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M4300-24X and M4300-48X – All 10G Copper, fully redundant – Half width, full speed ahead!
Introducing M4300-24X and M4300-48X Managed Switches
Complementing M4300 10G Copper / Fiber hybrid versions, two new <<Full Copper>> M4300 10G switches are going to set a new standard in server...
Today, let's discuss the <<Redundant Top of Rack>> use case using M4300 half-width models, for instance the new M4300-24X ideal for small, but mission-critical installations. When downtime just can't happen but budget matters, go M4300:
Compared with a single top-of-rack, such two-unit horizontal stacking is cost-effective yet highly efficient for High Availability. All hosts can connect to both redundant switches using easy link aggregation (L2/L3/L4 LACP) with load-balancing and failover. With nonstop forwarding, management unit on the left and its backup unit on the right will failover, and failback again without any service interruption, eliminating the single point of failure for your servers and storage equipment. There is no service interruption during the failover: the other switch in the stack will keep forwarding traffic in and out – this is non-stop switching, non-stop routing proficiency.
As a matter of fact, a single top-of-rack switch is a single point of failure. Even with a redundant power supply, other hardware failure can cause the switch to hang, or software failure causing the unit to reset. Half-width M4300 switches allow for redundant top of rack installation, with not only redundant power supply but redundant fabric as well. In this topology, we’ll use stacking and nonstop forwarding for perpetual LACP connections from servers as well as in aggregation to your core. No complex stacking kits, since any 10G port can be used for stacking - and no license upgrade for full Layer 3 software.
Community, we hope this information is useful. Please share your feedback. Next time we will discuss the M4300-48X typical deployment in larger installations.
Regards,
For larger server installations, when 10GBASE-T is the predominant connectivity, two M4300-48X are ideal for redundant top-of-rack:
This time we can support up to 20-22 servers and storage arrays per rack, since each M4300-48X comes with 48 ports of 10GBASE-T (line-rate) and with 4 shared 10GBASE-X SFP+ uplinks. By stacking these two M4300 switches, using any 10G copper and/or fiber ports, all hosts can connect to both redundant switches with LACP. M4300 provides port-channel / LAG (802.3ad - 802.1AX) L2/L3/L4 hashing for fault tolerance and load sharing with any type of Ethernet channeling on your hosts.
With nonstop forwarding, management unit on the left and its backup unit on the right will failover, and failback again without any service interruption, eliminating the single point of failure in your racks. Again, compared with single top-of-rack switch installation, such two-unit horizontal stacking is cost-effective yet highly efficient for HA.
Let us know if you are planning for new hosts on your hypervisors: M4300 can definitely buy you great piece of mind with dual home connections, load balancing and NO single point of failure.
With NSF, M4300 is one of the very few Stackable Switch series on the market providing true unstoppable operation, and the only one at this price point. If you have any questions, please respond to that post. We hope you find this information useful!
Best regards,
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