ilovecheese

This has worked well for me too, for many years now!

Me too! The unused tube stations look interesting as well.

My main need of a separate POE is more logistical than networking, it’s convenient to power a couple of cameras from a distant switch.

I think if I started over the only things I’d alter would be the number of ports on the main switch. 16 ports at least. I’ve used all 8 and still have things I would use more for.

Here’s a physical diagram (not all clients are shown) that may help some more:

Yep, it’s not as overkill as it first seems.

One managed handles all the VLAN designations and most of the heavy lifting of the network,

One is just a virtual switch in my Proxmox server dealing with the virtual machines and containers.

And then a physical VLAN aware switch at each end of the house for all client devices on multiple VLANS, ie CCTV (no internet), Media VMs on VPN only VLAN, PC, laptop, phones etc on their own, and a management VLAN.

Here’s my network as an example: