Hi, I have a mess of a home lab situation that I would like to clean up ASAP. Because this is a home lab, a fanless/quiet switch is a requirement which I believe eliminates all switches higher than 16-ports. That is OK, 24-ports would be ideal but I can make 16-ports work. Worst case I will buy two 16-port switches or perhaps a 16-port and an 8-port, if available.
I am currently going from the router/firewall to several PowerConnect 2716 switches and because the 27xx series does not support VLAN trunking I need SEVERAL 2716's. I have nine (9) LAN/VLANs going to an ESXi environment which I would like to consolidate down to one VLAN trunk going to each ESXi host through Link Aggregation.
For each need, what is the entry level or base switch I could use? Meaning, if I want a 16-port, gigabit Layer 2 switch that supports VLAN trunking, what is the lowest model I can use? Likewise, if I want a 16-port, gigabit, Layer 3 switch that supports VLAN trunking (I assume all Layer 3 switches would support VLAN trunking), what is the lowest model that meets these requirements?
I have seen mixed reviews/information on the 28xx series switches supporting VLAN trunking. I've also read that the 34xx series switches are the oldest/first models which support VLAN trunking???? I would greatly appreciate someone letting me know both specifically about proper VLAN Trunking support as well as handling Layer 3.
Thank you.