HA Cluster and multiple switches - physical setup advice
Hi Guys and Gals,
I have been tasked with repatching our network rack. It's an absolute mess and there are several issues with the way cabling has evolved over the years e.g. daisy chained switches, that are causing some strange issues on the network, IP clashes and DHCP issues.
Network design is relatively new to me so please bare with me and let me know if I miss out any vital info.
We have two network racks connected with a fibre link approx 100m apart.
Network rack A contains -
[ol]
Network rack B contains -
[ol]
Is the following configuration acceptable?
Internet------Fortigate------Aruba Switch1-----Aruba Switch2----SFP-------Fibre link-------SFP------HP 1920------HP 1920
Basically all 4 switches connected to one another then connected to the Primary fortigate, secondary fortigate will also be connected to Aruba Switch 1 so it can take over if the primary unit fails.
I had initially planned to have each switch connected directly to each fortigate as this seemed the right way rather than daisychaining them but I just had a 15 minute call with a network tech and they said that connecting each switch to the next (uplink as they put it) was an acceptable network setup.
We have had issues here since I started working with Avaya phones losing static IP's, stating they are in use, and constant "invalid address" entries on our DHCP list. I thought this was due to the daisychaining, e.g. the switch on the end not updating is MAC table fast enough to keep up with the rest.
Any advice welcome.