I need advice on which of the following options would be best, plus their pros and cons. I already have an idea but I need expert opinions and experience to validate if these are even possible and if there are better similar alternatives.
But to explain the situation first:
- I need to hook up 80 client computers. All of them are diskless, which means they will be reading from the diskless server for the OS, software, etc.
- There is only 1 server
- The server has SSDs on RAID and can reach up to 16Gbps read/write
- The server will have four (4) gigabit ports
- The clients will rarely need to transfer data among/between themselves. Mostly they are just reading from/writing to the server
Option 1: Dedicated server port for each switch
Option 2a: Main switch connects sub-switches and the server with link aggregation
Option 2b: Same with Option 2a except sub-switches are also link-aggregated (I'm not entirely sure of this is possible so I'm just throwing this in here)
Now for the questions:
- Considering the situation I mentioned above, which would be the best as to performance-reliability-cost ratio (in your opinion) and why?
- What are the pros and cons of the options above?
- Will I need a managed switch for this? What features should I be looking for? For Option 2a and 2b I'm guessing I need a managed switch for the "main switch" and unamanaged switches would suffice for the sub-switches but confirmation from experts would be helpful.
Thank you! :)
EDIT: Updated information