What switch for link aggregation?

[tommy-b-10]

As the title suggests, which of these switches will do link aggregation? I want to have my server and desktop PC connected with dual gigabit.

5 ports is all I need, with 2 ports going to desktop, 2 to server then one to the router

Cheer!

[rtpb5642]

99% of managed switches support it. 

I reccomend the Cisco SG 200-26, its sweet.

[skywake]

My understanding was that the scenario as you've described isn't how Link Aggregation works. The whole point of it is to give "extra lanes" so that when multiple sources are talking they don't saturate a link. It's not about (and I suspect won't even deliver) better performance point-to-point. So unless you regularly have full gigabit saturation between your router and either your PC or your server and want to also maintain full speed between PC and server you're wasting your time.....

 

Typical scenarios for Link Aggregation are more along the lines of switch-to-switch connections or one server that gets hammered by a whole bunch of users. The end user's machine generally doesn't have much use for it. Particularly if there's only three sources of traffic on the network. Obligatory Linus video explanation:

 

[tommy-b-10]

My understanding was that the scenario as you've described isn't how Link Aggregation works. The whole point of it is to give "extra lanes" so that when multiple sources are talking they don't saturate a link. It's not about (and I suspect won't even deliver) better performance point-to-point. So unless you regularly have full gigabit saturation between your router and either your PC or your server and want to also maintain full speed between PC and server you're wasting your time.....

Typical scenarios for Link Aggregation are more along the lines of switch-to-switch connections or one server that gets hammered by a whole bunch of users. The end user's machine generally doesn't have much use for it. Particularly if there's only three sources of traffic on the network. Obligatory Linus video explanation

Thanks for the reply!

One of the main reasons I will be setting this up is because I am constantly transferring multiple large files between server and pc, so wouldn't that allow 2x speed for multiple files?

I understand that for one file it wouldn't help, however I am open to any other solutions that would speed this up

[skywake]

One of the main reasons I will be setting this up is because I am constantly transferring multiple large files between server and pc, so wouldn't that allow 2x speed for multiple files?

I'm fairly confident that that's not how it works. I'm more than happy for someone to tell me that I'm wrong if I am but I am fairly confident I'm not and a quick search has only confirmed my suspicions. Unless there's some clever driver stuffs or something else I don't know of I don't think you'll get anything out of this.

[tommy-b-10]

I'm fairly confident that that's not how it works. I'm more than happy for someone to tell me that I'm wrong if I am but I am fairly confident I'm not and a quick search has only confirmed my suspicions. Unless there's some clever driver stuffs or something else I don't know of I don't think you'll get anything out of this.

 

Cheers, I will do some more research then!

 

How do you recommend that I go about this then? would the next step be 10gb nics?

[skywake]

How do you recommend that I go about this then? would the next step be 10gb nics?

If you need/want more than 1Gbps between two machines? Then sure. That'd be something I'd be looking at. You can even do it with just 1x 10Gbps NIC in your server and your PC, you don't need a switch as long as your server remains on. Although be aware that in order to take advantage of it you'll need a fairly decent storage array on your server. It's also a fair expense.

 

Just do a lot more reading, benchmarking and tinkering before you make a decision.

[Scheer]

I use the TPLink TL-SG1016DE at my server, and a TL-SG108E in my shop with a trunk between them and have been happy with it so far. It is pretty unnecessary though, I just did it for the hell of it since I'm fine with my backups taking 5 minutes longer in the middle of the night.