Top Of Rack Switch Design

The term top of rack has been coined for this design however the actual physical location of the switch does not necessarily need to be at the top of the rack.

Top of rack switch design.

In the top of rack design servers connect to one or two ethernet switches installed inside the rack so that all copper cabling for servers stays within the rack from the server to the rack switch. Each rack contains multiple computing devices. The top of rack switch is usually placed at the top of the server rack for easier accessibility and cleaner cable management which is the coming of its name. Two high speed tor switches are part of the same virtual chassis.

For the reason that all the servers in the same server cabinet are connected to the switch like 10gbe switches in the same rack only a few cables go outside the rack reaching to the aggregation switch. Servers can connect to both of the switches located at top of rack. As less switches are used in eor design more cables are deployed between racks triggering higher possibility of cable mess. Despite its name top of rack tor switches can be placed anywhere in the rack.

Another is the server link aggregation with tor deployment. A tor switch could be at the top of the rack but the actual physical location does not necessarily need to be at the top of the rack. The in rack network switch in turn is connected to aggregation switches via fiber optic cables. It can also be at bottom or middle of the rack.

Tor top of rack design. In a data center there are several racks of servers storage equipment. In the top of rack design servers connect to one ethernet switch or two for example gigabit ethernet switch or 10gbe switch installed inside the rack. Top of rack tor and end of row eor are two common infrastructure designs for data centers.

In thus doing fewer cables are installed between the server and network. After practical installation however engineers found that top of the rack is better due to easier accessibility and cleaner cable management. In this post we will mainly discuss the differences between these two approaches. Top of rack switching is a network architecture design in which computing equipment like servers appliances and other switches located within the same or adjacent rack are connected to an in rack network switch.

The tor top of rack approach recommends network switches to be placed on every rack and all the computing devices present in the rack to be connected to them. Other switch locations could be bottom of the rack or middle of rack however top of the rack is most common due to easier accessibility and cleaner cable management. Servers are interconnected to access switches deployed within the server racks. The top of rack switching can relieve the complexity of cabling and increase the efficiency of on site deployment.