Connecting Switches / VLANs between floors
We have an Extreme 6808 switch currently handling all our traffic, connected thru fibre to ISP in their datacenter. Switch uses Extremeware and the VLAN's are Extreme proprietary VLAN's, that is not specifically 802.1q tagged VLAN's.
We are moving to another floor of this datacenter and have purchased Cisco 3750's to handle switching in the new cage. We have already decided to go with 802.1q VLAN's right off the bat and have designated their VLAN ID's accordingly.
The new VLAN's exist logically on the Extremes but not in the 802.1q format - we can however add 802.1q tags to the Extreme VLAN''s without affecting anything.
Where we get confused is when we want to hook a line between floors with the entire current setup actually running thru a fibre line up to the new Cisco gear and then out to the ISP's gear. We're hoping we can then move load balanced gear in a staggered fashion without any downtime - that is, the new load balancer hooked to the Cisco (another trunk port) will be able to see pool members on the old floor cage thru the magic of VLAN tagging and trunks.
My thinking is that we take a GBIC on the extreme and hook the inter-floor line to the Cisco, and then set up an 802.1q trunk with the Cisco, the Cisco will then see the traffic thru the Extreme and understand the tags as it is configured at that point to have the same VLAN data. We then move the upstream ISP connection to the external, net VLAN off the Cisco and the Extreme re-arps and finds it's old gateway (the ISP gear) by going through the Cisco.
My question is basically, are we on the right track? Are there any obvious gotcha's or has anyone done anything like this?
Thanks for any thoughts.
- J
