Upgrading Network Switches

[talksr]

I am looking to upgrade the network switches we have at our school during the summer break. I would like to change the network from a flat one to a layered one with VLans.

I have a couple of good switches in the building:

 

1 x HP J9627A

1 x HP J9625A

 

However, the school has a number of cheap ZyEXL non-managed switches (8 in total).

Whoever set up the network thought that daisy chaining switches as well as patching every single network port in the building to a switch was a good idea. I don't plan on replacing all 8 of the cheap switches as I think we can cut down by only using the ports we actually need plus a 24port spare so we have some future capacity.

 

I was thinking of getting something like a Cisco SG500-28P to act as a core switch and then buying some HP switches equivalent to the two above.

Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions?

This is a London based 2 form entry with VMB broadband and quite a lot of iPads/wifi devices. I am thinking that Layer 3 switches would be our best option but I am welcome to any suggestions.

 

There are three cabs in three different buildings here all joined by fibre, so would be making use of the sfp ports rather than the the fibre media converters the school currently has.

 

Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

[Davit2005]

How many 10Gb ports do you need at the Core. Do you really need PoE at the Core?

 

Personally I'd consider the Aruba 2930f as a core switch at that price range but non-PoE (they have PoE options but more expensive) they have models that include 4 SFP+ switches but that may not be enough if you need a higher 10Gb port count it may not be suitable, they are also stackable but there are other manufacturer options like the higher end Netgear that will give you higher port count and are stackable. There is also the Ubiquiti ES-16-XG which also has layer 3 routing (apart from IPv6, no dynamic routing protocols to my knowledge and a lack of HA features i.e stackabiltiy, VRRP, etc.) you could probably get 2 of then and have one on the shelf as spare, lol. The CLI interface on the 2930f and many commands should be the same as the 2620's.

 

There could also be the option of routing the vlans on your firewall depending.

 

There are positives to having a flood patched switch approach in a bigger environment. But yes daisy chaining switches is not wise unless it is only a handful of switches. In nearly all scenarios where we have 8+ switches in a cab/building we have a top of rack switch feeding the other switches to give an extended star topology.

Edited July 16, 2020 by Davit2005

[3s-gtech]

Currently replacing our flat 1G network with new Aruba 6300M switches on 10G throughout (this is this most immense overkill, but whatever). I'm currently ripping out the old Cisco SG300 and HP V19** 1G switches which have been faultless, and they're great value (if old models now). The Aruba stuff is flexible in terms of layout (24 SFP+ ports, options with 50G DACs, 48 port 1G with 4 SFP+ uplinks, etc) but the pricing appears to have been chosen by someone that's been inhaling the fumes from the packaging.

[computer_expert]

Having had experience of both HPE/Aruba and Ubiquiti UniFi switches, I'd say the Arubas are much better than UniFi kit.

 

I'd go with something like an Aruba 2930f at the core and 2540 at the edge. If you need lots of SFP ports then have a look at something a bit bigger like the 5400r series for the core.

 

If you go down the Ubiquiti route (HA!) then just be aware of the limited featureset of UniFi/Edgeswitch layer 3 bits as per the comment in post 2

[Net-Ctrl]

I completely accept that I am biased, but we are doing quite a lot of networks with the Ruckus ICX switch portfolio. Price wise we seem to be beating a lot of the Aruba/HP equivalents, and their portfolio is built on the formerly Brocade Campus portfolio.

 

Even if it is just to review an alternative approach, please feel free to send me a PM and I can ask one of the team to get in touch. We can build comparison topology diagrams and quotations if you already have plans in mind, or can design new ones with you.

 

As another alternative, we also work with Allied Telesis that have a wide switch portfolio.

[Guest Guest]

We're overhauling our switches this summer and we've settled on the Dell N1500 series and an N2000 to handle inter vlan routing, we chose these as we already had 5 from a refurb a few years back and we're able to get them refurbished at good price.

 

We got the below for just over £3000

 

3x N1524p poe 24 port switches

2x N1548 48 port none poe

2x N1524 24 port none poe

1x N2024 24 port none poe

[chris11256]

We did a core refresh last summer and put in an Aruba 5406R Zl2 with redundant management modules. You can get the J9993A module which has 8 10Gbps SFP+ ports, or if you're not doing 10Gbps J9988A provides 20 1Gbps SFP ports instead. You can have up to 6 modules in this switch.

 

Very happy with it overall, bucketloads of capacity for us going forward.

[Davit2005]

We have 5 5406Rs on site two of them are VSF stacked the others just have dual management cards. They have been no problems what so ever and rock solid. We are a HP shop network wise (edge,distribution,aggregation and core,) 750+ switches, the only switches we have seem to have majority of issues with is 2810s and 2650s all these are still swapped out and replaced under warranty despite their age.

[mavhc]

Usually easier if your core switch is the same manufacturer as the edge switches, esp when using vlans

[talksr]

Thank you everyone.

 

I decided to get some ideas on cost for the Aruba 6300F L3 in 24 port and also 48 port, all non-POE.

The amount they come to is well over what we have budgeted for.

The 24 port one came in at around £3650 per unit and the 48 port, £5150. With the SPF transceivers coming in at around £230 each for fibre.

 

I have only got about 10k to play with but need around three 48 port and four 24 port switches.

