Layer 2 Configuration

I made a start on configuring the layer 2 area of the Building A network. We had planned to use etherchannel between switches throughout the network, so both new layer 2 switches, BA1S and BA2S, (naming scheme: Building A, Floor 1/Floor 2 Switch) have been configured for etherchannel between each other and BAS1 and BAS2 in a mesh layout. Unfortunately, the etherchannel links between layer 2 and layer 3 switches weren't turning on so that's a bit of troubleshooting for later. Earlier in the week, I began writing a checklist of things I needed to research towards security and network monitoring. I had also come across information about firewall solutions where Cisco recommends using a hardware firewall over a software, due to the ease of configuring a single point firewall solution instead of multiple software firewalls on each workstation across the network.