Used HP ProCurve J9021A vs J9021B vs J9028A vs J9028B?

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xbliss

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Gonna pick up 1/2 of these Used, maybe via Ebay.

What are the differences between these models/ generations? Pros vs Cons?

They seem like decent Managed GigE S/W for used. Thoughts?
 

andrewbedia

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Jan 11, 2013
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Generally speaking, the letters at the end are simple hardware revisions. I think they run the same firmware. (the two different 2810s and 1810s)
 

fractal

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I have both and love them. Rock solid switches.

I do prefer the UI of the 1810 over the 1800 but you aren't going to use it much. These are simple web managed switches. No CLI. Don't expect a whole lot more than setting up vlans and trunks. Most of mine are run as a dumb switch. I gave them an IP address just so I can get snmp stats from them.

There is no reason to buy an "A" as the "B"'s can be had for the same price and from what I know are better.
 

xbliss

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Generally speaking, the letters at the end are simple hardware revisions. I think they run the same firmware. (the two different 2810s and 1810s)
So just newer vs older gen. I remember buying the 1810-24G new. Basic VLAN + Web Managed. Mainly LifeTime warranty.

Does it mean life time until HP calls it EOL?

Would any of the above be more preferable with reference to the EOL?

I have both and love them. Rock solid switches.

I do prefer the UI of the 1810 over the 1800 but you aren't going to use it much. These are simple web managed switches. No CLI. Don't expect a whole lot more than setting up vlans and trunks. Most of mine are run as a dumb switch. I gave them an IP address just so I can get snmp stats from them.

There is no reason to buy an "A" as the "B"'s can be had for the same price and from what I know are better.
Do these support MultiCast (for WDS/ FOG deployment in a Small Org)?
Or am I better off searching for a cheaper Smart Switch on Amazon. ??
 

DaSaint

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i have the J9028A and B the Difference is that the B Model is Fanless which IMO is a better deal, same firmware for it tho 1800-24G Series My fan on my A model whines a lot and is quite pointless IMO
 

andrewbedia

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So just newer vs older gen. I remember buying the 1810-24G new. Basic VLAN + Web Managed. Mainly LifeTime warranty.

Does it mean life time until HP calls it EOL?
No. I've seen Procurve 2650 (10/100 with 2 gig uplinks, crusty shit) get replaced under normal lifetime warranty in 2016. It's been dead for a long time. Also, the 2810-24G/48G is long since dead and they still replace them.
 
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xbliss

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Do these support MultiCast (for WDS/ FOG deployment in a Small Org)?
Or am I better off searching for a cheaper Smart Switch on Amazon. ??
 

cheezehead

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Do these support MultiCast (for WDS/ FOG deployment in a Small Org)?
Or am I better off searching for a cheaper Smart Switch on Amazon. ??
Shouldn't be an issue.

For small scale installs the 18xx or 28xx work just fine. The 28xx have stacking capabilities, full snmp management, and command line management. The 1810's are fanless and have a lightweight web management option only. If you only need a one or two switches the 1810's are nice and silent (home or small office scenario) while the 28xx's are more for larger scale deployments.

If your worried about old gen vs new gen gear, the two big differences outside of the comware vs provision discussion are IPv6 support (if it matters) and scaling issues in larger deployments. We replaced pallets worth of 2824's and 2848's a few years back because of the scaling issues. They work fine but we you want to put hundreds of them in play you'll run out of CPU with them and artificially create some network throttling.
 

Blinky 42

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I have dozens of the 2810-24G & 2810-48G they are fine switches for normal use. The do support multicast snooping and the switches can act as the multicast querier.
New and used they have been quite solid, had some in production for 8+ years straight. Well worth the $ if picked up used on ebay.

Only real drawbacks to them:
- God awful java-based web UI debacle. Don't waste your time trying to get java working to use it. The CLI is superior.
- Single non-replaceable power supply
- Limited # of multicast groups it can track (fine for what you are doing I would imagine)
- Limit on number of vlans, you can change (up to 32 or 64? I forget atm) but need to soft-bounce the switch to change it
- The switching fabric resources used for vlan/multicast are shared so you have to trade-off one for the other if you need a lot of MC groups or VLANs
- Sometimes auto-negotiation on port speed will end up with half-duplex connection. Easy to fix by explicitly setting it, but happens more often that it should when connected to colo cisco gear (not exclusive to this switch model or HP even but watch out for it).
- Does not do well with high volume of small packets distributed to many ports on a switch (3-4Gb constant multicast traffic < 1500bytes for example)

Grab the advanced traffic management guide from HP/HPE's site for details on setting up the multicast and vlan etc. If it has gone awol with the HPE conversion let me know I have an older pdf saved somewhere.
The trunking, lacp, stacking etc all have been fine for me in the past. We had the PoE versions running our in-office phones for years as well without problem.
 
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xbliss

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The only place/ time I expect major HEAVY multicast traffic is during WDS or FOG driven PXE deplopyments. And that could get slow if not enough GigE bandwidth - And I hate the waiting game - USB 3 vs USB 2 or GigE vs 100M - speeds
 

Blinky 42

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I wouldn't worry about the multicast traffic that UDPcast UDP Cast will create on the 2810* switches. Most any switch with IGMP Snooping enabled to prevent beating up ports that don't care about the traffic will be fine (if the switch doesn't explicitly support multicast the frames are treated as broadcast and go to all ports in the VLAN). Even so you are still talking about a single sender and a few groups at most.