Gardinho Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) Hi guys, Does anyone here keep a spare layer 3 switch just for emergency? I've been thinking about what would happen (God forbid!) if our core switch failed. It has quite a complex setup, which works perfectly for our network. A replacement, identical switch would cost about £1,300, so it's pretty big money to essentially just sit there in a box. Can't way up whether or not it would be worth it to get one and copy the config over so it would essentially mean just swapping the hardware rather than completely reconfiguring. Thoughts? Edited February 24, 2015 by Gardinho
fairm010 Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 I have the exact same model ready to swap in with the live switches config loaded. As soon as there is a fault I swap it out. 2
Gardinho Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 Thanks @fairm010. That's what I'm leaning towards doing. The downtime while we waited would just not be tolerated here. Would be interested to hear what others do too.
LiamH Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 If you could swing the funding then it would be nice. I would suggest if you do buy a new switch, hook that one up and keep the old one as a spare. Pointless sitting in a box if it's in warranty. 1
bossman Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Go for it, we have a core switch and also an edge switch as spares, for the cost involved to have an infrastructure which would be a full mesh topology allowing for failures would cost £1000s which in the cold light of day for our environment is not a requirement at our school. Cheaper by far to have a spare 1
fairm010 Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 You have two options: 1) Wait for replacement and config and swap out. Could take over a week. 2) Spend the cash and have one ready. Half hours downtime at the most. 1
DavePa Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 A replacement, identical switch would cost about £1,300, so it's pretty big money to essentially just sit there in a box. It's a lot of money until such time as you need it, at that point however it's a complete bargain! 1
localzuk Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 It really depends what switch you use. We have a 5406zl here and it'd cost us about £17k to have a spare one. So, that would be a ridiculous use of money. Instead, we have the configs backed up so we can get a replacement next day and get it up and running again via the config. £1300 for a spare, that isn't a bad price at all - if it were that price here, I'd have one on the shelf for sure. 1
Gibbo Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 A decent switch should have good support. 4 hour response is typical. Make sure the configs are backed up regularly and you won't lose more than half a day, which I think is acceptable. 1
kennysarmy Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Our core switch has dual/redundant power supply and is basically a chassis you put modules in. There seems to be very little that can go wrong with the chassis and we've warranty on it anyway so would be replaced in a day - we could utilize another switch if necessary to get some areas of the school operational. I personally can't see the value in money sitting on a shelf for a just in case scenario when it's a large some of money - but that's just my view. Might be different if the core switch fails later today !! 1
synaesthesia Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 We have a pair of 5406zl's but in case of failure we could get up and running the same day within a matter of minutes, just throwing in any old 24 port switch. It'll not be quick but it'll still do everything that's needed of it. (This has been done using a pair of Dlink gigabit switches!) 1
TronXP Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 We have spare edge switch but our core is like £12K, we gave the school the option of a spare, they decided against it. So backup configs are at the ready! 1
3s-gtech Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 We have a 5406zl too - I'd be pretty confident that I could get any failed modules on site next day, while it would mean downtime it wouldn't be too horrendous. Due to our heavy use of fibre to edges we couldn't swap a basic switch in though. 1
Gardinho Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 Gents, Thanks for taking the time to comment. The general consensus is to get a replacement it, which I will probably go for. So most people on here actually already have a spare switch sitting in stock? Or is that in an ideal scenario? It should really take priority over other purchases I guess. What would worry me would be to let it run to the point of the with being EOL, so even if we were to replace it importing the config file might not necessarily work.
apeman Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Why have it sitting there doing nothing?? have it online and part of the network then make a redundant core with the pair.
nicholab Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 It would be possible to use a layer 2 switch with an x86 box running the right software to do routing.
mac_shinobi Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 It would be possible to use a layer 2 switch with an x86 box running the right software to do routing. Presuming you're thinking of pfsense or similar ?
Gardinho Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 That wouldn't do VLANs too though would it?
nicholab Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Yep it would do vlans You end up with router on a stick you tag the vlans on the interface to the router. 1
Mr_Jiminy Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Hi guys, Does anyone here keep a spare layer 3 switch just for emergency? I've been thinking about what would happen (God forbid!) if our core switch failed. It has quite a complex setup, which works perfectly for our network. A replacement, identical switch would cost about £1,300, so it's pretty big money to essentially just sit there in a box. Can't way up whether or not it would be worth it to get one and copy the config over so it would essentially mean just swapping the hardware rather than completely reconfiguring. Thoughts? What are you running as a core switch? At £1,300 I would have though arms could be twisted to ensure minimal downtime.
Gardinho Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 (edited) Thanks for your advise. Some interesting opinions. Seems that there isn't one standard recommended good practise. I've had a quote back tonight for £900 for a replacement, so that seems like my favoured option at the moment. I'm also looking at the option for a maintenance contract on the current switch. Will post the numbers here when I get them. Edited February 24, 2015 by Gardinho
Gardinho Posted February 24, 2015 Author Posted February 24, 2015 What are you running as a core switch? At £1,300 I would have though arms could be twisted to ensure minimal downtime. Our Core Switch is a HP 2910 AL 48G.
nicholab Posted February 24, 2015 Posted February 24, 2015 Our core is an HP 8212 zl just under a tpbs of routing.
FN-GM Posted February 25, 2015 Posted February 25, 2015 We have 2 core switches in a stack. All the edge switches plug into an interface on each switch. Each switch also has 2 PSU's. If one fails there is no network downtime at all. 1
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