timeshifter
Well-Known Member
- Reaction score
- 2,171
- Location
- USA
In the span of about 18 months one my bigger clients has gone through a growth spurt and has about tripled the size of their network.
At the beginning, and for the last 8 years it was pretty simple. One server running LOB. Traditional phone system. About 15 PCs, two printers. Now they have VoIP phones, fiber Internet, 40 PCs, added on to their building. New wiring for the new section and now rewiring original section. Every location now has at least two wires, one for phone and one for a computer. I think it's about 190 ports on the patch panels now.
The wiring vendor is done and we're now in the process of moving all the gear into the new rack and patching everything together neatly. Trying to decide on how to patch everything in.
There will be three switches, all 48 port, every port PoE. There are three 48 port patch panels above each switch with a wire manager in between.
Here's a list of the network gear:
Internet connection 1 - 25/25 fiber connection (primary connection)
Internet connection 2 - 200/10 coax (used as failover and some high data devices are routed to it)
Gateway - Cisco Meraki MX68CW
Traffic Manager - VoIP provider Microtik box, sits between gateway and rest of network so they can manage call quality
(3) 48 port UniFi PoE network switch (two old version, one new version)
(4) UniFi 6 APs
Connected to all that:
41 PCs / servers
39 VoIP phones
16 iOS / mobile devices
10 misc printers and other devices
I haven't quite decided how to interconnect all the switches. That also influence how I'll patch in the phones and PCs, potentially.
OPTION A:
Shortest path and short cables. Phones and computers get plugged in to the switch that corresponds to their patch panel.
OPTION B:
Patch devices to function specific switches. Thinking I would put all PCs and servers on one switch. VoIP phones on another switch. APs, printers, other items on the third switch.
Seems like this might be helpful. All PC and server traffic would be contained in one switch. If there's a problem with the PCs and the server application I could reboot just that switch if needed, and not take out all the phones. Or if the phones are acting up the phone switch can be rebooted or whatever.
The rack may not be as neat, but it might be more serviceable. Note that although all phones have a PC port, so we could just use one run for a phone / computer, but they've put in dual lines to every location. So I'd like to take advantage of that.
ALSO, should I get different colored patch cables for different devices? Is there an industry standard like one color for phone and one for PCs?
There's a lot I need to sort through and may need some outside help to get this right, but for now I need to know OPTION A or OPTION B as the vendor will be supplying the patch cables and we're meeting tomorrow to get that ordered. Will need to know what lengths to order and colors.
At the beginning, and for the last 8 years it was pretty simple. One server running LOB. Traditional phone system. About 15 PCs, two printers. Now they have VoIP phones, fiber Internet, 40 PCs, added on to their building. New wiring for the new section and now rewiring original section. Every location now has at least two wires, one for phone and one for a computer. I think it's about 190 ports on the patch panels now.
The wiring vendor is done and we're now in the process of moving all the gear into the new rack and patching everything together neatly. Trying to decide on how to patch everything in.
There will be three switches, all 48 port, every port PoE. There are three 48 port patch panels above each switch with a wire manager in between.
Here's a list of the network gear:
Internet connection 1 - 25/25 fiber connection (primary connection)
Internet connection 2 - 200/10 coax (used as failover and some high data devices are routed to it)
Gateway - Cisco Meraki MX68CW
Traffic Manager - VoIP provider Microtik box, sits between gateway and rest of network so they can manage call quality
(3) 48 port UniFi PoE network switch (two old version, one new version)
(4) UniFi 6 APs
Connected to all that:
41 PCs / servers
39 VoIP phones
16 iOS / mobile devices
10 misc printers and other devices
I haven't quite decided how to interconnect all the switches. That also influence how I'll patch in the phones and PCs, potentially.
OPTION A:
Shortest path and short cables. Phones and computers get plugged in to the switch that corresponds to their patch panel.
OPTION B:
Patch devices to function specific switches. Thinking I would put all PCs and servers on one switch. VoIP phones on another switch. APs, printers, other items on the third switch.
Seems like this might be helpful. All PC and server traffic would be contained in one switch. If there's a problem with the PCs and the server application I could reboot just that switch if needed, and not take out all the phones. Or if the phones are acting up the phone switch can be rebooted or whatever.
The rack may not be as neat, but it might be more serviceable. Note that although all phones have a PC port, so we could just use one run for a phone / computer, but they've put in dual lines to every location. So I'd like to take advantage of that.
ALSO, should I get different colored patch cables for different devices? Is there an industry standard like one color for phone and one for PCs?
There's a lot I need to sort through and may need some outside help to get this right, but for now I need to know OPTION A or OPTION B as the vendor will be supplying the patch cables and we're meeting tomorrow to get that ordered. Will need to know what lengths to order and colors.
I'm not looking for spiffs/kickbacks from him, I just like to be vocal in referrals 'n such.
