In a few months I will be migrating our central LAN backbone from ThinLan to a
switched network using UTP cabling.  The network currently consist of the
HP3000 with a BNC connection, an NT Web server with 10Base-T to a hub, a
NetWare server with 100VG connected to a hub stack, and approximately 100
networked PCs connected to either the 10Base-T stack or two 100VG stacks.  The
100VG stacks each use a SNMP/Bridge module to interface the 10Base-2 shared
media.

The plan is to install an HP Switch 2000 with modules to handle the various
media types.  The WAN interface will be DS3 ATM with a Catalyst 5000 ATM
Switch.  The LAN side of the Catalyst 5000 will be 100Base-T to the Switch
2000.

Now, the bugaboo here is the 10Mb NI on the HP3000. Will the high speed
conversational throughput provided by the switch 2000 completely overwhelm the
HP3000's 10M NI? Will the NI require an upgrade to 100M? Based on previous
HP3000-L threads it would seem that this isn't trivial. If the network is
performing reasonablly well on the shared 10M media, is it safe to assume that
it should perform well when connected at 10M to a switch?  Most of the traffic
to the HP3K is OLTP.

Any suggestions or sharing of experiences will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Steve Barrett


    Steven P. Barrett    [log in to unmask]
    Systems Analyst
    Fairfax County Public Library     (703) 222-3132 - Voice
    Technical Operations Center       (703) 222-3135 - FAX
    4000 Stringfellow Rd.
    Chantilly, VA  20151

    --- The opinions expressed here are mine alone . ---

    If God had meant for us to have distributed systems, he
    would have put little brains in our hands and in our
    fingers.  (Unknown Author)