[TriLUG] OT - gigabit switches

Jason Tower jason at cerient.net
Wed Sep 20 14:29:56 EDT 2006


you do not need a layer 3 switch.  however, you *do* need a switch that 
handles jumbo frames (mtu of 9000, instead of the usual 1500) if you want 
max performance.  the switching fabric capacity of the switch matters in 
high load circumstances, but for what you're doing most anything should work.

i have a netgear gig switch that supposedly does jumbo frames if you want to 
try it out.

jason

Christopher L Merrill wrote:
> We would like to upgrade our testlab to a gigabit switch.  I'm not an
> expert in this area (I spend most of my time at level 7). Maybe some of
> you network gurus can set me straight.
> 
> In our lab we'll have 10-25 machines (some with dual NICs) mostly fast
> ethernet but we're moving machines to GigE. We currently have a Dell 2324
> with 2 GigE ports.  Performance between the machines connected directly
> to the switch is the only real goal.  Management functions are not
> important, beyond the desire for simple plug-n-play management that we
> have today (in other words...no management - just plug them in).  Note
> that we do load-testing in the lab, so for a network with only a handful
> of machines, they run a LOT of traffic between them - frequently to the
> CPU/NIC limit of each machine.
> 
> I've read a little on layer-2 and layer-3 switches and think I grasp the
> differences, but it is not clear to me if there would be any performance
> benefit for US with a layer-3 switch.  Budget is obviously a concern so
> a $2000 switch will take some selling.  Under what kind of situations would
> we see a difference in the total throughput rates on, for example, a Dell
> 2724 (layer 2, <$300), a Dell 5324 (layer 2/3, $750) and a 6024 (layer 3,
> $2000)???  What about an older Dell 5224 (layer2/3, ebay $300)?  What does
> "layer 2/3" mean?
> 
> Any recommendations or pointers for some good reading would be much
> appreciated.
> 
> p.s. We have lots of Linux boxes in the lab  :>
> 
> TIA,
> C
> 
> 
> 



More information about the TriLUG mailing list