My workplace has an old and rigid network system. I currently have one computer acting as an NFS server and many computers acting as an NFS client. They are all presently connected through my workplace’s network. It's very slow (about 10 Mbps), making large file transfers infeasible. Since all these computers will always be physically close to each other, and most of them have a second network interface on their motherboards, I wanted to set up a second network with only these servers (just for a high-speed connection between them). I can procure USB to Ethernet dongles for the servers that do not have a second LAN port. My question is: how do I set up this network (hardware and software)?
- A good router and passive (unmanaged) ethernet switches should do the trick. However, I wanted to know if this is professional (optimal).
I looked into some networking concepts, and it seems like switches are good enough for my application. However, OSI Level 2 switches won't allocate IP addresses. I'll need something to give IP addresses (DHCP server) for NFS to work. I might have other applications in the future that may need to use this high-speed interconnection.
I'm a novice at networking, but I think you use routers to connect different networks and switches for managing networks. I couldn't find routers with eight LAN ports (I have eight computers). I might add computers in the future. I want to use ethernet for everything (no WiFi).