multiple Layer 2 switches having brown outs, unidentified network, dhcp failures, 169 addresses etc

[JoeBleed]

I only handle this on a small level. but either switch model i would imagine would show you the amount of traffic flowing through a port over time. For me, when i patch people/servers in, i try and take into account the traffic usage from the user of that line and the server. I put my servers on the stack along with people that might have a lot of traffic use to the servers. Here you would be using either your stacking cards/cables our up-links. If at all possible, put them on the same switch module. Not great for fail over, but that's something we're ok with. for your internet gateway, it might vary. how much internet traffice do you have? is your internet speed anywhere near 100Mb/s? If not, you could move it to a daisy chained switch if you were very hard up for a couple or more ports. but it puts all of that in/out traffic going over the patched uplink. I would just keep it on the stack with the servers and heavy users. (lot of file editing, printing, remote app, what have you)
Try to think of it simply as traffic flow on the road. Who is a heavy user of network traffic and where is it too and from. When you have restrictive links, placing the heavy users on the same switch with their main targets can help.

For the IP phones, if they don't have built in gigabit switches and have a good reputation, i'd just leave all of that as is with existing switches just plugged into one port on your new stack. Search for your phone model and any problems people may have had. before we went IP phones, i used to read a lot of bad things about the built in switches in IP phones. Part of the reason i didn't want to do it the way we did, but these have been good for a few years. mitel 5330. If you have the spare ports, you could plug each PoE switch for your phones into its own configured port in your new stack if you wanted(with standard cat5/6 cable), but i doubt you'll see any difference as you're only 3 deep in the chain. Unless you're a call center, maybe they would need something laid out better. I'm no expert if you hadn't noticed.

I'm not sure what the cdw rep was talking about with DAC. perhaps that's a name HP is using i haven't ran across. when i'm saying 10 Gb/s with out specifically referencing dedicated stacking cards, i'm referring to just 10 Gb/s eathernet. either rj45 copper or a gbic fiber port. As for the "fake" hardware, maybe. I'm not sure. It could be a thing or it could be a sales rep wanting you to buy from them. Some interesting things get copied and sold.

 

[markm75]

I confirmed our phones only have 10/100 ports.. so there goes 72 ports of consolidation. Now i need at least two 48's worth to dedicate only to phones, which sucks (or 3 24s).

Our internet provider is fios.. around 70 Mbit up/down.. so yeah i guess ill put all heavy hitters in the stack.. how will that link exactly to the other switches.. i'm guessing the 10gb line (2530s) x 3 into 3 10gb ports on the backs of 3 of the hp 2920s? Not trunked in any way (though maybe i'm not using trunking in the right manner here)

 

[JoeBleed]

I'd have to pull up the specs on the switch again, but from the stacked to the non stacked, if the all the switches have 10 Gb/s ports, then you can do it that way. otherwise you'll have to do it over the 1Gb/s ports. Trucks, if i'm remembering right, are set if you need to pass differnt vlan traffic over them and want them to combine multiple ports to split bandwith and/or failover. But you probably wouldn't need to do more than one 10 Gb/s port to each non stacked switch. If they support it. If not, you may want to do that for 2 or 3 1 Gb/s ports from the stack to the non stack. I really depends on the switch models and capabilities.

With money being an issue and your IP phones only being 10/100, you already have them on separate and working switches, why bother replacing them at this time?

 

[markm75]

I'd have to pull up the specs on the switch again, but from the stacked to the non stacked, if the all the switches have 10 Gb/s ports, then you can do it that way. otherwise you'll have to do it over the 1Gb/s ports. Trucks, if i'm remembering right, are set if you need to pass differnt vlan traffic over them and want them to combine multiple ports to split bandwith and/or failover. But you probably wouldn't need to do more than one 10 Gb/s port to each non stacked switch. If they support it. If not, you may want to do that for 2 or 3 1 Gb/s ports from the stack to the non stack. I really depends on the switch models and capabilities.

With money being an issue and your IP phones only being 10/100, you already have them on separate and working switches, why bother replacing them at this time?

They are on older netgear 10/100 POE switches.. my one colleague said he highly recommended getting rid of those switches and going the stacked route completely (even over having the 2530s on the side too).. either way he felt trying to vlan from hp brand to netgear was probably going to get messy, but maybe for now yeah, just keep them and maybe only need 1 extra switch that isnt stacked.

 

[JoeBleed]

Are the old netgear switches managed switches? L2 or L3? Back to the early parts of the thread, i think you should be able to just turn off all of their features and make them simple PoE switches and just plug them into a configured/vlan port on the new stack and have it work that way. But i must admit i've never done it personally. I've setup some old/referb netgear and cisco switches for someone to use for security cameras and as far as i know it worked for him. He never called back for help after he set them up.

How are they setup now? passing vlans onto the netgear or just the one port on the HP?