Network Design Assistance

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getafix33

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Hi

I have been tasked to sort out a network mess in a cash n carry warehouse. I have attached a simple diagram of the current layout. There is a mixture of switches installed with the only half decent one been the D-Link 1219 in the Supermarket.

My thoughts are as follows:

Replace Switch 1
Remove Switch 2 and 3 and hardwire desktops to Switch 1
Replace Switch 5 and 6

Replacement switches need to have an uplink port and hardwire back to Switch 1 (Cat6 or Fibre)
Switch 4 has 4x Fibre ports but I assume is hardwired back to Switch1 with cable as the fibre ports are not been used.

The issue here is distance. The current runs are quite long as there is no ceiling and cables are run along the steel structure.
There are not many desktops, around 25 in total and around 30 till points.

There are 3 independent servers running their POS and backoffice system. The server in the main server room is a Dell PowerEdge R230 and is running Server 2012R2 Essentials. I have noted that server is set up for nic teaming with only one nic actually connected and is running at 100mb/s. The cable running to the nic is a cat5e joined to a Cat6 with a joiner and then wired to Switch1 (really professional)

The TakeAway and Bottle Store are Windows 10 Pro desktops.

All Servers and Desktops are on the same network configured as a WORKGROUP.

They are complaining of network speed and at times accessing the back office system is dog slow. I suspect bottlenecks.

Any suggestions as to replacement switches and would you do it differently?

TIA

CurrentLayout.jpg

EDIT: There is no server attached to switch 6
 
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Other than the server sitting at 100mbps serving the rest of the network,and no clear indication of dhcp/dns duties it looks pretty okay for a "small" setup. Spaghetti notwithstanding

Likely that server link that's oversubscribed
 
Switch 1 is a single point of failure. That breaks everything else does as well.
 
Make sure switch 1 are 1Gb capable, could swap with switch 6 perhaps? Or buy a new one, or two that are stackable and split uplinks from other switches over the two for failover... but suspect thats above the budget
Switch 1 is your "Core" switch, all uplinks should terminate onto it, and preferably all servers as well, minimum 1Gb for servers to core. No need for a distribution stack here
Fix nic teaming on server
All clients other on 100Mb ports

If there is budget buy new
If you want clients on 1Gb ports uplinks should ideally be 10Gb but I do not see how any client on this network could possibly use close to even 10Mb... unless bigass files are being copied back and forth, sharing porn on the network perhaps? :):)
 
Thanks for the info.

DHCP is currently handled by the D-Link modem. No firewall except on the modem and windows firewall on each desktop and server.

So I would need a core switch with at least 3 uplink ports and stackable for redundancy.

Any brand recommendations?
 
Are any of the switches managed?

SW1 isn't so if any of the other switches are managed/gigabit then I'd swap it for SW1 and get some monitoring on it. (mrtg/rrdtool)
This will let you know if there is any congestion.

Def change the server to 1GB and then monitor NIC throughput. If its starting to max out then team another port.

For stackable switches, what's your budget?
 
gregmcc said:
Are any of the switches managed?

SW1 isn't so if any of the other switches are managed/gigabit then I'd swap it for SW1 and get some monitoring on it. (mrtg/rrdtool)
This will let you know if there is any congestion.

Def change the server to 1GB and then monitor NIC throughput. If its starting to max out then team another port.

For stackable switches, what's your budget?
Click to expand...

The only managed switch is the D-Link 1219. Its a Layer 2 switch.

Budget is tricky, for the number of users I would assume that an enterprise switch is not necessary. I need to put a proposal to the owner. They have loads of cash, but turn over each cent.

The 3 servers run their own back office software and so connectivity is only needed when managment need to run reports, day ends etc.
Basically each server runs its own network (although all on the same IP range and subnet), ie, besides internet connectivity they dont need to access to the server room.
 
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Network is small enough so I wouldn't go enterprise especially if they are counting every cent.

If each server is in their own 'network' then I doubt SW1 is really an issue. First thing is sort out the 100MB NIC speed.

What network speeds are they complaining about? From where to where?

Also what future growth is there going to be? What is the distance between the switches? Different buildings?

Anything more that 100m and you are going to have issues with tons of network errors. If distances are large you will need to replace these links with fibre.
 
gregmcc said:
Network is small enough so I wouldn't go enterprise especially if they are counting every cent.

If each server is in their own 'network' then I doubt SW1 is really an issue. First thing is sort out the 100MB NIC speed.

What network speeds are they complaining about? From where to where?

Also what future growth is there going to be? What is the distance between the switches? Different buildings?

Anything more that 100m and you are going to have issues with tons of network errors. If distances are large you will need to replace these links with fibre.
Click to expand...

Hi Greg

Difficult to say distance as cables are run up, across and down building infrastructure but I guess the warehouse is around 30mx30m

Managament is complaining about erratic speeds to the backoffice to the server in the Server Room (Dell PowerEdge). The problem is the this server is on SLA so I cannot touch it, but as mentioned above I have established that they are running nic teaming with only 1 port actually working.

These are the switches that I have researched and are possible solutions.

