networking setup help

[intertan]

I have been wondering what my best plan is for this

I will have everything on a server rack. Networking patch panel, servers ect.

I am looking at unifi as I have some AP and cameras in place when I get around to it

 

My question is this

prime example is I have a few machines that constantly transfer data back and forth between these machines 3-4 of them. They still need internet connection but very minimal for the most part.

Am I better off sticking them on the general switch or its own dedicated switch?

[Oshino Shinobu]

Kind of depends on how much bandwidth you have available and how much bandwidth the machine are using. 

 

Most decent switches are capable of running all ports at full speed at full duplex all at the same time. If everything is connected directly to one switch, that's fine, the PCs transferring data aren't going to impact the network's bandwidth as the switch can handle it (assume it's a decent switch). 

 

If, however, the PCs transferring data share bandwidth with other devices, it will end up eating into the bandwidth of that link. So if you have PC 1 and 2 on a switch with other devices, then that switch is linked to the central switch, where PC 3 and 4 are, the link between the two switches may potentially slow down if it doesn't have enough bandwidth to accommodate all of the data at once. 

 

The best solution to that situation would be to use switches with faster uplinks. So if your network is gigabit, use switches with 10Gbit uplinks so that the connections between the switches is 10Gbit, allowing it to handle multiple 1Gbit sessions between the switches.

 

Next best would be to use a link aggregation protocol to trunk between the switches, allowing for more bandwidth between them, but it would require multiple cables between the switches and more set-up than 10Gbit uplinks. 

 

Third solution would be what you suggested and basically put them on their own little segment of the network, then link that into the main network to keep their traffic from impacting the rest of the network. It would likely be the cheapest solution, but it's not great in terms of upgrading the network in the future. 

 

Basically, if everything is connected to a single switch, it's not an issue. The issue comes if multiple devices are sharing a link that is equal to, or lower than what they can output (ie. 2 gigabit devices on a gigabit link would reduce them to 500Mb/s if you split them equally. But if you had two gigabit devices on a 10Gbit link, they're both still capable of their full speed).

[intertan]

2 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Kind of depends on how much bandwidth you have available and how much bandwidth the machine are using. 

 

Most decent switches are capable of running all ports at full speed at full duplex all at the same time. If everything is connected directly to one switch, that's fine, the PCs transferring data aren't going to impact the network's bandwidth as the switch can handle it (assume it's a decent switch). 

 

If, however, the PCs transferring data share bandwidth with other devices, it will end up eating into the bandwidth of that link. So if you have PC 1 and 2 on a switch with other devices, then that switch is linked to the central switch, where PC 3 and 4 are, the link between the two switches may potentially slow down if it doesn't have enough bandwidth to accommodate all of the data at once. 

 

The best solution to that situation would be to use switches with faster uplinks. So if your network is gigabit, use switches with 10Gbit uplinks so that the connections between the switches is 10Gbit, allowing it to handle multiple 1Gbit sessions between the switches.

 

Next best would be to use a link aggregation protocol to trunk between the switches, allowing for more bandwidth between them, but it would require multiple cables between the switches and more set-up than 10Gbit uplinks. 

 

Third solution would be what you suggested and basically put them on their own little segment of the network, then link that into the main network to keep their traffic from impacting the rest of the network. It would likely be the cheapest solution, but it's not great in terms of upgrading the network in the future. 

 

Basically, if everything is connected to a single switch, it's not an issue. The issue comes if multiple devices are sharing a link that is equal to, or lower than what they can output (ie. 2 gigabit devices on a gigabit link would reduce them to 500Mb/s if you split them equally. But if you had two gigabit devices on a 10Gbit link, they're both still capable of their full speed).

I was looking at unifi gear

1 16port 10gb switch

and one 48 port 1gbps switch

 

This is still in the design/thought process and I still need to run the wires and install the equipment.