Techie2000 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Hypothetical question - lets say your Core or a main distribution switch failed, what would you do? Do you have a redundancy in place? I work for a primary school with only one Core switch and I always wanted to ask, what do others do? Would you simply just swap the switch for an access switch (feature dependent)? Wait for the 24 hour warranty replacement? I prefer to be proactive opposed to reactive, however when you are limited by budget, I wonder how others manage? Fortunately I would be able to get a redundant unit if needed, but I just wanted to hear other solutions/ methodologies.
FN-GM Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 If a core fails, no big worries as we have 2 in the stack. There would be no downtime. We then would replace the broken switch and all is fine. Nobody would even notice. People buy servers with 2 PSU, Raid, VMware with HA etc and then have no redundancy in the network. To me it doesn't make sense.
3s-gtech Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Yeah, we'd be stuffed until the replacement came - I can't emulate our switch with anything else as it has so many SFPs. Redundancy/spare would be very nice, but a new chassis alone is £1200 so it'd take a bit of planning to spend that 'just in case'.
tmcd35 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 At the moment - panic! The switch is out of warranty, It has a HP lifetime warranty - but I'm sure the lifetime, as defined by them, is up. I'd get what I can back up using old spare switches I have laying around, but I'd struggle and have to prioritise services. During the summer our new core is going in. I'll be keeping the bones of the old core in storage so I can swap out with that if the worst happened.
3s-gtech Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 It has a HP lifetime warranty - but I'm sure the lifetime, as defined by them, is up Have you tried invoking the warranty on Procurve gear before? It's superb - no kidding. We had a ten year old switch swapped out with little fuss. I'd be pretty confident of a quick turnaround.
DaveJ2717uk Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 HP lifetime warranty means just that as with the previous poster we've had an 8 year old switch swapped out with no issues. As stated above HP warranty is superb.
localzuk Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) We have config backups of it, and would be in touch with HP to send us a replacement for whichever bit has failed (as its a modular switch). We couldn't swap it out for an access switch - we've got 15 SFP and 4 SFP+ modules plugged in to it, along with a few dozen copper connections. It also acts as the central router for the network for intra-vlan routing. So, no redundancy for us - it'd cost too much to implement! £15k+ for it to sit on a shelf. Edited June 9, 2015 by localzuk
tmcd35 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Have you tried invoking the warranty on Procurve gear before? It's superb - no kidding. We had a ten year old switch swapped out with little fuss. I'd be pretty confident of a quick turnaround. I have, on one of the core switches no less. I'm sure it's limited lifetime warranty, so now the product is obsolete I don't think they'll replace it. I'm not complaining, I think the switch shares it's birthday with some of our year 11's!
Steve21 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I work for a primary school with only one Core switch and I always wanted to ask, what do others do? If it's a primary what do you have configured on it? Most the primaries I've been to don't even have VLANs/fiber on, so it could be swapped out by any basic switch for a temporary solution. Obviously this depends on the primary and setup, but even throwing a basic 100Meg switch in would be better than nothing if it's a basic setup? Steve
mjk Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Stack of 4 - All of the main components have redundant links so I could easily loose one switch. There would be a certain amount of titting around where a particular device has one link and I'd have to find space for it elsewhere, but overall I'm confident things would be ok. However, if we lost our router or firewall we would be screwed.
localzuk Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I have, on one of the core switches no less. I'm sure it's limited lifetime warranty, so now the product is obsolete I don't think they'll replace it. I'm not complaining, I think the switch shares it's birthday with some of our year 11's! Nope, that isn't how it works. They specifically say that the warranty is valid for as long as you own the product. 1
synaesthesia Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 HP's lifetime warranty is as good as it's word, as above. We have a pair of core switches due to having a split site, so routing will fall back to the other switch with a quick config change, and physical connectivity on the failed site can be picked up by a spare edge spec switch with no hassle.
Techie2000 Posted June 9, 2015 Author Posted June 9, 2015 Thanks everyone, I really appreciate your responses. I think many of you are in the same boat as I am! We currently have a gigabit core switch that has 7 VLANs but no redundancy. Personally, I would be running to PC World Business and picking up a cheap replacement - fortunately I think I'd even have a spare at home! I also agree with @mjk about our Firewall appliance, I am going to look into a VA redundancy for that though.. I keep several copies of your config backups just in case.
jmak Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Nope, that isn't how it works. They specifically say that the warranty is valid for as long as you own the product. And you don't need proof of purchase. I guess if you sent one back every month they'd get suspicious, but I had one so old that the paperwork had been shredded long before I arrived at the school. I spent 10 minutes on the phone to their support team and the next day a replacement turned up. Refurb of same model rather than shiny new one, but perfect working order. Best warranty service I've ever had on anything, ever...
tmcd35 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Thanks guys, I could have sworn it was limited lifetime the last time I looked in to it. As I say, new core going in in August, so I'm not too phased by it
truebluesteve Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I'd probably panic. We have an Extreme Black Diamond and the maintenance contract has lapsed (not our fault but thats another story) We do have a redundant Extreme Switch which we could power up but it uses large GBICS so we would need to change all the patch leads too. Currently trying to sort a new contract out!
