From: Andrew_Tuline@mindlink.bc.ca (Andrew Tuline)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.novell
Subject: Packet filtering/switching
Date: 3 Sep 92 16:31:06 GMT
Organization: MIND LINK! - British Columbia, Canada
Distribution: world

We currently have a 200 user network with 4 Netware 386 file servers,
1 Netware 286 file server and a VAX running Netware VMS.  This network (for
the most part) uses a single internetwork address.  We use Cabletron bridges
to filter the traffic between file servers.

We still have performance problems, and are considering putting 2 ethernet
adapters in each file server and will have 2 Novell internetwork addresses.
We would then use Kalpana Dataswitches for packet filtering/switching and
load balancing.  Does this seem to be a reasonable architecture?  Any other
ideas?  Does anyone have any comments on the Kalpana equipment?


        - I've had bad experiences when I designed redundant routes with
          Netware 2.15C file servers.

PS, we're running 10Base-T on Cabletron MRXI concentrators.

Below is a diagram of the proposed network.  Each file server will take
a separate port on the Kalpana Dataswitch, and will only receive traffic that
is destined for that file server.


         Project 1    Project 2       Project 3       Project 4
           Users        Users           Users           Users
             | +--+       | +--+          | +--+          | +--+
        +--+ |-|  |  +--+ |-|  |     +--+ |-|  |     +--+ |-|  |
        |  |-| +--+  |  |-| +--+     |  |-| +--+     |  |-| +--+
        +--+ | +--+  +--+ | +--+     +--+ | +--+     +--+ | +--+
             |-|  |       |-|  |          |-|  |          |-|  |
             | +--+       | +--+          | +--+          | +--+
             |            |               |               |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------+
     |                          KALPANA                             |
     |                          Net = 1                             |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------+
          |            |             |             |           |
     +---------+  +---------+   +---------+   +---------+  +--------+
     |   FS1   |  |   FS2   |   |   FS3   |   |   FS4   |  |  FS5   |
     |  NW286  |  |  NW386  |   |  NW386  |   |  NW386  |  | NW386  |
     +---------+  +---------+   +---------+   +---------+  +--------+
          |            |             |             |           |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------+
     |                          KALPANA                             |
     |                          Net = 2                             |
     +--------------------------------------------------------------+
             |            |                 |             |
             | +--+       | +--+            | +--+        | +--+
        +--+ |-|  |  +--+ |-|  |       +--+ |-|  |   +--+ |-|  |
        |  |-| +--+  |  |-| +--+       |  |-| +--+   |  |-| +--+
        +--+ | +--+  +--+ | +--+       +--+ | +--+   +--+ | +--+
             |-|  |       |-|  |            |-|  |        |-|  |
             | +--+       | +--+            | +--+        | +--+
           Users        Users             Users         Users

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