Refurbished Switches Ya or Na

[MrPstv]

Its been a while since i have used edugeek!

Some advice required please,

 

Would you recommend used switches?

If so what brand?

Where would you purchase them from if the recommendation was yes?

 

In brief:i need to start from scratch in some aspects as we have NO fibre connections to any cabs and running 80% on 10/100's.

 

Any help with recommendations used or new are welcome..thankyou.

[Norphy]

Depends on the brand I guess and what the switches are being used for. It would also depend on the support packages that the refurb seller is offering and the warranty on the switch.

 

If you're getting HP, for a core switch I wouldn't as new switches from them come with a lifetime warranty which doesn't get transferred to a new owner if the switch gets sold. A core switch is absolutely critical to your infrastructure so getting proper support for it is important.

 

For the edge, I'd prefer to have new but I'd be willing to compromise as long as the savings are high enough to justify getting refurbs.

[AlanD]

I've always bought second hand switches..saved a fortune. Bought ones with 10G backbone. No, you don't get a lifetime guarantee. In fact no guarantee at all. But I can afford to buy a spare switch to keep on the shelf when they are £100 each. In fact I've got two. Needless to say, I have never had to use them. And yes, I use cheap, £10 Chinese fibre modules too. Never had an issue for over 10 years. I always think schools need a second hand mondeo solution not the brand new rolls Royce solution.

[mukz]

I second @AlanD. Although i would buy Core as brand new. Mind is slowly changing over time.

[Davit2005]

Defo New switch for Core

 

If you have gone for HP core then certainly worth be looking at semi-decent managed 2nd hand HP edge switches. We have some 10+ year old HP's still swapped out by HP if faulty. HP would be my first choice.

[NB9457]

Have a at Unifi switches, a lot of people using on here, cheap enough brand new and they do a 10Gb core switch and edge switches with 10Gb uplinks

[DrCheese]

Unifi just needs stacking support, then I'm in!

[markwilfan]

I'm slowly replacing hp for unifi. 670 ish quid for 2 sfp+ and 48 port gig poe+ . Yes please. Just wish their 24 porters had sfp+

[NB9457]

Unifi just needs stacking support, then I'm in!

 

We have multiple Fibre links to all cabs, so we are lucky in the sense that the lack of stacking wouldn't really impact us as we could run a 10Gb link to each switch from the Core. You can also create a LAG using the 10Gb Ethernet ports on the SFP+ switches to effectively link two together.

[AlanD]

Yes, I'm not sure the lack of stacking should be a deal breaker.

[Norphy]

Yes, I'm not sure the lack of stacking should be a deal breaker.

 

To each their own. I've just replaced 74 1U switches in one of my schools with 7 chassis based switches. The design brief was either chassis switches or switches that could be stacked because having to manage 74 individual 1U switches is beyond annoying. Even if the "stack" just enables management from 1 IP address, I see some pretty big advantages to doing it.

[Roberto]

We have 40-something switches, most of which are chassis based. Even with switch management tools, I really would not want to manage the corresponding number of 1u non-stacking switches; it would be about 200+ switches, a nightmare. Edited September 20, 2017 by Roberto

[DrCheese]

Yes, I'm not sure the lack of stacking should be a deal breaker.

 

eh, given how our network is setup at the moment I wouldn't want to lose it, i.e

 

I have 2 fibre switches in a stack, each switch has a cable to each stack. I can suffer the loss of one core switch or the UPS supporting it without downtime.

 

As each stack has two fibres, I can suffer the loss of a fibre cable without any downtime. We've had a few fibre cables die over the years and no one has noticed a thing (Well we have, but not staff!)

 

Even if the "stack" just enables management from 1 IP address

That too, it's very handy! (Our stacks are named after building and floor, i.e stack31 is downstairs block 3) useful to know which stack you need based on location

Edited September 20, 2017 by DrCheese

[Davit2005]

We have 40-something switches, most of which are chassis based. Even with switch management tools, I really would not want to manage the corresponding number of 1u non-stacking switches; it would be about 200+ switches, a nightmare.

 

We have 500 HP switches only 1 pair of 5406 are stacked. Jus beginning to use iMC for nearly all management, does save time. For instance if a device is on wrong vlan we can locate and change the port/port type all by 5-6 clicks rather than trying to trace the MAC address from switch to switch. Deploying vlans is as easy too :-) .