Network advice needed

[Toad]

Evening folks, haven't posted for a long time but here goes...

We have a small network of about 200 users running bog standard MS applications. The backbone is running at 1Gb and all the switches (about 10) are 1Gb, connected by fibre to the main node cabinet. Any idea as to what the recommended speed 'to the desktop' should be. It has been mentioned that Cisco recommends 1Gb backbone, 100Mb to the servers, and 10Mb to the desktops, but to me this seems a bit too restrictive for the end users. Any suggestions/advice/link to white paper greatly appreciated. TIA

[pmeswani]

Evening folks, haven't posted for a long time but here goes...

We have a small network of about 200 users running bog standard MS applications. The backbone is running at 1Gb and all the switches (about 10) are 1Gb, connected by fibre to the main node cabinet. Any idea as to what the recommended speed 'to the desktop' should be. It has been mentioned that Cisco recommends 1Gb backbone, 100Mb to the servers, and 10Mb to the desktops, but to me this seems a bit too restrictive for the end users. Any suggestions/advice/link to white paper greatly appreciated. TIA

1Gb to the servers and 100Mb to the desktop is what I have seen as the norm. However, I don't have any links to the recommendations. In this day and age, why would you give your users less than 100Mb network speed.

[RSoles]

Yeah, that Cisco advice seems a bit dated.
Can you buy 10Mb kit these days?

[pmeswani]

Yeah, that Cisco advice seems a bit dated.
Can you buy 10Mb kit these days?

Probably could if you looked hard enough.... If bandwidth is an issue, it can always be configured on the appropriate devices (e.g. proxies, switches, routers, etc).

[TykeMerc]

Indeed, a fairly typical config would be gigabit to servers, servers to seperate switches for fault tolerance (assuming at least 2 NIC's or more per server) and 100Mbit to desk.

I'd probably run at least a subnet per floor or major area or vlans for several reasons, but mainly to allow some logical splitting and easy fault finding.

With a fibre backbone then copper to desk the config is simple and the performance will be fine in 99% of cases.

If you really wanted 10Mbit to desk then the vast majority of desktop NICs are 10/100 so should be more than capable unless you've got very odd desktop drivers. These days I can't think of many reasons you would want to restrict the desktops to 10Mbit.

[Sysman]

If you really wanted 10Mbit to desk then the vast majority of desktop NICs are 10/100 so should be more than capable unless you've got very odd desktop drivers. These days I can't think of many reasons you would want to restrict the desktops to 10Mbit.

Going back a decade or so to when we only had 10 MBit in some buildings, you didn't want to serve apps up over the network (and I vaguely remember someone complaining that roaming profiles took forever too).

[AtW]

100 Mbits to a desktop?

Surely employment costs of those 200 users are high enough to justify usage of at least 10 Gbit for the backbone?

[shashee]

I would like to help but my familiarity in this area is more with M-Bone. I hope you find your answer.

[pmeswani]

100 Mbits to a desktop?

Surely employment costs of those 200 users are high enough to justify usage of at least 10 Gbit for the backbone?

It will depend on the requirements of the applications that are used. Some bandwidth monitoring will be needed to justify going over 1Gbit to the desktop. The switches should be specced to handle 1Gbit to the desktops, so that there is a clear upgrade path... but one has to justify putting in 1Gbit nics into the desktops (regardless of budgets). If one is justifying the speed based on users access to the internet, for example, then will the users really need 1Gbit to the desktop? Most new machines will come with Gbit interfaces, but they are not really a necessity. 100Mbit will be adequate to the desktop.

[AtW]

one has to justify putting in 1Gbit nics into the desktops (regardless of budgets).

Er? Consumer level PCs now come with 1 Gbit build-in NICs, £150+ mobos include 2 x 1 Gbit NICs already. It's backbone that's the issue - if 200 people start hitting network with 1 Gbit transfers, then things might go pearshaped, for that many people however 10 Gbit networking for backbone seems justified.

The world is about to start migrating to 10 Gbit cards soon, and you are still talking 100 or even 10 Mbits