Wired Network Setup Help

11201ny said:

Hi,
Right now I have a network setup like this:
Modem>Airport>1.Mac Pro; 2.Unmanaged Switch>1.Mac Mini; 2. Ent. Sys.
Right now I use DHCP

I want to add a managed switch (Netgear GS108Tv2), add a NAS, and link aggregate (switch supports this). I believe to do this I will need to restructure my network completely. Maybe something like (?):

Modem>Router>Managed Switch>1.Mac Pro; 2.Mac Mini; 3.NAS; Ent. Sys.; 4.Airport
I believe i will need to set this up using manual i.p. addressing?

Anyway, the problem is that I have no clue what the hell I'm talking about. Right now my Airport is the router, but will eventually work in bridge mode, so there is a need for a router to assign i.p. addresses, riiight? Also, is there a protocol for manual i.p. addressing? Where do I get these mysterious numbers from?

So clueless.

Click to expand...

You must have a router on the network at all times. It well, routes the traffic.

The appropriate way to do this is to run the modem (Bridge Mode) --> AirPort --> Managed Switch -->1. Mac Pro, 2. Mac Mini, 3. NAS Device, 4. Entertainment System Supplies.

What exactly do you want to do with the managed switch? You simply want to link aggregate to the NAS? If so then that is fine! You do need the AirPort to be functioning as the DHCP and NAT server for this according to my method. However, devices can be given static addresses with reservations.

By that I mean, say the DHCP range is 10.0.1.1 - 10.0.1.150. You can assign any of your devices to 10.0.1.151 - 10.0.1.199. You can also assign them within the DHCP range, but DHCP reservations must be set then. Also, please ensure your AirPort is at least one of the wireless-n models for ample performance.

11201ny said:

Hi,
Right now I have a network setup like this:
Modem>Airport>1.Mac Pro; 2.Unmanaged Switch>1.Mac Mini; 2. Ent. Sys.
Right now I use DHCP

I want to add a managed switch (Netgear GS108Tv2), add a NAS, and link aggregate (switch supports this). I believe to do this I will need to restructure my network completely. Maybe something like (?):

Modem>Router>Managed Switch>1.Mac Pro; 2.Mac Mini; 3.NAS; Ent. Sys.; 4.Airport
I believe i will need to set this up using manual i.p. addressing?

Anyway, the problem is that I have no clue what the hell I'm talking about. Right now my Airport is the router, but will eventually work in bridge mode, so there is a need for a router to assign i.p. addresses, riiight? Also, is there a protocol for manual i.p. addressing? Where do I get these mysterious numbers from?

So clueless.

Click to expand...

I have this switch and am also using it in Link Aggregate mode with ReadyNAS units. I assign the static IP numbers using Airport Utility. AFAIK you only need to assign static IPs to the items that are being aggregated.

11201ny said:

The problem is, I can't seem to access the switches control panel via my browser. My assumption is that is has something to do with the DHCP setting?

Click to expand...

Back to basics. Is there a device handing out IP addresses on your network ?
If there is, then you should be able to find the switch(es) IP addresses.

What setting is there in the Airport Utility for Network ? It should be DHCP and NAT if the modem is only a modem (i.e not also acting as a Router). Is your config as suggested by Altemose ? It should be.

If you have changed your config layout then you should turn everything off and then restart everything in the order :
1. Modem.
2. AE Router
3. Switch
4. Any LAN device
5. Any WiFi device

When you come to do the Link Aggregation, in my experience do the NAS first then the switch (as far as I remember).

11201ny said:

Thanks.
For assigning i.p. Addresses... today i will look for a better understanding. Since I have never had to deal with i.p.'s I am clueless.
Right now the AE is giving out addresses. Settings>Network: Router Mode: DHCP and NAT; DHCP Range: 10.0.1.2 to 10.0.1.200; DHCP Reservations: - ; Port Settings: - ; Enable Access Control: (unchecked). Settings>Network> Network Options: DHCP Day: 1; IPv4 DHCP Range: 10.0 .1 .2 to 200; Guest IPv4 DHCP Range: 172.16 .42 .2 to 200; Enable NAT port mapping protocol: (checked); Block incoming IPv4: (checked); Allow incoming IPSec Auth: (checked)

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I bought the switch to enable link aggregation. I don't have the NAS unit yet. I wanted to see if I could get this going first.

Click to expand...

