'Core' Switch Replacement

[geohanson]

Hi All,

 

We are looking at replacing our 'Core' switch (Netgear GSM7248R) primarily due to age. I say 'core' switch as we have a County Council supplied Cisco L3 switch which routes our internet connection to both admin and curriculum networks. The Netgear then has connections to all the servers, and most other cabinets in school.

 

Any recommendations for switches would be much appreciated. I've looked at either a similar model Netgear, a HP 2530-48G or an offering from Ubiquiti.

The whole site is Netgear at the moment but we are open to change, although the Netgear lifetime warranty has proved very useful on a number of older PoE switches!

 

Thanks

[PotNoodleTech]

It totally depends on what connections you have incoming and outgoing to the switch - I for example have 24 fibre connections coming in, 8 x 10GB connections and I need 48 POE ports on it too - so for me a 2530 wouldn't be any use whatsoever.

 

A 2530 is not a "core" switch really it's designed to be an edge switch.

[geohanson]

We currently have no fibre or PoE on this switch and no requirement for 10GB at the current time. It's all (about 35 ports) 1GB copper.

There is also no requirement for L3 routing and we are only using 4 VLANS

 

I understand that a 2530 is really an edge switch but what is the advantage of going up to a 2920 when its almost double the cost?

[kernits]

The unifi stuff is great but single power supply so really not suitable for a "core" switch.

[PotNoodleTech]

Really it comes down to how powerful the switch is, switching capacity backbone bandwidth.

 

An edge switch is not designed to have all it's ports plugged in and busy with many devices connected to each port. A core switch is designed to do exactly that.

 

I can't tell you if you need a 2920 or not - it depends how big your network is, how busy it is, what kind of future expansion you will be going through.

 

The 2530-48-POE gives you 105Gbps backbone and 77.3 Million packers per second.

The 2920-48-poe gives you 176Gbps backbone and 130.9 Million packets per second so it's a fair bit more powerful.

 

my 5412 ZL is modular so it can cope with all the fibre needs and gives me 758Gbps backbone and 564.2 Million packets per second so it is an order of magnitude faster than all of the edge switches you can buy.

Edited October 10, 2018 by PotNoodleTech

[Sephiroth]

For what you need, an Allied Telesis X510L-52GT would do the job with 228Gbps backbone and 130.9Mpps. Should be a lot cheaper than an HP 2920 too.