pcstru Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 People buy servers with 2 PSU, Raid, VMware with HA etc and then have no redundancy in the network. To me it doesn't make sense. I had planned for a second core switch in our second server room and when we run new fibre we run to both server rooms. However, the cost of a second switch would be in the region of ~£30K when all the costs are in, plus ongoing costs (energy, warranty, support). Our core switch is covered by next day replacement (and HP are generally excellent in that respect), so the question is, would a couple of days downtime equate to >£30K. I don't think the answer is clear cut, whereas it would be for a business this size, so I've not actually put the switch in. Other areas seem more clear cut. RAID - we see disc failures every year and the cost of protection is essentially quite low. PSU's and UPS's - we see power interruptions regularly (every 6 months or so) although we see few PSU failures (one every few years). VMWare gives a lot of other advantages, HA almost comes as a free bonus. I think out biggest cost in terms of redundancy is a dual head SAN. I don't justify that on the basis of eliminating downtime, I justify it on the basis of reducing the risk of data loss on real time transactional systems (MIS but probably more importantly, Catering). We do have redundant switches on the SAN but the cost of that was ~£3K, which is much easier to justify against the disruption that would be caused by a failure.
localzuk Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 And you don't need proof of purchase. I guess if you sent one back every month they'd get suspicious, but I had one so old that the paperwork had been shredded long before I arrived at the school. I spent 10 minutes on the phone to their support team and the next day a replacement turned up. Refurb of same model rather than shiny new one, but perfect working order. Best warranty service I've ever had on anything, ever... They don't need that proof as the warranty is transferable too. So, even if you buy it second hand from someone who used it before you, it'd be covered. However, if it is sold second hand by a non-end user (ie. a company reselling stuff), then the warranty ended when it entered their possession.
Roberto Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 (edited) I have, on one of the core switches no less. I'm sure it's limited lifetime warranty, so now the product is obsolete I don't think they'll replace it. I'm not complaining, I think the switch shares it's birthday with some of our year 11's! HP have purchased obsolete but working switches from us the last time we upgraded, precisely in order to recondition them to facilitate their lifetime warranty. They obviously can't do the impossible (so I have no idea what would happen if there simply wasn't a spare/replacement to be had for something) but they really do move mountains to keep that warranty. It's a big selling point for them - not just the words on paper but the lengths people know them to go to in order to live up to the spirit of those words. Edited June 9, 2015 by Roberto
halbaradkenafin Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 We've got 2 so that handles redundancy for us and we've got pretty good turnaround on our support from the guys who manage and support the networking infrastructure. We've probably got enough spare edge switches to lose maybe 6 or 7 of those too before we need to worry too much, mostly due to having had too many installed and some only having a few ports actually used in a 48 port switch. Thanks guys, I could have sworn it was limited lifetime the last time I looked in to it. As I say, new core going in in August, so I'm not too phased by it Cisco does that for it's switches (or did last time I looked), the HP full lifetime warranty would make me swap everything out if it wasn't going to be so expensive to replace all our gear.
sonofsanta Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I'd swap a couple of SFPs about, because although we have two switches in the stack, not every remote switch is redundantly cabled, so I'd have to move some from the broken switch to the working one. Config is backed up and taken off-site as part of my disaster recovery procedure, and I have a copy on hand as well, so if it destroyed itself software-wise I can fix that pretty easily. Given how integral a part of the network it is, you absolutely need redundancy in the core in some way. A spare switch that sits on the shelf is probably a waste of money, but a stack of switches that can limp along with reduced capacity and give you headroom when fully operational is a good design (though I may be biased there )
aleach2 Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 Hypothetical question - lets say your Core or a main distribution switch failed, what would you do? Do you have a redundancy in place? I work for a primary school with only one Core switch and I always wanted to ask, what do others do? Would you simply just swap the switch for an access switch (feature dependent)? Wait for the 24 hour warranty replacement? I prefer to be proactive opposed to reactive, however when you are limited by budget, I wonder how others manage? Fortunately I would be able to get a redundant unit if needed, but I just wanted to hear other solutions/ methodologies. We have a stacked core switch setup (2 x SFP switches and 2 x copper). We also have redundant connections going into each switch, so if a SPF or copper switch died we would still be able to work. We also have one spare SFP & copper switch on standby to swapout in the case of a disaster. So we have some redundancy, but it is not fully redundant and its not without some human intervention if we did have a failure. We also have config backups of all our switches so loading that backup should be fairly straight forward.
Sagima Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I would probably swap a few swithces about to compensate. I don;t think it would be a problem for more than an hour. Once the switch was fixed/replaced under warranty I'd schedule out of hours time to set it back the way it was.
Oaktech Posted June 9, 2015 Posted June 9, 2015 I always have a switch on the shelf, ready configured, that would do in an emergency. My criteria are: * it must support the number of server connections plus uplinks, * must support vlans, * must support the L3 for the routing information. That's all. Currently my weapon of choice is a 24port HP Procurve 1910, my needs are currently not complex.
JScott Posted June 10, 2015 Posted June 10, 2015 Out of interest what are people using as core switches?
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