Extreme Networks - opinions? Experiences?

[localzuk]

We're currently working on the replacement for our 2 core switches here and have narrowed it down to a few manufacturers, one of which is Extreme.

 

Does anyone use Extreme Networks switches, and XIQ in their school or Trust? What are your experiences?

 

We're currently a fully HP/HPE/Aruba (yes, we still have some HP branded switches!) here, but the Extreme kit is very well priced so we can't just immediately choose Aruba any more. From what I've seen of XIQ it is much better than Aruba Central as well.

[PotNoodleTech]

As far as I know they've always had a good rep, more of a datary centery manufacturer rather than small businesses and schools.

 

I don't rate Aruba so I dont blame you for going elsewhere for your core.

[Zammo]

As far as I know they've always had a good rep, more of a datary centery manufacturer rather than small businesses and schools.

 

I don't rate Aruba so I dont blame you for going elsewhere for your core.

 

What do you not rate with Aruba, out of curiosity?

[psydii]

A *very* long time ago, I found the support/warranty on the x450 to be disappointing. The hardware was also a little prone to failure. It was replaced by some procurve kit which is still going strong 15 years later.

 

On the networking side though, the extreme kit (and wireless) was way way better. With two EAPS rings we had load balanced traffic and extremely fast convergence on topology changes (no interruption to voice calls etc etc).

 

The wireless tech used by extreme at the time was Chantry and AutoCell, and that IP has been round the houses a bit since then, but ended up purchased by Extreme a few years back.

 

We have Aruba 315 APs right now, and these are as good as the Extreme wifi we built a school around in 2006, nothing else had come close in terms of reliability, resiliency and performance.

[howartp]

I'm pretty sure Harrogate Grammar (Red Kite Academy) are Extreme Networks, or they were when I visited about 10/12 years ago. No idea if they've moved on or not.

[msi_school]

I used Extreme in a prep school about seven years ago so my experience may not be very relevant.

 

I found the kit to be solid and the CLI to be easier than Aruba, it was pretty much set and forget. we did not use XIQ so I cant comment but I have heard its good.

 

Plus the Purple switches look good in the cab.

[ITGuyNW]

We had Extreme installed in 2014. Had 4 out of 20 switches go pop since. A couple were POE issues. Wi-Fi controller and aps that came with it were rubbish and we changed to something else asap. Support woeful and management side not great either (that wasnt XIQ though, its Netsight which was the previous software). I asked around for an Extreme specialist for an issue and they were much more expensive than Aruba etc . So I'd say solid devices but a lot of caveats and enough for me to look elsewhere (as we are now doing)

[dapaulio]

We had Extreme installed in 2014. Had 4 out of 20 switches go pop since. A couple were POE issues. Wi-Fi controller and aps that came with it were rubbish and we changed to something else asap. Support woeful and management side not great either (that wasnt XIQ though, its Netsight which was the previous software). I asked around for an Extreme specialist for an issue and they were much more expensive than Aruba etc . So I'd say solid devices but a lot of caveats and enough for me to look elsewhere (as we are now doing)

 

Couldn’t agree more with this comment. Had one of my schools full 10g extreme switching on a leasing agreement. seemed solid but no one knew nor cared to learn the cli once the leasing agreement expired. There were lots of reason why we wouldn’t even touch extreme. Extreme I seem to recall one of the issues was when we had a problem the time difference caused a problem. However they were practically on lifetime warranty so all the times the switch did pop in the stack they had to replace the whole stack as we argued none of us could reconfigure the stack and the issue was their problem. Soon as we could we got the school on to Aruba.

[PotNoodleTech]

Very interesting the last two posts!! it seems everything has drawbacks no such thing as the perfect manufacturer!

[ITGuyNW]

Once setup, I've not really had to touch ours, however if anything does come up, its been hard to implement a solution due to lack of knowledge or finding someone who knows. I had a core power supply go pop a while back and it took a while and lot of phone calls to try and find one.

 

Also while looking at a new network solution, hardly anyone has mentioned or said they support Extreme. I think they're suited more for big business.

[dapaulio]

Yeah again I agree. Suited for the needs of a business say maybe once setup doesn’t need to be touched for its lifetime. I find the same with fortinet who I had in another school and they will be moving away asap also.

 

schools that require vlan changes every week because they change a cupboard in to a classroom oor due to office moves are not suited to these vendors.

 

When things went wrong they would take ages to resolve. Unlike extreme fortinet at least leased (robbed) you of a spare switch which they charged you support on whilst it sat on your shelf. But at least when things went wrong you were back up and running in the hour

Extreme you raise the call get the response in the middle of the night to reply to the basic troubleshooting questions to have to wait another 24 hours to answer more basic questions then 24-48 hours to deliver after they completed their troubleshooting task that you already done on the switch 4 days ago

 

My advice is stick with what you know and easy to support and readily available on next day

Edited June 8, 2024 by dapaulio

[slugshead]

Extreme give away their trianing/certifications for free, which I think is worth doing even if you don't go with them.

 

I've heard about schools worldwide using extreme and never much bad said, make what you will of that.

[FN-GM]

I have never touched them myself, but funnily enough I do share experiences with some people here. Around Christmas I got a call from a contact I have in the UK who was looking for someone who knew Extreme Networks as they wanted to make config changes. They couldn’t find anyone in the UK and reached out to me in Australia. I hadn’t used them before so couldn’t help. Edited June 9, 2024 by FN-GM

[ICT_GUY]

We had a full extreme network. CLI was good, and easy to pick up. Chat GPT now makes it even easier to manage.

 

The main issue we had was with the support contract. Also firmware updates were linked to the licensing. Even though we were licensed and had a support contract getting updates never actually happened.

 

In another school I had cheap layer 3 switches. no licensing issues, no firmware issues, easy to set up and manage cost £500 each.

 

Now in my current school we have meraki cloud managed switches that cost the tax payer an absolute bomb. But they are easy to manage when setup correctly.