Help Deciding Layer 3 switch

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acmcool

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Jun 23, 2015
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I am trying to decide between juniper 3300 and ubiquiti edge switch. I dont really need any fancy layer 3 . Just basic routing..This is for home lab...Any suggestions?
 

tssrshot

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Mar 18, 2015
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Omaha, NE
I think the tell-tale will be throughput. They all do it "wire speed" in Hardware, but depends on throughout and the make up of the traffic...like Multicast or Jumbo Frames?

How many clients and server types are you looking at? You also have to ask yourself...is L3 really necessary?
 

acmcool

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Jun 23, 2015
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I use jumbo frames...
Two servers and 10 VM's...
Clients really just iphone and other wifi devices,tvs,my laptop for esxi management.
 

tssrshot

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Mar 18, 2015
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Omaha, NE
Thats pretty solid, plus with these throughput numbers, it'll simplify any security you want in place. There is no theoretical reason why L-3 would help you at the switch level. I'm not 100% on the support of Jumbo Frames in PFSense based on your Network card...just because every card is different. But It works on mine.
 

acmcool

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Jun 23, 2015
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Thats pretty solid, plus with these throughput numbers, it'll simplify any security you want in place. There is no theoretical reason why L-3 would help you at the switch level. I'm not 100% on the support of Jumbo Frames in PFSense based on your Network card...just because every card is different. But It works on mine.
I currently have dell 6224...so you think thats good enough?
I need additional ports but i could just stack another 6224..if dont need layer 3..
Thanks for your help
 

tssrshot

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Mar 18, 2015
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Omaha, NE
Tough to say. I paid to up to a 48 port over a Stack situation based on the cooling noise and power use of two tandem switches. Sometimes the cost of upgrade is worth it to consolidate. I'm not sure you're personal situation but I love the new X1052 if Dell is the right tool for the job. If POE is not a factor for you, you could consolidate into one unit for close to under 300, sell off your old one for something (even not much is something). Power consumption is far better for this over stacking, plus you gain twice as much 10Gi capability.
 

acmcool

Banned
Jun 23, 2015
610
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Woodbury,MN
Tough to say. I paid to up to a 48 port over a Stack situation based on the cooling noise and power use of two tandem switches. Sometimes the cost of upgrade is worth it to consolidate. I'm not sure you're personal situation but I love the new X1052 if Dell is the right tool for the job. If POE is not a factor for you, you could consolidate into one unit for close to under 300, sell off your old one for something (even not much is something). Power consumption is far better for this over stacking, plus you gain twice as much 10Gi capability.
Just bought dell 1052P for $420...
Thanks for your help...
 

Scott Laird

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Aug 30, 2014
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I really like EX3300s. Their biggest downside is that dynamic routing mostly requires a license; if that doesn't matter to you then they'd be fine. They're solid, powerful, and fairly easy to use, if you have any Juniper experience. I've never used their web UI, just the CLI.

I have a bunch of Ubiquiti hardware around, and it's okay, but Juniper is generally quite a bit nicer.
 
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whitey

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Jun 30, 2014
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I really like EX3300s. Their biggest downside is that dynamic routing mostly requires a license; if that doesn't matter to you then they'd be fine. They're solid, powerful, and fairly easy to use, if you have any Juniper experience. I've never used their web UI, just the CLI.

I have a bunch of Ubiquiti hardware around, and it's okay, but Juniper is generally quite a bit nicer.
SECONDED!
 

tssrshot

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Mar 18, 2015
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Omaha, NE
Okay...I'll bite. What kind of model or educated purchase should I be looking at for 48 1Gb ports and at least 2 x 10Gb SFP+....no dynamic routing, just dumb dumb switching...maybe some LACP? BTW, I am always down to try something new in Networking. I've got an open mind for a Cisco guy; just don't tell my cult.
 

Blinky 42

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Aug 6, 2015
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++ for Juniper. If you don't need PIM or advanced routing then you should be fine picking up one off of ebay. I have never attempted to get an extra license for a used switch to know how painful/possible it is.
The CLI makes far more sense to me than Cisco or Quanta, and more powerful than HP's. jWeb (the web UI) gets the job done, doesn't need java or dumb plug-ins (woot!) and is handy to make quick changes or get an overview of what is where on the switch but isn't the fastest in the world.

Staging then committing / rolling back config changes is also nice once you get used to it - would have prevented some painful mistakes I made on my Quanta recently :(

The ex3300-48T is what you want for 48 1G copper and 4x 10G SFP+ ex3300-48P if you need POE.
The BF versions have back-to-front airflow, but are rare on eBay.

When they are reset to default or new, 2 ports are setup to be virtual chassis ports (VCP) so you can install a bunch of them and bring up a stack quick if needed. You can go in the cli or in jweb and turn off the VCP and you have 4 normal 10G ports. Note that depending on where you are, they won't show up as xe-0/1/0 thru xe-0/1/3 until you plug a 10G transceiver or DAC in. They will show up as 1G ports disconnected ge-0/1/0 thru ge-0/1/3 not sure why but was odd until realized what was going on.