Server Farm design

[Sergiy Pyvovaroff]

Hello! I need a help with design LAN network for a company with limited budget.
Ther is 2 buildings connected via SM fiber and link in building MM fiber.
I decided use 4900M 16x10G+20x1GT in core, guess why: 4900M have enough ports, and it is acceptable for the budget (growing budget =change vendor or cancel project). 450(6/7) +Sup6L-E on access.

I can not select switch for server-farm.
There is a lot of old servers with no virtualization option. Use Nexus 5K in south situation is to expensive. Some server is mission critical they should not stop any way.  Server upgrade is not in project.
So I should select Stack of  3750X and connect servers to 2x3750. Or use 4948E + Adaptive load balancing.

In a case with 3750X, this switches is not deigned to server farm, but user access. Documents http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns340/ns414/ns742/ns982/sba_dc_dg.pdf say I can use 3750X for servers connction. If server connect to switch via team(LACP) and uplink connect to 4900M core via Ether cannel, will packet leave switch via 10G on same switch or packet can go to uplink on other switch via stack cable, and latency grow?

In a case or  4948E, switches have low latency but no stack option, so to avoid connection lost for mission critical server, in a case of switch failure, I should use ALB NIC teaming.

Who have real experiments with ALB? I have rad some posts about ALB ARP trouble, broken connection and so on.

My be 4948+SFT?

Pleas help me select better solution.

[Collin Clark]

Since you have 4500's in your access I have to assume you can get one more for your server farm? If not I would swap some switches so you can. With the 4500 you can etherchannel servers to it (different blades for redundancy). With the 4500's you can have a ton of redundancy and upgrade the code with ISSU/NSF so your servers should never go off-line. You won't have any worries about spanning tree either. If I'm missing a constraint, just let me know.

[Sergiy Pyvovaroff]

Thanks for the reply Collin!

I want to use 450(6/7) with the cheapest sup Sup6L-E. One chassis in Building1 is 4507 Dual Sup6L-E, all other chassis is 4506 single Sup6L-E. In this case, I can use Building1  4507 Dual Sup6L-E for server connction, but: Sup6L-E have only 24Gb peer slot, may by stack of 3750X is better?

In Building2 server room i have no place/units for 4507, only 2 units for 4900M(Core2) and 2x2 units for stack of 3750X or 4949E (all in defrent racks).

Pleas help me select better solution.