Unifi Job - Aggregation switch?

[Tech Savvy]

Hi all,

Doing an install with a little over 150 cables. Doing my Unifi purchase I am going with:
1 x Dream Machine Pro
2 x 48 Port Switch
2 x 48 Port PoE switch
3 x HD APs
3 x AP Pro Mounts

Ideally I want three VLANs, although I can work off of just two.

My question is Should I also purchase the Aggregation switch for the main inside net? one for each VLAN?

I'm a big fan of dedicated vlan lines from the router to the switch. Should I do one line from the UDM Pro to an aggregation switch for each VLAN? Then from each of the aggregation switches to each of the switches? Like so (1):

Or should I skip the aggregation switches for the two secondary VLANs since there won't be much traffic and just use one switch as a hop for those VLANs. and use the aggregation switch for the main VLAN? (2)

Or should I not use an aggregation switch at all since it would only be one hop to each switch? Possibly bump up that main switch to a pro or enterprise model?

 

[YeOldeStonecat]

Close call. I don't worry about VLANs as much, as I do....uplinks.
These days, esp with 48 port switches, if you're uplinking switches, I'd want 10 gig uplinks. Else...that uplink(s) will be a bottleneck.

Off the top of my head, I'd want a TOR (top of the rack) switch....so there's a 1x to 1x uplink from lower switches...to the TOR switch.

I'd have.
UDM-Pro....10 gig link to TOR switch. And from the TOR switch...each of the 4x 48 port switches has a 10 gig uplink to. So it's like a pyramid. I wouldn't do a separate switch per VLAN.

However, note...you want the PRO model of the new Unifi switches. The non Pro models only have 1 gig uplink/SFP ports. Sadly. The Pro models have 4x. So...having 4x 10 gig ports....if you're squeezing the budget, can get by without a TOR switch. But I'd still push for a TOR switch.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Yeah the TOR switch just simplifies things, but for smaller deployments you can merge CORE and TOR, but that assumes you only have 3 downstream switches, I assume the last 10gbit is for a server.

 

[SAFCasper]

UDM-Pro....10 gig link to TOR switch. And from the TOR switch...each of the 4x 48 port switches has a 10 gig uplink to. So it's like a pyramid. I wouldn't do a separate switch per VLAN.

However, note...you want the PRO model of the new Unifi switches. The non Pro models only have 1 gig uplink/SFP ports. Sadly. The Pro models have 4x. So...having 4x 10 gig ports....if you're squeezing the budget, can get by without a TOR switch. But I'd still push for a TOR switch.

Second this. It's good practice to have every access switch uplinked directly to a distribution switch such as the Aggregation. Multiple VLAN's across one physical link is perfectly fine and one of their intended uses. Trunk everything from the UDM to the Aggregation over the 10GB port.

This is how it would look, with every link being 10GB. Any servers ideally go 10GB directly to the Aggregation switch.

If I were to suggest improvements... add a USP-RSP for secondary power supply. It can power 8x devices and everything here is supported besides the Aggregation which would have to be upgraded to Aggregation-Pro.

I'd also want 2x UPS with this setup. One powering normally, the second powering the RPS. Then with those additional ports on the Aggregation Pro I would make the access switch uplinks 2-port LACP trunks for some redundancy. Shame the UDM-Pro only has 1x 10GB port so not an option there.

This all adds a significant cost so might not be worthwhile. Depends how much they value uptime.

 

[Tech Savvy]

Done! Thank you guys!

Upgraded switches to the 48 port pro models and purchased an Aggregation Switch ( https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-switching/products/unifi-switch-aggregation ) as the TOR.

Setup will be UDM 10G link to the Aggregation Switch Switch which will have a 10G trunk to each of the switches.