Planning new home system: cameras/pre-wiring/etc

[tmbrown97]

A VLAN isn't going to lessen the impact on the switch.  And a switch would already be isolating packet traffic.  So using a VLAN doesn't really buy you anything as far as traffic impact.  What would impact it would be segregating the traffic on a separate switch.  Then you're only dealing with traffic that actually needs to get in/out of the camera setup (a client viewing them, etc).  But then I'm not familiar with the 3560.  A VLAN certainly can't 'hurt', other than the configuration complexity, but I wouldn't assume just how much it would actually help.

Without getting into the rest of the thread - the 3560 is a wire speed switch with plenty of capacity; so if it's carved up into a couple of VLANS and they're maxing out their ports, they really won't affect the next VLAN over; then again, even without VLAN's, if a couple of ports are running at max speed, it won't affect the next port over any.  By separating VLANs you avoid the broadcast messages and other junk traffic - that's the main advantage.  Honestly, it's probably unnecessary for residential but it certainly won't hurt and it can be nice and clean - although Cisco CLI/IOS isn't for the faint of heart.  If you work in the business you love it - but if you don't it's your worst nightmare (and definitely weeds out those who know what they're doing from those who don't!).

 

[wkearney99]

With a switch in that series, yes, you're much less likely to run into capacity issues.  But, as you've suggested, that's not a typical residential setup (but arguably a nice one to have).  Having dealt with Cisco configs for ATM (not the bank machines) and edge routing, I definitely know what you mean by nightmares...
 
But for the rest of the folks out there using consumer-grade stuff it's certainly something to bear in mind.  The massive amounts of data created by DVRs, cameras and any other bulk-traffic devices is certainly something that bears planning around.

 

[uberjeph]

thanks for the info on vlans--logical separation, not physical.  i get it now.  but as was pointed out, a few IP cameras probably won't do anything to impact that switch traffic-wise, vlan or not.  I'm also running an ASA firewall and cisco SIP phones for the home office so it's just geeking out really.  I also remember why I went with IP cameras over analog, i couldn't get ESXi to passthrough the analog DVR card with VT-D.