are also generally a bit more powerful than those supporting users.

You mention WiFi, well those might want PoE ports, but then the question is, what are PoE wattage needs.  You also mention WiFi 6, for those you may want mGig ports.

You mention a requirement for designing a 3 layer hierarchy, but for a network as small as your seems to be, a single chassis device, or stackable switch, might be suitable, especially with current gen devices for this size network, likely no more than a "collapsed core" network would be needed.

Knowing ALL your port needs is necessary.  You mention user port needs (60 + 10 + 80 + 10 + 36 + 15 = 211? [possibly handled by 5 x 48 port line cards or switches]), but port counts for (later posted): WiFi WAP ports, CCTV ports, server ports, or other needed ports?  Physical placement is important, due to 100m copper Ethernet distance limitation.)

Basically, you need much, much more information about what's expected for your network to support to begin to select actual devices (and in the real world, something like the budget, often has much say in what you might select).

What about fault tolerance?

No doubt this project is basically to learn concepts, but then conceptionally, all you would really need is any L3 switch for core or distribution or access (the latter might also use just L2 switches).

I.e. I cannot see how you can justify any specific switch model without much more detail for the requirements.  Without such requirement details, one L3 x number of ports switch/line-card is the same as any other.

Unfortunately, likely the above isn't very helpful, but whoever set the project requirements should also set the corresponding expectations what's expected.

To me, even "We are to design a server room that will accommodate 3 departments." is unclear.  Generally, server rooms aren't designed for departments, although depending on interior funding accounting, a department might "own" its server(s) and/or a cabinet rack(s).  Again, much more details are needed.

BTW, in the real world, you try to take into account possible future changes.  I've seen user floor plans changed to accommodate more users.  Running physical cabling is very (labor) expensive.  Knowing that, you might run more cables out to the floor or server room, then initially needed, so they might be easily connected to in the future.

If all the above makes designing a network, "complex", that's because it is.  Lots to take into account to do it well.  Again, I wouldn't expect a student project to fully address all of this, but again, that's why it needs to be clear what exactly the project is, what's the information being provided, and what's the expected deliverable.

Thank you for your previous answer. That was very helpful.

The ports are for pc units and the attached image should show the overall calculation for ports of all employees and managers. We also haven't consider the PoE ports for the CCTV camera (we'll probably use a network video recorder but we need more time to understand this concept too) and the mesh system for the WIFI as we are still waiting for the floor plan for an accurate no. of cameras and access points.

As for the layer 3 hierarchy, it is a requirement. May I ask if you could give examples of Cisco equipment that can be used as core, distribution and access. 

Another question that I have is how do we know if we are going overkill on the equipment we might have chosen for the task. For example, we have an estimated minimum of 946 connections (not my calculations), excluding the IoT devices, and we are deciding to go for Cisco 8101-32H for our main router. 

 

"May I ask if you could give examples of Cisco equipment that can be used as core, distribution and access."

Any equipment that provides the necessary ports.

"As for the layer 3 hierarchy, it is a requirement."

You mean a 3 layer topology, correct?  (Layer 3 often used when discussing the OSI model.)

For your now listed 216 user ports, a core/distribution/access topology is a bit silly, but you certainly can design such a topology.  If you use 8 port switches (with an additional uplink port), needing 27 such switches, you can then have another 8 port (also with additional uplink port), you would only need 4 more such switches, and just a single 4 (or another 8 port) core switch.  Of course, you'll will need more 8 port edge switches for non user device ports, which may impact the number of distribution 8 port switches and which may impact number of ports needed on the core switch.

We haven't defined requirements for you logical L3 topology, but minimally I would expect several VLANs.  Perhaps so few, you only need to route on the core device.

Choice of actual devices, again, would depend on feature and performance needs.  As those are yet undefined, you could even design using Cisco's SMB L2 and L3 switches.

Understand, core, distribution and access are roles.  You might use the same device for all of them, or different devices for the different roles, and/or even different devices for the same role.  Again, much depends on expected performance needs and features.