Advice Needed on VLANs for second switch

[Paul Robinson]

Firstly just to let you know I'm not a network support technican but have some basic knowledge. I need some advice and some possible direction.
So thought this would be the best place to come.

So I currently have an SG300-20 which is used to wire my house for ethernet, this is configured in layer 3 mode with the following VLANs.

VLAN 12 - Workstations Interface 10.0.12.1 Internet Access via Static Route to Draytek

VLAN 13 - Management Interface 10.0.13.1

VLAN 14 - Public Access Interface 10.0.14.1 Internet Access via Static Route to Draytek

VLAN 15 - Private Access Interface 10.0.15.1

VLAN 20 - NAS Storage Interface 10.0.20.1

I have a home lab running ESXi on a server connected to the switch as well as a QNAP TVS1282 NAS

The ESXi server uses two interfaces, one for user trafic (VLAN 12 - 15) and one for storage traffic only (VLAN 20)

The QNAP server has 4 interfaces setup as (LAG 1 VLAN12) and (LAG 2 VLAN 20) with two interfaces for each.

I have just moved my Server and NAS equipment to a small outdoor office and purchased an SG300-10 switch which will be used to connect the devices to the SG300 via two trunk ports setup in a LAG.

My question is around the VLAN setup on the new switch and what the best approach would be.

I assume if i want to keep the majority of lab traffic on SG300-10 then it should be configured as a layer 3?

With me moving the ESXi server and NAS equipment off the SG300-20 i'll only be left with computers and tv's running on VLAN 12 so was thinking of removing the VLAN interfaces for 13 - 20 and recreating on the new switch so that it does the routing on the SG300-10 does that sound right?

I assume I would still need to have the VLAN's configured in the SG300-20 for traffic I want to pass through the internet (VLAN 12 and VLAN 14) as well as allowing workstatations to talk to the NAS.

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Richard Burts]

I suggest that you think a bit more about what you are setting up and about how it will work. You suggest that you want to keep most of the traffic on the SG300-10. Given what I think I understand I do not see how that is the case. You mention that the server has an interface for user traffic and an interface for storage. I can sort of see how you could keep the storage traffic local, but how would you keep user traffic local since the users are connected on the other switch?

You know your physical environment and putting the server and the nas in a different physical location may make good sense. But from a networking perspective it seems to me that it would be better to use trunking to extend the vlans between both switches and not to try to use routing to separate them.

HTH

Rick

[Paul Robinson]

Rick,

So would you just configure the second switch as a Layer 2 in that case.

I think my main aim was to keep the traffic between the server and nas local on VLAN 20 on the SG300-10 to maximize performance.

Can I configure LAG's with the switch in Layer 2 mode?

Thanks

Paul

[Richard Burts]

Paul

To the extent that your server and your nas are both connected on vlan 20 in the second switch then traffic between them would be forwarded locally between ports on the second switch and there would be no need for any of that traffic to go to or through the first switch. So I would assume that the optimum approach would be for the second switch to be a layer 2 switch. 

I do not have enough experience with these models of switch to be able to address your question about LAG in layer 2 mode. I would assume that it should work. But that is clearly opinion based on how most switches operate and is not at all authoritative about these models of switch. Perhaps someone else in the community can address this?

HTH

Rick