Recommend me Switches for Edge Cabinets

[mdrabble]

I currently use Ubiquiti EdgeMax Lite switches (ES-48 range) for my edge switches.

 

I have a mixture of 16, 24 and 48 port switches both POE and Non-POE versions with the 48 Port versions having SFP+ uplinks.

 

Recently I have suffered 4 switch failures (2 x POE and 2 x Non POE) - all out of warranty and replacements impossible to get! - Thankfully I had spares at the time and I have just used my last spare switch with several POE injectors to get things up and running.

 

So I have decided to slowly start moving to another brand with better warranty as if 4 have gone then it is only a matter of time before others start to fail.

 

 

What I would like is......

 

To be able to manage them centrally - or at least have a centralised dashboard to monitor them - but not essential.

VLAN support a must as we use VLANs

24 and 48 Port Non POE with SFP+ uplinks

24 and 48 Port POE+ with SFP+ uplinks (could have a combination of IP Phones, Unifi AP's, Paxton units with Video Entry Panels, HIKVision DS-2CD2345FWD-i CCTV cameras)

A supplier with stock!

 

I'm looking for at least a 48 Port POE switch and a 24 Port POE to start and then will go from there.

 

I've had a quick look at FS switches (S3900) and Aurba Instant On (1960)

 

What do other people use and recommend?

 

Cheers

[Norphy]

The Aruba InstantOn stuff is nice. However, depending on how much you need to buy it may be worth contacting an Aruba reseller and seeing if you can get a deal registration and getting prices on their higher end stuff. The discounts that you can get are huge.

 

If central management is your thing, it's hard to beat Meraki but the subscription costs are a major downer for those.

[Jcx500]

2540’s are good access switches Edited September 1, 2022 by Jcx500

[pete]

We're using the Aruba 2930F's as edge switches at secondaries and as cores (two switches stacked for redundancy) at primaries.

 

The 2540 series would also get you SFP+, but depending on how many and when you buy, there may not be much in it price-wise.

 

Have a word with Caroline Freeman at Switchshop - she's competitive and will let you know that (through a quirk of HP's price lists) the 2930 series PoE switches are cheaper than the non-PoE.

 

For a dashboard, LibreNMS is fairly fire-and-forget.

[Jonah]

Can second the suggestion of the 2930Fs, we use them similar to Pete

[mdrabble]

What’s the warranty like on Aurba kit?

[Jcx500]

What’s the warranty like on Aurba kit?

 

99% sure it’s lifetime

[timbo343]

I bought 5x 1960 48 port non poe and to be fair they do the job nicely for us as edge switches. Bonus with them being silent too.

 

I was umming and ahhing if to purchase them and glad i did now though bought them just before stock levela dropped to 16 week lead times.

[Jaan]

We're looking at the Sophos Switches and some from fs.com

[CraigM]

Big fan of the Aruba switches, always have been. Unfortunately the 2540 series was end of life'd a while ago and I was sold a CX 6100 model instead, which is the like for like replacement. However, the CX 6100 uses Aruba's new OS which I find far less pleasant to use than the older traditional OS you got on HP/Aruba switches.

 

For monitoring alone LibreNMS is perfect, but if you want central configuration tool you'd need something like Aruba Central or HP IMC.

[Davit2005]

What’s the warranty like on Aurba kit?

 

It varies.

 

We have switches 15+ years old that get replaced within a few days.

 

Newer switches such as 2530, 2540 and 2930 are 5 years for original purchaser I think. You can check on Aruba Warranty page.

 

I put in 120 switches (a mixture of 2530s and 2540s all PoE+) in summer 2016 and had 2 2540's replaced under warranty in that time.

 

We have new builds with up to 20 2930f's for 2-3 years and no issues with switches so far.

 

Hope not jinx'd it now. I know a previous place had 2810's and they seemed ok but we've replaced 3 faulty of them in the last 5-6 years out of a total of about 10 in production. The 2810's are old switches though.

