Best way to physically connect switches

Question

I&rsquo;m currently developing a network layout for a customer. They will get a XG230 (with FleXi port SFP+) and 3 Netgear S3300 switches. While thinking about how to connect the devices 2 options came to mind and i&rsquo;d like to have your opinions about it. 
 Switch 1 will be in the central patch with XG230 Switches 2 and 3 will be in other wings in satellite patch points. 
 Option 1: 
 XG230 - SFP_1: Switch_1 -> Access ports - SFP_2: Switch_2 -> Access ports - SFP_3: Switch_3 -> Access ports - SFP_4: (spare) 
 Option 2: 
 XG230 - SFP_1: Switch_1 -> Access ports - SFP_2: (spare) 
 Switch_1 - SFP_1: Switch_2 -> Access ports - SFP_2: Switch_3 -> Access ports 
 What is the best option? Let inter-switch traffic run through the XG230 and directly connect the switches? Or declare a master switch to act as a single distributor. 
 I&rsquo;d like to hear your comments on this and specially the &ldquo;why&rdquo;.

lferrara · Accepted Answer

Tijsk, 
 welcome to community. Your question is more related to network design and implementation rather than XG. Anyway in a typical installation, you should configure your entire network to send all traffic to XG/UTM, so it can inspect it and block/allow. Also you can hava reports on how much data flows from one vlan to another and so on. 
 In your situation, you can use 2 switches and connect both to XG, where a LAG has been created. Use the XG as router on the stick, so it knows all VLAN and you can inspect traffic and use policy rule to filter traffic. 
 Also buy a second SG230 in order to eliminate the point of failure.