 

I would rather get good quality, branded switches such as Aruba as I have worked with these before and find the terminal easy to use as I used to work on Cisco and have a CCNA. But this is only a primary school, so I need to be realistic.

Does anyone think it might be worth me considering a layer 2 24 and 48 port option instead as this would bring the costs down?

 

The school currently has a flat network, just five communal copier/printers. The school has a fibre connection for 100mbps. It comes in in one cab which serves one building, it then goes by fibre to another two cabs which serve another building and then a third building via fibre with minimal computers (under 20).

 

Does anyone have any suggestions specific to the above? I am really thinking that Layer 2 will do the job. I can still do VLans in future.

[Primus]

You could easily go with Unifi at the edge to save some money for a L3 core. That would drop your costs dramatically.

[FN-GM]

I would have a look at the Cisco 9200L. I have just bought some and you would have plenty of change from $10k. 48 port, POE, Stackable, 10GB uplink, Layer 3 ability for redundant PSU.

[ITGURU]

I am looking to upgrade the network switches we have at our school during the summer break. I would like to change the network from a flat one to a layered one with VLans.

I have a couple of good switches in the building:

 

1 x HP J9627A

1 x HP J9625A

 

However, the school has a number of cheap ZyEXL non-managed switches (8 in total).

Whoever set up the network thought that daisy chaining switches as well as patching every single network port in the building to a switch was a good idea. I don't plan on replacing all 8 of the cheap switches as I think we can cut down by only using the ports we actually need plus a 24port spare so we have some future capacity.

 

I was thinking of getting something like a Cisco SG500-28P to act as a core switch and then buying some HP switches equivalent to the two above.

Does anyone have any recommendations or suggestions?

This is a London based 2 form entry with VMB broadband and quite a lot of iPads/wifi devices. I am thinking that Layer 3 switches would be our best option but I am welcome to any suggestions.

 

There are three cabs in three different buildings here all joined by fibre, so would be making use of the sfp ports rather than the the fibre media converters the school currently has.

 

Any suggestions or recommendations would be greatly appreciated.

 

I've taken on multiple schools and see it too often where switches are daisy chained , i found one that had 5 x 24 port switch daisy chained across 2 cabinets, 1gb fiber to the first switch. it had 4 core fibre so no idea who set that up! safe to say all ripped out and did dual fibre and 48 port switches.

 

As for core, make sure its L3 for inter-vlan routing.

 

I used to go chassis based for core, but now go for switch stacking, to give that extra redundancy.

[talksr]

Hi everyone,

I went for some Aruba JL253A and JL254A switches and they are working really well.

The building is joined via three main cabs, all have fibre so with the 10G fibre modules, this is working nicely.

In the main server room, there are currently 6 ZyXel non-managed 48port switches. I am going to replace these with some JL254A switches and will configure all of these switches as a stack. My question is, does anyone think it is worth linking these all with 10G SFP+ transceivers, or just go with the 1g ones?

[3s-gtech]

Stack them with DACs (J9281D I think). Cheaper and better.

[talksr]

Stack them with DACs (J9281D I think). Cheaper and better.

 

Thank you, really helpful and much cheaper!

[Davit2005]

A vsf stack of 8 switches is the max supported by the 2930f range at the moment. You are probably aware that you need to keep the same port speed through out a vsf stack.

 

In the server room personally I'd go for a stack with 10Gb connections. DAC cables would work out cheapest method I would of thought but you may need to be careful with DAC cable lengths on the smaller 1U switches, they do not seem to like longer than 3metre DAC cables.

[talksr]

A vsf stack of 8 switches is the max supported by the 2930f range at the moment. You are probably aware that you need to keep the same port speed through out a vsf stack.

 

In the server room personally I'd go for a stack with 10Gb connections. DAC cables would work out cheapest method I would of thought but you may need to be careful with DAC cable lengths on the smaller 1U switches, they do not seem to like longer than 3metre DAC cables.

 

All correct and 3metre is as long as I was planning. Only really need that to go from bottom of stack to top, all the rest would be 1m.

 

Thanks very much for your post.

[talksr]

Just a quick update to say thanks everyone for your help. I went with HP Aruba JL253A and JL254A switches with the 10gb DAC link cables thanks to @Davit2005.

 

Everything is working so much better. I am going to set them up on a VSF shortly. Thanks again guys.

[Davit2005]

Just a quick update to say thanks everyone for your help. I went with HP Aruba JL253A and JL254A switches with the 10gb DAC link cables thanks to @Davit2005.

 

Everything is working so much better. I am going to set them up on a VSF shortly. Thanks again guys.

 

No problem.

 

Setting up VSF stack is very easy but slighly different if you have jus 2 members.

 

Any switches to be added to the stack should be factory reset, you can pre-provision switches on the existing stack which is very handy if you have different port counts i.e. 24/48 ports as the vsf uplinks will likely be different for the SFP+ ports.

Edited June 10, 2021 by Davit2005

[m0bov]

Aruba 2930F all the way here!

[Jcx500]

Aruba 2930F all the way here!

 

Just installed one of these at the edge , loving it !

[mavhc]

Just installed one of these at the edge , loving it !

 

What are you loving about it?

[m0bov]

Easy config, either CLI or GUI. Good online support, Limited Lifetime warranty, very popular product. We are L3 to the edge throughout. Use the DAC cables for stacking, could even use virtual stacking across, say, cabs in IT suites.