[mdrabble]

I have just purchased a 24 port Aruba 1960 - and I have to say I am not a huge fan of the interface!

 

How the heck do you sort VLANs on it?

 

I have it on my test bench in the office and I have port 24 what I beleive to be configured as a trunk port (TRK1) - nothing else tagged or untagged on that port

 

Port 1 - Set to VLAN 240 as PVID 240 and untagged and notthing.

 

And Nada! - no dhcp and network tester not evening picking up a trace of a vlan being configured on the port.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Cheers

Edited September 15, 2022 by mdrabble

[timbo343]

I have just purchased a 24 port Aruba 1960 - and I have to say I am not a huge fan of the interface!

 

How the heck do you sort VLANs on it?

 

I have it on my test bench in the office and I have port 24 what I beleive to be configured as a trunk port (TRK1) - nothing else tagged or untagged on that port

 

Port 1 - Set to VLAN 240 as PVID 240 and untagged and notthing.

 

And Nada! - no dhcp and network tester not evening picking up a trace of a vlan being configured on the port.

 

What am I doing wrong?

 

Cheers

 

The new aruba interface is a bit s**t.

 

Ah Right, so, what port is your uplink port the rest of the network. Don't use the Trk options unless you are grouping ports together.

[Norphy]

Don't use the Trk options unless you are grouping ports together.

 

Yeah, that's confused me in the past as well, albeit in the opposite direction. What HPE/Aruba call a trunk is what's called a Link Aggregation Group in everyone else's world, whereas as far as I can see a Trunk in everyone else's world is essentially an uplink port.

[Davit2005]

Yeah, that's confused me in the past as well, albeit in the opposite direction. What HPE/Aruba call a trunk is what's called a Link Aggregation Group in everyone else's world, whereas as far as I can see a Trunk in everyone else's world is essentially an uplink port.

 

Older kit i.e ProCurve use the trunk terminology when you have multiple ports in a aggregation group.

Cisco use the trunk terminolgy when you have multiple vlans on a same port

 

The old 3com switches which HP bought out and also badged Aruba or HPE use a different language and now you have Aruba CX too.

 

Must admit I am a cli guy more than a web interface on switches. Besides if you have a blank switch or need to get a direct connection when the web gui is not working like when having network issue it becomes more easier to troubleshoot if you can get console connectivity.

 

I also rolled out 120 Aruba switches and had power shell spit out txt files which I then jus pasted into the cli interface based on a few different parameters in a csv. Not a fan of locking the switches into Central anytime soon.

 

We have got iMC but could jus not get it setting the cert on the switches properly. But we do a some stuff on iMC like rolling out minor changes to multiple switches, doing firmware updates, firmware/asset reports, etc.

Edited September 15, 2022 by Davit2005

[dmj]

I've been hearing some *really* good things about TP-Link Jetstream series of enterprise switches, the price vs features looks quite compelling.

[Aprice]

Aruba for us, I'm not a a massive fan of the CLI changes they've made to the CX series. But it's not a deal breaker for us. At the end of the day there rock solid switches with firmware updates readily available and a solid warranty.

 

The remaining Cisco kit we have is also solid, but as none of it has support contracts tied to it and Firmware not readily available without contracts it just doesn't really make sense to buy more Cisco.

 

We've used Ubiquiti switches before and had a high failure rate, whereas I'm yet to see a Aruba / HP fail (apart from a faulty slot in a new ZL chassis)

[mdrabble]

The new aruba interface is a bit s**t.

 

Ah Right, so, what port is your uplink port the rest of the network. Don't use the Trk options unless you are grouping ports together.

 

Ah right... so basically use untagged/pvid for the base vlan and then tagg the rest to allow traffic through.

 

So switch mgment VLAN 10 (untagged/pvid) and then all other vlans as tagged. - that right?

 

 

Bit confusing with the TRK ports. but good to know

[mdrabble]

And good news - now working

 

Cheers for the info and help