Switch 1 replaced with an HP 1820 48G PoE - Future intstallation of PoE wifi access points for WiFi connectivity to cover warehouse
Switch 6 replaced with HP 1820 24G with fibre link to core switch
Switch 5 replaced with HP 1920 16G with fibre link to core switch
Switch 4 has fibre ports which are not been used.
 
getafix33 said:
Thanks for the info.

DHCP is currently handled by the D-Link modem. No firewall except on the modem and windows firewall on each desktop and server.

So I would need a core switch with at least 3 uplink ports and stackable for redundancy.

Any brand recommendations?
Click to expand...

Core switch does not need any uplink ports, any port can be an "uplink" port
 
getafix33 said:
...
There are 3 independent servers running their POS and backoffice system. The server in the main server room is a Dell PowerEdge R230 and is running Server 2012R2 Essentials. I have noted that server is set up for nic teaming with only one nic actually connected and is running at 100mb/s. The cable running to the nic is a cat5e joined to a Cat6 with a joiner and then wired to Switch1 (really professional)
...
Click to expand...

Why not start here...? Are you talking about these joiners?
ADA-NET-JOINT.jpg

I hope you were sarcastic when you said: "really professional"?
 
Scrap most of it and start again. You're on the right path with a lot of your suggestions.

Have a look at a Ubiquiti Security Gateway/edge router and some of their managed switches so you can do LACP/VLANS/fibre backbones. The ubnt stuff is also stupidly simple to configure and there is good support.
 
I would resist making any purchasing decision without making full assessment of the network bottlenecks. If cable length is suspected to being a problem, then check stats. Find out what happen. Do you have significant packets errors or maybe a dumb switch is shipped with flow control on, which means the actual signalling speed is not 1Gbps as expected, but drops dynamically after exceeding error threshold? If you don't have Fluke tester, then buy a cheap R700 consumer grade product like TP-Link SG105E/SG108E and insert it between "Switch 1" and back office section or server room. It has even a cable test with impedance mismatch detection and will measure cable length as well. You will be surprised with capabilities, as it has link aggregation, VLANs, 802.1P/DSCP based QoS and a simple bandwidth traffic control. The bigger brother SG1024DE can replace "Switch 1" for perhaps less than R1500. I didn't actually check the price, but the unmanaged version SG1024D cost less than R1200.

However you may have a bigger problem, as network traffic is not separated by VLANs or even by subnets. What happen if you upgrade cabling and switches and your boss is still not happy? Windows 10 PC's will immediately pickup available bandwidth and fill it up. You need to prepare a proposal for network logical structure changes and see whether a new equipment is capable to accommodate these changes. If you don't, you will have to purchase very expensive L3 switches to protect your ass.
 
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I agree with sajunky. You first need to determine where the bottlenecks are.

Too many unknowns at this point, switches, servers, cables, end devices. Any or all of them might be contributing to the problem.

One issue for sure is the backend server that is running at 100MB/s. First fix this, if you still have issues then check everything else for bottlenecks.

Run something like iperf between devices at various locations to see if you get the expected speeds.
 
gregmcc said:
I agree with sajunky. You first need to determine where the bottlenecks are.

Too many unknowns at this point, switches, servers, cables, end devices. Any or all of them might be contributing to the problem.

One issue for sure is the backend server that is running at 100MB/s. First fix this, if you still have issues then check everything else for bottlenecks.

Run something like iperf between devices at various locations to see if you get the expected speeds.
Click to expand...

I agree 100% that the 100mbit issue needs to be sorted out. The issue here is the server is on SLA. It is in a wall mounted cabinet and so I have to remove the server to access the rear. There are two cables going to the rear but I cannot even see if the 2nd is connected.
If I disable nic teaming, the connection will drop while I reconfigure the static IP address and this is a live system. I could teamview into the server but cant take the chance as if something happens I am 1.5 hours away.

I thought about using the main server which is running Server 2012 as a DC and set up group policies to tie down certain users, or install a firewall and limit there internet access. Everyone has full access and can browse, download, stream whatever they want.

They have a manager there who knows enough IT stuff to be dangerous and as a need arises he has added bits and pieces without understanding the impact. There is a mix of Cat5e and Cat6 cables and I know there is a distance limitation on C5e

I am worried that treating the symptom and not the source of the issues will be costly and fruitless.

I would like to propose a network overhall and install medium enterprise hardware. They have also asked for a wifi solution for the entire warehouse which i need to plan for.
 
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Sounds like a complete mess. I bet your internet link is maxed out too and with no restrictions in place who knows what malware is running around there.

I would add in a proxy server with content filtering to your solution as well.

A complete network/security overall is needed.
 
gregmcc said:
Sounds like a complete mess. I bet your internet link is maxed out too and with no restrictions in place who knows what malware is running around there.

I would add in a proxy server with content filtering to your solution as well.

A complete network/security overall is needed.
Click to expand...

Agreed
 
To add on

I am going to suggest a proxy server for control web access etc. I am thinking of a Squid Proxy and use a desktop with 2 nics. Your suggestions?
One requirement is that I need to access it remotely.
 
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