Multiple Synology Servers and Stacking with the M4300-24X24F
Hi NC,
Long story short, Im learning about switch stacking and im trying to confirm what I've been reading is possible (cant seem to find google images of my setup).
I have 4 Synology Servers, each with a 2 port 10gb sfp+ Network Card.
My question/confirmation:
If I bond both 10gb sfp+ on each Synology Server, that would be 8 sfp ports, managaged on the M4300-24X24F.
Is it possible to Bond 2x 10gb spf out of the M4300-24X24F and into a M4300-52G?
Would it be possible to do the same on another M4300-52G Switch (I would be using 12sfp ports on the M4300-24X24F)?
Or
If thats not plausible, Do I have to do a Ring Stacking with the M4300-24X24F and 2x 53G switches with the stacking link being 10gb sfp.
I want to thank anyone for there time in reading this. I will apologize if this doesn't make sense as Im trying to learn this stuff on the fly.
Thank you for your message and this will be useful for the Community I'm sure.
Yes, M4300 series was designed for that very reason: you can stack all models (1G models, 10G models, 40G models) together and this is true stacking. It means you can "bond" ports across the entire stack. In networking terms, this is Distributed Link Aggregation and M4300 switches offer both Static LAG and Dynamic (LACP) LAG with up to seven different hashing algorithms for best interop with your storage equipment. I would advise you select the same Layer 2 (MAC) + Layer 3 (IP) + Layer 4 (UDP/TCP) hashing on your servers and your switches for best load balancing, and LACP for best failover performance.
If your NAS devices have 2xSFP+ NIC, you can create a LAG between two M4300 switches in a stack with one SFP+ port on each switch, and connect your NAS bonded SFP+ ports across both switches.
Additionally, M4300 series stacking offers Non-Stop Forwarding (NSF) and this is enabled by default when you form the stack: there can't be any service interruption for your distributed LAG (LACP) connections in case of one switch failure. The other switch will keep forwarding your NAS devices traffic.
You can decide which stacking topology you want, depending on how much traffic you expect across switches. M4300 allows for vertical (ring) topologies as well as star (spine and leaf) topologies. In fact, you are absolutely free: any 10G port/media can be converted to stacking mode. You can form many topologies, including mesh topologies, with up to 4 stacking ports per 1G switch and up to 16 stacking ports per 10G switch.
Kindly refer to that other thread for some more information about M4300 stacking:
Yes, absolutely! A pair of M4300-12X12F would be ideal as Spine Switches in your setup. They would connect your storage servers in LACP mode with load balancing and redundancy. And they would do the same for your Leaf Switches (your M4300-52G here). You can consider this as a redundant core and top-of-rack installation, instead of a single point of failure for your servers and the rest of your network.
