Storage and LAN Switches

[Darrell Beaujon]

Good day to All,

I would like to start by saying that although I'm not very savvy with Cisco products, I usually am able to defend myself and get things to work. However this time I am totally in the dark regarding the issue that I'm confronting.

I have been called in to program a couple of switches that are to be used in a video surveillance network. Because the premises where this is being deployed is a little bit bigger than your average retail store, multi-mode fiber has been deployed to connect all remote locations. All locations are within 500 meters of the server room. There are in total about 14 remote locations.

All remote locations have a wall cabinet with a Cisco SG500-28P installed to power all PoE cameras. The fiber uses a SFP 1GB to connect back to the server room.

In the server room, a Storage Switch (Cisco MDS9148S) was acquired to connect all 14 remote locations. The same MDS also has a fiber to connect to a SG500-28P in the server room itself where all the NVRs (recorders) are located.

I was called in to make all this work together. My issue lies with the MDS9148S. I'n not sure that this switch can work as an LAN Switch as all I'm seeing in the manual are VSAN and fibre channel connections (No IP references). The MDS9148S was purchased after being recommended by a Cisco expert. In my opinion a Cisco SG350XG-24F would have been a better alternative.

My questions is: Can the MDS9148S be used in the configuration mentioned above. Can it function as a LAN Switch to house all of the fiber connections to the remote locations. If so, how should this be configured?

Best Regards,

Desperate

[Reza Sharifi · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Looking at the data sheet for MDS9148S, this is fiber channel switch and not IP switch..

This device will not work as IP aggregation switch. So, the program or the Cisco person who recommend this need to replace it.

http://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/storage-networking/mds-9148s-16g-multilayer-fabric-switch/index.html

HTH

[Darrell Beaujon]

Hi Reza,

Thanks for your reply. What the Cisco person has said is that the MDS9148S will automatically forward everything that it receives on the interfaces. Something which I could not get working. He also states that the MDS9148S, must be put in layer 3 mode. I have not been able to find anything on how to accomplish that.

The configuration options that the MDS9148S has, is setting VSANs and Zones. So I do agree with you on the fact that this switch will not work as IP aggregation. Do you know of anything official stating this fact. I need to present this information to the decision makers.

Thanks,