OK, the AE is doing the right thing. Your switch should have a LAN IP address of 10.0.1.X. Here's a way of getting a known IP address for the switch :

1. Find the MAC address of the switch (should be on the bottom of the switch in a label - or on the box that it came with)
2. Go to the AE Airport Utility page for DHCP reservations
3. Click on +
4. Add the Switch as : Description : Switch; Reserve Address By : MAC Address; MAC Address : "Enter the Switch MAC address"; IPv4 address : 10.0.1.201
5. Save>Update the AE settings
6. Power Cycle/Reboot the switch
7. Enter 10.0.1.201 into Safari - you should see the switch

11201ny said:

Thank you so much, first step, a success! Now I will try to set up link aggregation.

Click to expand...

Great ! Let me know if you want me to list/explain my LAG config.

11201ny said:

This look like part of the issue. How do I need to set this up on my Macs?

Click to expand...

Yes, your links are down says the Switch screen.

I presume from your second pic that you have 2 Gigabit NICs on your Mac Pro that you are attempting to aggregate. Have you defined both of these as the members of LAG2 in the Switch LAG membership screen ?

To establish Link Agregation on the mini and i imagine the mac pro as well go to network preferences, click the little wheel at the bottom and then select "manage virtual interfaces" a new window will pop up and there click the plus sign and select "New Link Agregate" make sure that your TB to ETH adapter as well as your ETH adapters are plugged in and have connection established before you do the LAG.

Once you create the bond, the LAG will take the ip of the TB to ETH adapter as the ip for the bond (it does so on my mini - not sure about the MP).

this should be it...
Remember though a LAG won't give you 200MB/s on a single throughput... So for example you will not be able to send a file from the MP to the Mini at 200MB/s. you will however be able to send a file from the MP to the MINI and another connected computer at 100MB/s each. (thus saturating the LAG at the MP end)

you will also be able to send from MP to mini at 100MB/s while simultaneously sending from MINI to MP at 100MB/s again saturating the LAG.

I have almost the same setup at home with a GS716T so if you have any other questions ask. I'll help as much as i can... though i am no expert - just a guy having some fun with his home net

11201ny said:

I have been told that Mac Pro are fine, & that using the Thunderbolt port on the Mini will also work.

Click to expand...

Yes, I was wrong, you have linked the right ports but it might not work very well if there is only one active port on the MacPro. Your screen looks the same as mine but I have 2 active ports on both devices attached to the switch. See jpeg. Serafina is the NAS and Zephyr is the PC.

I can get 97.6MBps from the NAS to the PC (6 files of 5.86GB total) and 100.18MBps from the PC to the NAS.

11201ny said:

Transfer 5GB in about 50secs... pretty much same speed as before link aggregation.

Click to expand...

Don't know how to comment on this ! I had some improvement with LAG but not 100%. More like 30%

Just a thought. Are you trying to use Jumbo Frames ? I disabled these everywhere as they proved to be a PITA.

11201ny said:

Transfer 5GB in about 50secs... pretty much same speed as before link aggregation.

Click to expand...

this is what i was trying to explain.

Link aggregation will NOT improve the speed of transferring a single file...
In other words a LAG won't make the transfer go faster than the 100 (or so) MB/s what it will do however is make it so that you can transfer two files simultaneously from a single LAG source at 100MB/s... each (so you will be able to pull from either LAG sources at a total combined 200MB/s...

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drsox said:

Don't know how to comment on this ! I had some improvement with LAG but not 100%. More like 30%

Just a thought. Are you trying to use Jumbo Frames ? I disabled these everywhere as they proved to be a PITA.

Click to expand...

i am using jumbo frames on mine without any problems at all, however there is only a marginal increase in using jumbo about 10% or so

11201ny said:

I pretty much assumed this, but wasn't sure. It's totally a learning experience fo me.

Click to expand...

hehe, it was and still is for me as well.

in any case, keep on having fun

mvmanolov said:

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i am using jumbo frames on mine without any problems at all, however there is only a marginal increase in using jumbo about 10% or so

Click to expand...

My network has a mixture of FE and Gb links so Jumbo Frames turned out to be more of a problem wrt overhead etc, so I disabled it everywhere. With my 30 or so devices, only half are Gb.

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11201ny said:

I appreciate all the communications! You helped me get there, thank you & have a great weekend!

Click to expand...

Glad to help.

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mvmanolov said:

you will also be able to send from MP to mini at 100MB/s while simultaneously sending from MINI to MP at 100MB/s again saturating the LAG.

Click to expand...

Theoretically, but IME it will be the speed of the systems that will limit the actual parallelism to <100%.