{Penultimate Configuration}

It's all in and working nicely. Documentation is being produced as I type by the consultants with overall configuration. Below is a quick outline of how it all fits together:

Server Room (Core)
a. 2 core switches in the server room which the servers will plug into directly.

b. 2 x 10Gbit Ethernet links between them in trunking mode creating 20Gbit throughout and Spanning Tree Protocol to enable one link to go down and still have full communication between the two.

c. 4 x Power Supplies in each core switch. Switches can function on 2 power supplies fully, so we have massive redundancy here.

d. 2 x phased power supplies, one to each core switch (UPS). One phased supply can fail taking one core switch out with it and no loss of connectivity will be experienced anywhere.

e. 5 x 10Gbit Fiber links, one to each floor in EACH switch (10 links total) thus providing fully redundant links to every data room.

f. Routing for all 8 VLANS.

g. 1 x 8Gbit Ethernet Trunked link into old switch which currently has old servers and printers on it. Soon to be retired.

h. 4 x 10Gbit Ethernet links to forthcoming 2 x Blade enclosures, housing 9 x Blade servers. 7 x Production, 2 x spare.

Data Rooms (Tree Branches)
a. 1 x switch in each data room

b. 4 x power supplies in each switch on single phase supply (UPS).

c. 2 x 10Gbit Fiber links from the switches in each data room creating 10Gbit throughput, one into each of the core switches. This provides Spanning Tree Protocol again allowing one fiber pair to break without any interruption in each data room.

d. Between 48 and 144 x 1Gbit links in each data room to each desktop machine (currently old workstations so 90% only running at 100Mbit until workstations replaced).

e. 1 x VLAN per data room, routed at core in server room.

All of the above equipment is PoE (Power Over Ethernet) certified (with sufficient power supplies to run this immediately) for potential upgrade of phone system to VoIP (Voice Over Internet Protocol). This would mean ridding ourselves of potentially 50% of the cabling in each data room!