I suppose that I could always get the TOR and Edge switches first and see how well it works and if I need to get better throughput from the LAN to the WIFI and vice versa, then I could add the "core" switch into the mix. Anyone have thoughts on this?

@Dashrender Don't forget to add the PSU(s)

Yeah, that is kind of why I was asking. Is this enough to warrant the consideration of something designed to be a core?

For the TOR switches for all my servers and virtual hosts and NAS, I am looking at using 2 of the Extreme Summit X460-G2-24t-10GE4. 24 ports of copper 1Gb and 4 ports of 10GE SPF+ and additional stacking ports on the back. For the edge switches for things like the access points, IP phones and desktops, I was looking at the Extreme Summit X450-G2-48P-10GE4 or the Extreme Summit X450-G2-48P-GE4.

@Dashrender Ha! It would be a single as a core and I am not sure which switch I would use yet. I am still trying to see if all of it will be within my budget. For my virtual hosts I currently need 6 10GE (which I am leaning toward 2 switches to create some redundancy) and then I would ideally be stacking the switches with the others so I am not sure how it will all go together with the introduction of a core switch, stacking-wise.

@Dashrender The layer 3 portion was for the inter-vlan traffic but the core aspect would be to provide the backbone bandwidth

OK. Got it. So since that is the goal, based on the size of the network and addition of 10GE for virtual hosts, I should consider a Layer 3 switch?

@scottalanmiller That is true, however, I am running in access mode to prevent cross communication and would like it to remain that way. Would a Layer 3 switch have the features to create ACLs for traffic on multiple VLANs across the same ports?

@scottalanmiller Sure, I meant that I thought the whole point of a VLAN was to segregate traffic/keep broadcasts domains smaller while utilizing the same physical switches.

@Dashrender Really? I thought that was the point of a VLAN.

@dafyre Since I am replacing all the switches, I want to see if it is better practice to move the wifi traffic from the firewall to a layer 3 switch.

All wireless traffic ingresses the Sophos and egresses the LAN or WAN

@dafyre Yes it is currently handling all routing.

@Dashrender Correct. The reason I did this is because I needed to effectively split the existing POE switch into 2 switches. Half the ports are on VLAN 1, for various devices like phones and desktops and the other half was exclusively for the WiFi network.

I am going to completely refresh the hardware for my Ethernet infrastructure because most of the hardware is over 8 years old, I need more ports for edge devices and need to add 10GE. I have the following diagram for my switches, wireless APs and controller and firewall. I am keeping the firewall and wireless equipment. So far, I am planning on using Extreme Summit Series stackable switches for edge and TOR (a mix of POE and non-POE 1Gb and several 10GE for virtual hosts) switching and am wondering if I should look at a Layer 3 Core switch and move my WiFi traffic through it, instead. I have several SSIDs and each of those is on its own VLAN with the firewall having several virtual interfaces and respective firewall rules to allow/deny traffic and RADIUS authentication for some, provided by a Windows server on VLAN 1. The firewall is also the DHCP server for all wireless VLAN virtual interfaces.

What would you do?

EXISTING NETWORK TOPOLOGY

@Sparkum OHHHH... That is the lead right there. I thought you were using Exchange for all those accounts and couldn't figure out how it would be so cheap if you were using proper licensing.

so you are using [email protected] that goes to its own Exchange mailbox and [email protected] that goes to its own, right?

You don't get charged per email address, you get charged per mailbox.user, right?

@Sparkum Right but are they all a 1:1 for a mailbox?

@scottalanmiller Cool. What about backups?