Arista Switch setup for Media Network, Help!

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Myth

Member
Feb 27, 2018
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Los Angeles
Hi All,

I have a network with two Linux file servers at the edge of an isolated media network. I just set this up but it's not working yet. I need to go over my design and I have a few questions. Each switch has 4 10Gig ports and 48 1 gig ports, they are three identical Arista switches.

So I set the switches 20Gig Port Channel using LACP mode active. See attached diagram. Basically all five devices are using LACP to connect to each other. The three switches and the two servers.

On the arista switches MSTP is turned on by default, but I enabled spanning tree portfast on the client 1 gig ports. Will that cause any problems? Should I turn off spanning tree portfast and leave it at default? The reason why I turned it on is because we normally use old Dell switches which need it.

All four port-channels are up and both links are active across all four port-channels. Each port channel is set to mode active LACP.

I also read that maybe Mellanox has a special flow control that I can turn on inside the Arista switches if the servers use Mellanox cards, but I'm not sure what cards are in the servers or if this special flow control will help. Also not sure what SFP's are in the switches. The servers themselves use copper dual port 10gig. Between the switches we use optical 10 gig SFPs.

I'm getting solid read/write performance of 100MBps up and down from the client machines to the servers.

The current problem is that we use AVID media Composer and are getting bin errors when working off the file servers. I don't think it's a problem with the switch setups but I wanted to ask.

Also with the setup do I have to implement a Root Bridge?

Everything is in vlan 250 and so everything is all in the same network. switchport mode access vlan 250 across all client ports and port-channels. I can ping all devices fine from any client connected to any switch. There is no IP conflict that I know of.

(3) Arista DCS7048T Series 48x GE 4x 10g SFP + F-R Airflow Switch (Refurb)
 

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oddball

Active Member
May 18, 2018
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I'd rip up your config and start over.

Put all three switches into a three-switch MLAG configuration. This way you'll avoid spanning-tree. From there have each server LACP into each switch.

The problem is you're getting ports shut down due to spanning-tree. With an MLAG you won't have any issues like this and will have full bandwidth per port.

That is the simplest and most resilient setup possible with your switches.

Your limiter is going to be your drive speed. If you're on spinning rust you'll be at 150/MBps or so, which is 1200Mbps. Sounds like you're close to that right now, which seems right.

A multiple of three is unique, but Arista's MLAG can support this.
 
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