Aruba Switch Model and Mgmt

[petben]

Hello, looking to move from Netgear to Aruba switches and kinda narrowed the Edge model options down to either the 2930F (managed in Aruba Central) or 1930 (managed in Aruba Always On) the 1930 unfortunately doesn't support stacking but otherwise looks fine for what we need, and is 1/3 the price....has anyone got any good things or terrible things to say about the Aruba 1930 and the 'Instant On' management portal?

 

Thanks

Edited March 10, 2021 by petben

[Davit2005]

I cannot give any input about the 1930 but we have installed about 50 x 2930f's in the last 2-3 years or so and have had no issues. Mostly PoE+ 48 port models. We use them as ToR switches in a pair stacked in refurbs where we have 10+ in a comms or as stacked Edge switches connected to 5406R in bigger comms rooms (20+ switches).

 

I've been using a few at home as stacked Core switches for last 2-3 years.

 

We currently do not use Aruba Central for our 750+ switch infrastructure but are looking at it.

 

The 2930f does do Layer3 routing and OSPF, and as you have mentioned stacking which depending on firmware is up to 8 switches.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Davit2005

[supportman]

We use aruba for our wireless but found unify switches to be much better value with more features. We have full 10gbit at core and 1gb all round.

 

All the switches are silent which is a huge plus.

 

We were also on netgear before.

[synaesthesia]

I still highly recommend against using Aruba Central on switches, it's not quite there yet and the ability to cause sitewide issues due to a single switch change is far too likely - it's a wireless system.

[fiza]

We use 2930f's stacked and have had no issues. Haven't used Aruba Central, is it expensive?

[Norphy]

Always On management portal? Do you mean InstantOn?

[petben]

yes I do mean InstantOn

[petben]

We use 2930f's stacked and have had no issues. Haven't used Aruba Central, is it expensive?

 

a cloud license is £110 for 5 years. do you just manage each switch (or stack) via its IP and web GUI?

[Davit2005]

a cloud license is £110 for 5 years. do you just manage each switch (or stack) via its IP and web GUI?

 

We never use the GUI for switches here, it is all done in the CLI over SSH. I've only used the GUI in 2 instances in 5 years, lol.

 

We do have iMC which we use for updating switches and making large batch changes but I'm not sure if I'd recommend it.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Davit2005

[fiza]

a cloud license is £110 for 5 years. do you just manage each switch (or stack) via its IP and web GUI?

 

We use a mixture of GUI and CLI using Putty.

[Norphy]

yes I do mean InstantOn

 

How many of these things are you looking to deploy? How big is your organisation?

 

InstantOn stuff is pretty good, but it's designed for SOHO. I think there is a limit to how many devices you can manage in that portal, although I couldn't say how many exactly. I think they're still manageable without the internet portal by connecting directly to the switch.

[synaesthesia]

All ours are stacked - roughly 20 stacks of either 2 or 3 members per stack. Managed via putty mostly by me or CLI for a quick fix, easily manageable certainly as it's not a particularly large estate and it's not something you'd really be changing every day.

[petben]

How many of these things are you looking to deploy? How big is your organisation?

 

InstantOn stuff is pretty good, but it's designed for SOHO. I think there is a limit to how many devices you can manage in that portal, although I couldn't say how many exactly. I think they're still manageable without the internet portal by connecting directly to the switch.

 

 

We have 34 switches probably half and half 24/48 port models, currently in around 20 cabinets.

 

A quick google shows a 25 switch limit in Instanton per site, but up to 150 sites. mmm maybe this isn't the right solution....

[psydii]

The 2930 line is geting long in the tooth now. If you choose this path you need to make sure you get the whole estate done before they EOL it. (unless there is a roadmap somewhere that indicates they will still be selling it for a fewq years yet?)

 

The InstantOn switches look like they are the spiritual sucessor to OfficeConnect. In that line the 1910 and 1920 were secretly the 5210 and while not quite up to the 29xx capabilities would have been good enough for small to medium schools' edge switches.

 

The 25 switch limit is probably entirely artificial, to force market segmentation

 

For me, other than this depressing hard limit, I would say look at the warranty. The HPe/Aruba limited lifetime warranty and access to firmware updates are worth ther weight (of the swtiches) in gold. Do the InstantOn switches come with that?

[Davit2005]

The 2930 line is geting long in the tooth now. If you choose this path you need to make sure you get the whole estate done before they EOL it. (unless there is a roadmap somewhere that indicates they will still be selling it for a fewq years yet?)

 

The InstantOn switches look like they are the spiritual sucessor to OfficeConnect. In that line the 1910 and 1920 were secretly the 5210 and while not quite up to the 29xx capabilities would have been good enough for small to medium schools' edge switches.

 

The 25 switch limit is probably entirely artificial, to force market segmentation

 

For me, other than this depressing hard limit, I would say look at the warranty. The HPe/Aruba limited lifetime warranty and access to firmware updates are worth ther weight (of the swtiches) in gold. Do the InstantOn switches come with that?

 

I'm not sure there is a end of sale let alone an end of life the 2930f is a decent switch INMO. https://www.arubanetworks.com/en-gb/support-services/end-of-life/ https://techlibrary.hpe.com/us/en/networking/products/eos/index.aspx#.YEj02_6nxhE

 

There are some pros/cons to both. You cannot stack 2930f with 2930M but you can stack the 6300f with the 6300M . But for instance the 6300f/M does not have device profiling at the moment. You can stack up to 10 switches with the 6300 series I think.

 

But yes the availbility for software updates and the warranty on Aruba is something to bear in mind. We are still getting 15yr old switches replaced.

 

To be honest I prefer having out of band management (i.e. console port) on any switch.

Edited March 10, 2021 by Davit2005

[computer_expert]

By the sounds of things, you lose some functionality if you cloud manage the instant on switches at the moment. Also there's no CLI access on the instant on switches like the proper ArubaOS switches (eg. 2930F).

[Net-Ctrl]

If you're open to other options the Ruckus ICX could be worth a look at, even if just something to compare Aruba to.

 

Their range is based on Brocade/Foundry tech - they have a solid warranty (NBD replacement etc) - the ability for central management of the full switch, and if you have it Ruckus wireless portfolio - and prices competitively against the Aruba equivalent models. Your reseller of choice can build and spec your deployment based on what you're looking to achieve as well, or just build a comparison to your Aruba build. If you don't have anyone you can speak to - we can help.

[petben]

I still highly recommend against using Aruba Central on switches, it's not quite there yet and the ability to cause sitewide issues due to a single switch change is far too likely - it's a wireless system.

 

I can imagine this happening if you are in Central and incorrectly change a templates and it propagates everywhere, but how about leaving the switches ‘fully managed’ which I think means they are still managed in Central but without templates? You are limited to the central functionality but it does (I think again) include Vlan, IGMP, STP, DHCP snoop which is all we need.

 

One of our wish list was to be able to see and access all the switches in a single interface. But there’s always caveats eh?