Aruba = Garbage??

[PotNoodleTech]

The LEA has fitted Aruba Switches and Wireless through.

 

We have had 3 switches die in the first year and there are constant weird little issues. They've had trouble updating the firmware, every new version of the firmware seems to have other bugs that may affect something else.

 

The wireless APs are generally working OK though they can't get my outdoor APs working.

 

I've got no access to switches wireless or any form of reporting. It seems to be a massive issue to get that kind of access working for me.

 

Is this Aruba stuff just garbage because from where I am sitting it appears to be a significant downgrade from my mix of 5 year old cisco, 5 year old HP and 3 year old Unnfi that I had before, which if not the most modern, was fast and 100% reliable

 

Cheers

[Norphy]

Which Aruba switches? The ones I've had which are based on the older Procurve lines have been bulletproof. Wireless kit has been excellent as well.

 

I've not tried CX based switches, however, so I don't know what those are like.

[bald_pig]

Our core switches are Aruba and they've been rock solid.

[chazzy2501]

I believe Aruba to have a good reputation. Maybe they've been installed in areas that are unsuitable. (hot, damp, vibrations)

[mavhc]

How are the switches configured? Are they all going back to one LEA Aruba Central that you don't have access to?

[Aprice]

Between the couple of places I've worked they were always the go to if budget permitted.

 

I swear by them, even use them at home!

 

Could it be the LA just haven't implemented it properly

[Davit2005]

Same here, we always stay 1-2 firmware back and read the release notes.

 

Never really had an issue with firmware. Strang issue with DHCP and dhcp snopping effecting one specific model (2650) and out of date firmware combination.

 

Rolled out 120 Aruba 2530/2540s 4 years back and have only had issue with one switch, MAC address and DHCP issues on ports 1-24 of a 48 port switch. Replacement switch sent out by HP after a 10-15min tech phone call.

 

750 Aruba/HP switches on site mostly the older models 2650 and 2810 are flakey but they are very old switches and prob paid for themselves by now. Those switches are still replaced by HP.

Edited September 28, 2021 by Davit2005

[Jcx500]

Never had issues with them, always been my goto switch.

[psydii]

Could be a quality control problem caused by the pandemic.

 

I've put HP/Aruba into every school I've worked in in the last 20 years. The trouble with HP/Aruba kit is that once you've got gigabit kit in, there is no reason to ever upgrade. So many of us are running on 5, 10, even 15 year old hardware and it is just great, and so have no experience of the newest kit.

 

In this situation I'd be tempted to reach out to an HP partner (SwitchShop were my go-to when I needed speculative help) and see if they can hook you up with an HP Rep who can dig into this for you.

Edited September 28, 2021 by psydii

[3s-gtech]

I’ve heard mutterings that some of the newer 10G kit has been released in a rather ‘unfinished’ state, with serious firmware shortcomings. Nothing that can’t be fixed, and the warranties sort it, but when spending the cost of a decent house it shouldn’t really be the case.

 

We have Aruba 10G throughout. It’s fast. It runs hot. Filling a wall mount cabinet with them is likely to alter the structure of the building.

 

I like them.

[eddyc]

We are Aruba switching and wireless throughout here since around 2014/2015. Absolutely no complaints here. All rock solid.

[Roberto]

When I’ve used Aruba in the past, both switches and Wireless APs, it’s been absolutely rock solid.

[FragglePete]

ProCurve primarily with Aruba here and there as we added to the network.

 

All rock solid stuff, although I have had a number of Power Supply Failures recently on 8 Port Aruba switches that have the external power bricks. All replaced relatively quickly under warranty, but some supply issues means some stuff is taking longer.

 

Pete

[synaesthesia]

Rock solid here too - don't actually like the wireless but it sort of works. Switches are absolutely solid, 10G throughout. Only utterly diabolical setup is if you have switches on aruba central - a big no-no.

[PotNoodleTech]

How are the switches configured? Are they all going back to one LEA Aruba Central that you don't have access to?

 

Yes - that sounds like it. No access to my own network.

 

I am not anti Hp/Aruba. In fact I swore by HP, my set up- before this Aruba update was HP 5412zl with a bunch of 2530-48G POE and supported by some older V191048G and some Unifi kit towards the end. That was rock solid and still pretty fast too.

 

The new kit appears to be a significant downgrade compared to the previous 5+ year old kit. The new switches are all 6300M 48SR5 CL6 PoE 4SFP56 Switch (JL659A).

 

Firmware has been a big issue.

 

Thanks all - anny more experiences would be useful.

[3s-gtech]

Ah, you've got the same switches as us then, via the same funding I guess.

 

Are you on the latest firmware? The out-of-box firmware that they all came with will brick the switch in six months or so, as it writes to the internal storage until it dies.

 

Ours are on much later firmware than that, and work well. They were shipped in a 'beta' state!

[LukeRowberry]

I assume this is hwb funded. which lea are you?

[CraigM]

I've slowly been replacing my older HPE 2610 and 2620 units with Aruba 2540 units and so far so good. Quality has been as bulletproof as the old kit ever was and have had no issues with firmware so far. I'm right on the edge of purchasing a 5412Rzl2 core switch to replace a 2900 and bunch of 2610 models in my server room and by all accounts that should hopefully be rock solid as well.

 

Old HP network kit just basically works in my experience and their warranty system has been excellent when we needed to use them. I had 2 old unused 2610's die while sitting on my shelf this year. Since I was going to be donating these switches to a less fortunate school, I decided to make use of the warranty to get replacement units and lo and behold, HP shipped replacement 2610's pretty quickly after some back and forth with the techs.

[slugshead]

5412/5406/2530/2540's here. As others have said, rock solid with a lifetime warranty! Cant complain about that.

 

Using CX 6300M 24 SPF+'s as the SAN core. That's not skipped a beat either

[pete]

Running 5406/2930/2530 along with some older ProCurve kit and they're about the sweetspot for a balance of features/reliability and cost-per-port.

[Davit2005]

This is an older post but we run the 2530's, 2540's, 2930f, 5406, etc. We do not have any issues. We don't use Aruba Central either and not sure we will for the foreseeable future, everything we do is on the cli of the switches but we are running the HP iMC tool which does mass config rollouts and updates a lot easier we have 700+ mix of older HP ProCurves and the newer Aruba branded ProVision OS switches. Edited December 7, 2021 by Davit2005

[Chuckster]

I have deployed 5406/5612 and 2930f/2930m at layer 3 and 2540 at layer 2 with no issues.

 

Perhaps you just happened to have a bad batch. With the lifetime warranty you should be able to swap them at no cost.