Ubiquiti Switches

[synaesthesia]

Looking to replace some of our D-Link switches due to some failing ports, plus could do with consolidating a lot of the pair of 24 port switches with single 48 port ones.

It'd be nice to rock up with 10Gbit availability to futureproof ourselves a little too. Although back end is mostly HP and the last switches we've been buying are HP 1920-48Gs, HP's decent Procurve offerings cost an arm, a leg and a kidney, especially when we're looking at the possibility of 10 new devices costing us the majority of our entire budget!

 

One thing that sticks out like a sore thumb are the Ubiquiti offerings, in particular the US-48-500W.

Lots of boxes ticked. Managed, the lovely Unifi controller software, SFP+ for 10GBe modules which are only £36 each, POE for standard AND UniFi (that's our wifi AP's and cameras happy!), and they are coming in at just over £500.

Sounds very much "too good to be true", but we said exactly the same about the Unifi WiFi APs.

Yes they're not going to be as comprehensive as the Procurves, but they are replacing D-Link gigabit switches that cost us a whopping £100 each 5 years ago so we're thinking win-win.

The only real issue is real-world usage; the reviews that are out there are raving about them, hugely positive - but there's just not a lot of them!

 

Anyone have any experience or input?

[Gaz]

I like the idea of their switches but I cant seem to find if they have any layer2+ capability, static routing would be nice.

 

The latest version of their software is quite pretty and you can manage it in the cloud kinda like a budget version of Meraki. So if you have ubiquiti wireless APs getting the switches gives you very nice integration using the software.

[synaesthesia]

Aye, that does seem quite nice We're only looking to play with one first to see if they're suitable And yeah, a couple of dists are offering the switch with Ubiquiti's hosted controller in the cloud for nothing for the first year and a tenner a year per device after.

[VeryPC_Anthony_L]

Having used and as well as owns the Ubiquiti access points and some of the AirOS devices they are really good. The difference I guess is the unifi stuff is cheap to replace and also try out. I guess it depends on what features you require, want and need. Th HP 1920 range is fairly reasonable and cheap and stable. I guess some questions to consider

- do you need a single managed system

- do you need 48 poe ports

- do you mind having a mixed bag of switches.

 

If it were me buying, I would probably get more of the HP 1920 switches.

[synaesthesia]

3 issues with the 1920.

1. The interface is the worst I have EVER seen on a switch. Utterly diabolical with no logic, rhyme or reason why it works the way it does.

2. No 10gb support

3. Did I mention about that ruddy interface?

 

Don't mind the mixed bag at all, ultimately it'd probably lead to the majority of the site being ubiquiti anyway. At the moment it's mostly Dlink edge switches, 4 or 5 1920s and a pair of hp 5406ZL cores

[synaesthesia]

A little update for anyone interested, we got 2 of these in today. Early days but they're certainly easy to set up. Done via DHCP and the Unifi controller software we already have in place for our AP's, things like vlans made quick and easy sense without even looking at any documentation. They look good, specs are excellent for the price and they're not as loud as some have said. They're about the same as our HP 1920's noise-wise. Time will tell when we get the 10gbit modules in them

[Gaz]

Can you confirm if they support static routes?

[synaesthesia]

I can't see anything obvious. There appears to be hints on the forums that they will but I can't confirm if they relate to the Switch or the EdgeRouters etc. I've yet to dig around any further than the controller interface but will let you know if I find anything.