I have connected a second Netgear Prosafe 16 ports switch to a new rack of blade servers.
I assumed that when added there would be 32 ports less the one to the incoming Internet and the one port on each switch used to connect them together.. That should leave me with 29 free ports that work? But only 18 are working I have 20 blade servers on two racks but only 18 are connecting Servers are DELL Poweredge 1855 and the 2 Gigabit Switches are Netgear Prosafe GS116
Thanks John.
I've done exactly that with the same, or very similar switches before - no issues.
Did you try switching the cables to different ports? Or switching cables?
I've seen plenty of broken cables, connectors, and even individual ports.
Also, when you say 'Connecting' do you mean they are detecting the cable, the lights on the ports on both server and computer are working, it's not getting an IP, it's dropping a lot of packets, internet is not connecting? There are a lot of reasons for 'not connecting'.
First thing to do is check the cable is plugged in at both ends properly, then change the cable to a different port, then change to a new cable.
Also, 20 blades in 2 racks? Do you mean 1U servers? Most blade enclosures have built in networking, and wouldn't need 10 cables per enclosure.
When you bought them, were they new or refurb? If they're refurb and manageable, you might do a factory reset in case there are existing VLANs.
And when you say not working, do you mean the lights don't light and there's no link, or there's just no traffic that passes?
