Managed or unmanaged SFP Switch ?

[SC_Nerd]

Hi Everyone,

The company I work for is going to be going through a major network infrastructure change. We currently have HP Aruba switches and would like to keep that brand.
The way we are planning the layout is going to be Core > Distribution > Access (3 layer).

The options below is what we are considering.
In the core layer, an HPE Aruba Networking CX 6300M 24-port 1GbE Class4 PoE and 4-port SFP56 Switch, model number is JL662A.
In my distribution layer, I want an SFP switch to be the bridge between my core and access, so I am looking at the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6300M 24-port SFP+ and 4-port SFP56 Switch, model number is JL658A.
In the access layer (we will have approx. 15 cabinets distributed throughout the plant), I have an Aruba 6000 48G CL4 POE+ 4SFP Switch, model number is R8N85A.

All of the above switches are managed. But here is my question...
Does the SFP switch have to be a managed one ? Considering that the core is managed that will handle all VLAN's etc and the access is managed as well (with all the necessary VLAN configs), is there a need for the SFP switch to be managed as well ? If so, how would a managed switch here be different to an unmanaged switch ? And what are the benefits from it being managed as opposed to unmanaged ?
I ask this because from my limited knowledge, the SFP switch doesn't have to be managed if on both ends (core and access) are managed and can handle whatever is needed.

I appreciate all input, thanks in advance!

 

[Switch]

Generally speaking it should be a managed switch otherwise you lose vlan capability (assuming you don't need other features), unmanaged switches either discard the additional bytes in the ethernet frame (which can introduce errors and network instability) or just stop working as they can't handle the bigger frames. Some unmanaged switches are able to handle ethernet frames larger than the standard mtu which implies they can pass on tagged frames, you will need to check if your sfp switch can automatically handle this.

 

[SC_Nerd]

Hi man,
But wouldn't the VLAN capability be managed by the core switch and then the access switch?
My thinking is that the port on the core switch that will connect to the SFP switch will have all the necessary VLAN's tagged on it.
And the port of the access switch that will be connected to the SFP switch will also have the VLAN's tagged.
So it should work.....right ?

 

[Oops!!!]

Hi man,
But wouldn't the VLAN capability be managed by the core switch and then the access switch?
My thinking is that the port on the core switch that will connect to the SFP switch will have all the necessary VLAN's tagged on it.
And the port of the access switch that will be connected to the SFP switch will also have the VLAN's tagged.
So it should work.....right ?

If all your edge switches are going to only handle 1 VLAN each then yes but there are numerous reasons why its a bad.

The top 2 being, you cant run multiple uplinks for redundancy to the distro layer and loops mostly occur on the edge of the network, which without a managed switch will be a manual pain to find.

 

[Switch]

Hi man,
But wouldn't the VLAN capability be managed by the core switch and then the access switch?
My thinking is that the port on the core switch that will connect to the SFP switch will have all the necessary VLAN's tagged on it.
And the port of the access switch that will be connected to the SFP switch will also have the VLAN's tagged.
So it should work.....right ?

All network devices have to be able to handle the 802.1Q standard, as long as it can do so then vlan should be preserved. Otherwise your results may vary depending on the switch firmware, in that the switch may ignore packets with tagged vlan, only pass packets with no tags, pass everything, drop everything, or completely malfunction.

 

[Scrooloose]

While the VLANs are created on the core, you'd still want to have the capability to trunk the VLAN(s) to a particular port on the access switch. So yeah, you're probably gonna need managed switches if you're gonna be using VLANs.

The exception to this is if you're using something that works like the Cisco Fabric Extenders, where the FEX is a mostly dumb device that gets it's config from the upstream Nexus 5k or 7k. I don't know if Aruba offers a similar product so I mention it here for your info,

 

[Byakugan]

Hi Everyone,

The company I work for is going to be going through a major network infrastructure change. We currently have HP Aruba switches and would like to keep that brand.
The way we are planning the layout is going to be Core > Distribution > Access (3 layer).

The options below is what we are considering.
In the core layer, an HPE Aruba Networking CX 6300M 24-port 1GbE Class4 PoE and 4-port SFP56 Switch, model number is JL662A.
In my distribution layer, I want an SFP switch to be the bridge between my core and access, so I am looking at the HPE Aruba Networking CX 6300M 24-port SFP+ and 4-port SFP56 Switch, model number is JL658A.
In the access layer (we will have approx. 15 cabinets distributed throughout the plant), I have an Aruba 6000 48G CL4 POE+ 4SFP Switch, model number is R8N85A .

All of the above switches are managed. But here is my question...
Does the SFP switch have to be a managed one ? Considering that the core is managed that will handle all VLAN's etc and the access is managed as well (with all the necessary VLAN configs), is there a need for the SFP switch to be managed as well ? If so, how would a managed switch here be different to an unmanaged switch ? And what are the benefits from it being managed as opposed to unmanaged ?
I ask this because from my limited knowledge, the SFP switch doesn't have to be managed if on both ends (core and access) are managed and can handle whatever is needed.

I appreciate all input, thanks in advance!

Hey,

Just to confirm there is more than 1 dist switch in your dist layer? if its just 1 then u might as well run a collapsed core setup. To answer your question yes it will need to be managed. Your access layer will be connected to Dist and the dist needs to be able to accept tagged vlan traffic (tag and untagged being Aruba and general non Cisco lingo for trunk and access). That is unless you are running 1 vlan throughout the entire network.

You can run non managed switches on your access layer if the area it serves runs off 1 vlan and u untag the vlan on the dist switch port it connects to. You can try to save cash by getting a layer 2 only SFP switch but I doubt Aruba sells that, this is usually only switches intended for access layer where no routing is done.

Drop me a pm and I will help you out with ur design, I dont mind.