Need help on Lab setup

[Mikey John]

Hi All,

I have a lab setup with 5 VLANs defined in my layer 2 switches (PC6248 and PC8024f) as per the diagram attached. These are actually Dell powerconnects, but would be replaced with Cisco gear very soon.

These Layer 2 switches are connected in a daisy chain fashion to the upstream 2960 switch, which in turn is connected to my DMZ lab switch (which is again a layer 2 2960 switch). Above the DMZ switch is the Router which provides connectivity to my corporate network. There are multiple LABs connected to the DMZ lab switch, and subinterfaces are configured on the Router for inter VLan routing for those Labs.

I need to achieve the same INtervlan routing for my 5 VLANs, and at the same time intend to have my lab subnets routable to the corporate network. There are several servers like ESX, VMWare, iSCSI etc attached to the Dell powerconnect, and they need to communicate between each other.

For Intervlan Routing, can I do any of the following below.

1) As stated earlier, configure Sub-interfaces on the Router for each of the VLANs. But for each Inter Vlan communication, the traffic will go right upto the router and to the other VLAN. Will that not be a bottleneck considering I only have 2960 as upstream switches? The traffic coming out of the servers is going to be considerable amount.

2) Configure Dell powerconnects as Layer 3, and enable routing. All Intervlan communication would be between these swithces directly, and any traffic to corporate network would be routed outside through a default route from the switches. Is it a viable option to have Layer3 Dell switches--->Layer 2 2960--->Layer2dmzlabswitch--3640 router. Any problems overseen with this design?

Appreciate your help.

Cheers

Mikey

[Mikey John]

Can anyone please reply to this post.

Thanks in advance

Mikey

[fgasimzade]

If it is going to be a real huge amount of traffic going on between the servers, you should configure second option, to protect your corporate lan. However, I am not sure that Dell switches will be handling traffic better, than specialized cisco router.

I prefer having my layer 3 connectivity on a single device, if its hardware permits so.

[Mikey John]

Thanks for your reply. We do not have many options now, and would have to go with the same gear for the time being.

So, you mean layer 3 switches giving uplinks to Layer 2--> router is ok in this scenario since we have hardware limitations?

Thanks

Mikey

[fgasimzade]

Personally speaking, I dont think that Dell switches will be handling huge L3 traffic better than Cisco router. I would rather set inter-vlan routing on the router allowing Dell switches to be L2

However, If you dont want to risk with your corporate LAN, first try with Dell Layer3, and if its ok, I mean if the traffic doesnt hang the switches, go ahead with cisco router.