Switch LAG and expanding network questions

[azazel1024]

I don't really have the spare time to test right now, but does anyone know if both switches need LAG to be able to do multiple port uplinks between switches? I assume the answer is yes, but I am curious if anyone knows/has tried.

I have a 16 port semi-L2 with LAG/LACP and an 8 port dumb switch that I need to use to expand my network. I'd love to run a 2 port uplink, but obviously if both need LAG/LACP to get it to work, no dice for now.

Also along those lines, suggestions on expanding my network? I need a minimum of 20 ports and probably more like 22 ports by the time my future home reno is done (over the next several years). I currently have 14 in use and need 4 more in the next few months. I'll be using the 8 port dumb switch for now.

My thoughts were either another 16 port semi-L2 (TP-Link SG2216) to go with my current one and probably a 2 port uplink between the two (giving 28 ports effectively free), or else going with the bigger brother, the SG2424, which would give me 24 ports total (none used with an uplink). I think that should handle my overall capacity, but it is fewer overall ports.

The SG2216 is normally around $130-140 though and sometimes cheaper (I got mine for $100 about 9 months ago on sale), the SG2424 is normally around $160-170, not sure if it is sometimes on sale or not. So going with another 16 port would be cheaper and give me more total ports, but it would come at the price of another point of failure and I assume somewhat increase power consumption over consolidating to one switch.

I also probably could sell the 2216 to recoupe a few bucks.

Thoughts?

 

[Zargon]

you need both to support it, the dumb switch wont know WTF is going on and probably create a loop



you could ebay a used dell 2748

48 ports of gig, 144gb backplane.......


Im not a huge dell networking fan, but they should work as well as some TPlinks, if not better

 

[RadiclDreamer]

you need both to support it, the dumb switch wont know WTF is going on and probably create a loop



you could ebay a used dell 2748

48 ports of gig, 144gb backplane.......


Im not a huge dell networking fan, but they should work as well as some TPlinks, if not better

Have they finally fixed their spanning tree and management issues?

 

[drebo]

Technically, you could rely on spanning tree to loadbalance between the ports, but both switches would need to understand spanning tree and be configured properly (either multiple spanning tree or per-vlan spanning tree would work, loadbalancing a different path per instance of spanning tree) but that would require multiple VLANs to work.

So, if only one VLAN is involved, yes you will need LACP in order to provide any sort of link aggregation.

 

[Mir96TA]

Is 3550 (cisco) is possibility ?
possibly get couple a Gig port upgrade for link aggregation.

 

[azazel1024]

After a bunch of talking it out with a couple of coworkers, I think I am going to go for a second SG2216 and live with a pair of ports aggregated as a backbone between them. It gives me the most flexibility, the highest number of total ports in case I really do need to go beyond the 20-22 ports I think I'll need and cheaper than getting the SG2424 and leaving the SG2216 as a "reserve", though maybe not cheaper than selling the SG2216 and getting the SG2424. The only two drawbacks are probably slightly higher power consumption (I think the SG2216 is around 4-5w with no ports active, so I assume that'll be the power penalty) and lower max throughput between the switches instead of having the entire switching fabric available I'll only have 2GbE link between switches, which is not likely to matter.

I'll just consolidate all of my core computing equipment on the main switch and leave the other switch carrying all of the peripheral connections and unused/rarely used LAN drops.

I may also look at an SG1016DE whenever those come out, as the SG1024DE is around $20 cheaper than the SG2424 and seems to only be missing the SFP+ ports, I'd assume that the SG1016DE will be ~$20 cheaper than the SG2216, and might also be a little lower power as it is newer/missing the SFP+ ports.