How many broadcasts per second is bad

[Zytagien]

I have a ip/ipx flat network. we have about 450 users, 5 novell servers, and a slew of nt/2000 boxes. I have been running sniffer pro, and an wondering what my broadcasts/s should look like. A cisco SE came in, and said that we are getting too many broadcasts. I would like to verify his info, as he came in because we are interested in purchasing a new core switch. we currently have a catalyst 4006, with 6 edge closets collapsing into it via fiber. if anybody could help me out, i would greatly appreciate it.

 

[baddos]

450 nodes on one subnet? Yes... You should subnet it out. If you have the layer3 supervisor module for your 4006 it should be pretty easy.

I wouldn't have more than 100 users on each subnets because of the heavy broadcasts from ARP, netBIOS, Novell, etc.

Novell is especially bad in the broadcast area since that is how clients find the servers.

I would recommend running WINS on the NT/2000 boxes and configuring your clients to run WINS. That will cut down on a lot of broadcasts. I would also recommend ditching IPX if you are running Novell 4 or above. You should also look into ditching Novell completely. 2

 

[Zytagien]

yes, 450 on one subnet. ridding my self of novell is in the works in the future, about 12 months from now. we have the sup 2 engine, so we can not route ipx packets. we are planning on upgradig ng to the catalyst 4507 with dual sup 4 engines. that is what cisco is suggesting. i just wanted to verify there recomendations.

 

[baddos]

Yeah... the 4507 is pretty sweet.