Help with hardware choices for SMB network

[markregl2000]

Hi All,

I'm having a tough time trying to determine the adequate hardware to purchase for a new installation which will accomidate 50 users but will need the ability to scale to 100+, possibly even other sites.

The network will service voice and data VLANs and must have built in redundancy to address single point of failure for both voice and data networks.

The building has currently has 192 connections + servers(allow for 15 connections).   Not all connections 192+15 will be used currently.

As for actual switchport usage , our current requirements are...

47 PoE(VoIP phones which will also connect user PC's)

10 PoE(for phones only)

23 Data only conections

3 POE+ for wireless access points(hoping to host multiple VLANs per AP)

15 Data connections for servers

As for general network load, it is pretty light at the moment.  Most users are simply accessing file servers, one group of users occassionally does a data dump of around 10-15GB to the servers.  

We are coming from a flat/unmanaged switch network with legacy phone system so adding VoIP will add the need for QoS policies.

I am struggling with switch hardware/software selection, particularly in adding redundancy at the distribution layer.  I am looking to find the right balance between our current needs, future expandibility and keeping costs down(as much as possible).     I have some thoughts on devices but I would like to hear what the community might suggest.

As for VLANs, I anticipate at least 4 (VoIP, data, Guest, WiFi) and possibly more if we want to separate departments, servers.

Again, I would like to keep costs reasonable if possible, but would prefer not to go with Cisco SMB line. 

Thanks in advance!

-Mark

[devils_advocate]

Out of interest, what puts you off the Cisco SMB line?

If budget is your driving factor then perhaps Cisco Catalyst is not the way to go?

If you want Catalyst but still want to keep costs down then perhaps the 2960x range. Its likely the cheapest and can be stacked to provide a level of redundancy. Although it depends what level of redundancy you want, end users can still only patch into a single switch so redundancy will only come into play going upwards towards the router.

Are you just planning on having 1 internet connection or multiple?

Do you need to connect more than 1 site or does this need to be factored in for the future?

Are all the 'connections' going to be in the one comms room or are there likely to be multiple?

Where are you thinking Qos will be needed? Between the phones locally?

Will you have an on prem call manager?

If I am honest, 200 users is a small network and would be overkill for a full blown Core/Dist/Access configuration. You could look at a single stacked solution whereby the stack is the Access and Dist/Core layer in terms of interVlan routing or you could look at some Layer 2 switches for your end users and then perhaps some Layer 3 switches for your Dist layer whereby your servers also patch into.

[markregl2000]

I'm a bit put off with the SMB line with previous experience with Linksys by Cisco switches.  I'm attracted to interopability between product lines of the catalyst switches, superior support, and more advance security features, enterprise grade reliability.

I replaced an SG200 PoE just a few months ago and it had only been in service 8 months.  I did get a replacement next day however.   Management is willing to spend more to get high quality  equipment, I just want to make sure I'm not blowing my brains out unnecessarily.

I want to make sure I provide the best option for what they have requested, if they say NO thats fine with me too, and I can draw up a different design.

Regarding redundancy.. my concern is if the trunk interface of the router on a stick fails, a major chunk of the network goes down(in voice and data); I am also a bit concerned about available bandwidth if only one GE port is doing IVR for 4+ VLANs.  

If a single L3 switch is doing the all IVR routing and it goes down, same scenario.  

I'm trying to avoid a situation where the we have a major outage affecting phones as the result of a single hardware failure of the device running the inter-vlan routing. 

To answer your other questions...

There will be a primary and backup internet connections

At the moment just no external sites need to be conneted, but possibly in the future.

All connections terminate in comms room. 

QoS is only for priortizing voice traffic at the moment.

IP phone system will be onsite, not a Cisco phone system but using Cisco phones.

In terms of your Access and Dist/Core stack, what would this look like in terms of acutal products?

I was thinking of is 2x L2 2950(48 port) series switches(clients) and 2x L3 3750(24 port) switches 3750?(servers and intervlan routing).  This would allow for an entire switch to fail and be able to move 48 connections to other available switchports in a pinch. It would allow for future expansion and we could add L2 swtiches as neccessary for future growth.

Another option could be 1x L2 2950(48 port) series and 2x L3 3750(48 port).  Not sure if this would lower cost or not..

Let me know what you think.

Cheers