DO NOT design your network like this!! // FREE CCNA // EP 6

[Bob Zelin]

I finally upgraded to a full Ubiquiti UniFi Dream Machine Pro with two 16 port UniFi switches (2 different apartments) and a bunch of assorted UniFi Access points. The second apartment is my office, and I have all my
work computers, QNAP's and Synology's on that second switch. The ability to see and manage everything (and label everything) is really wonderful. A lot of people don't want to spend all this money (a lot of people
don't want to spend $200 for a router !) - but I do this for a living, and I make money doing this, so I don't want any aggravation. The map that you have shown in your picture above is similar to my UniFi map.
It makes finding problems so easy.

I just learned the UniFi VLAN stuff - because Ubiquiti is about to release a 24 port 10Gbase-T switch with a dual port 25G SFP28 uplink. I imagine that since this will cost less than a Netgear XS728T (which does not even
have the 25G uplink ports) and QNAP seems in no rush to be building a larger 10G switch than the QSW-M1208-8C - I will probably be installing a bunch of these (because it will be cheap) - and my cheap clients will want to
segment the 24 port switch so that some can be for dedicated 10G on one VLAN, and their regular stuff for internet access will be on VLAN1.

I read all the "bad reviews" on Reddit about Ubiquiti, just like I read the bad reviews on QNAP (and Synology). There are a lot of people that simply won't put the effort out to learn about all this stuff ( I don't blame them -
I certainly don't want to know anything about accounting software !) - but just like the QNAP stuff works great, the UniFi stuff works great IF it's setup correctly.

Bob Zelin

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

i'm new to ubiquiti. but i like the UI. and i can finally get guest vlan to work much easier than my previous hardware options. This goes well with my qnap nas when using android apps for browsing media.

not sure about the dream, the controller (i use the unifi controller qpkg hosted on qnap and that seems to do the job) or their usg firewalls

[Trexx]

I have plenty of Unifi experience (UDMPro, 2 Agg 10GbE, 1 24-port POE, 1 8Port, 1 8 Port POE, + 4 AP’s)

I probably have 10+ VLans running right now (and I don’t even run a guest network .

Short version answer - the main reason for having all your switches (assuming we are talking 1Gb uplinks here) directly connected to your router is that most Unifi Switches are Layer 2 switches.

So when you have devices crossing VLANs (i.e. routing) especially for devices that are both not on the same switch, they have to go back to the PFSense box for that.

By having them all directly connected to the PFSense box, they are basically 1 hop away for that (if Ethernet devices) for reduced latency.

Other reason relates to your oversubscription of bandwidth on your uplinks. Say you have (8) 1GbE devices on your switch all talking at 1Gb, but all on different VLAN’s. You then have 8Gb of traffic that have to traverse the uplink to PFSense, but you only have a 1GbE pipe (newer gen 24port may have 10Gb SFP+).

Now if you have a similar issue on a downlink switch, you could have an 8x1 oversubscribed coming out of switch #2 > Switch 1. Add an 8x1 oversubscribe out of Switch #1 > PFSense. You just turned that into a 16x1 oversubscription (versus 2 - 8x1’s).

So there are reasons to do model when dealing with high over-subscription rates on your uplink ports when you are dealing with a lot of routing.

Unifi does have some higher-end L3 switches which can handling both the switching and some of the routing within switch, but they are spendy.


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[Toxic17]

Just remember the 8x 1 GB ports on the UDM Pro only has a 1GB backplane.

I am however contemplating the USW Agg Switch. and put most of my switches into that along with any QNAP 10GB devices.

nice review of it here. https://www.technologyfocus.net/network ... on-review/

[Trexx]

Just remember the 8x 1 GB ports on the UDM Pro only has a 1GB backplane.

I am however contemplating the USW Agg Switch. and put most of my switches into that along with any QNAP 10GB devices.

nice review of it here. https://www.technologyfocus.net/network ... on-review/

Great call out regarding UDMP 1Gb shared backplane on 8x1 ports. Since Moog didn’t use that for routing I didn’t mention it.

I like my USW Aggs overall, but they are still getting some glitches out of the firmware. Mainly around SFP+ compatibility and quirks around port behavior after a config change. Having to unplug /replug an sfp+ etc. (think UDMP WAN port to ISP after a reboot).

The latest beta/release FW versions feel like they are getting close.


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