PoE+ switch with SFP+ suggestion for new house with Ethernet everywhere.

[Balteck]

Hello everyone, I'm building a new house and I try to decide for Brocade ICX6610-48P or Ruckus Brocade ICX7450-48P or two 24 ports switches connected eachother (PoE and not-PoE)

I know that my question is already present al lot of time in this forum, but I didn't find the right answer.

My needs are:

- POE+ ports for APs, VOIP Adapters, IP Cameras, maybe POE Lighting system with sensors, Video Entryphone and any other device that I can connect (also with PoE splitter) by wire instead of WIFI
- Three 10GB (without redundancy, if not 2x) and 17 1Gb connections to my little cluster (3 esxi box, 1 nas) and my workstation that stay in a room 28 meter away (with 10base-t transceiver)
- 16 1GB devices (PCs, RPIs, AV Receiver, Video Projector, TV, SAT->IP...)
- Dual PSU protected by UPS to prevent any possible downtime for critical devices (Alarm, Camera IP, Door Bell, Video Entryphone and so on)
- when I will go to live in, a big media center (now I'm using Emby on my Workstation, but it is full of HDDs) like this one: 4U 24 Bay SAS3 Vmware Storage Server X10QBi Includes CPU/Memory
- power wattage is not a a problem
- noise is not a problem (I will dedicate a room in basement)


My concern is about the pro and cons between the two units:

ICX 6xxx is EoL and ICX7xxx is supported, so it means that the first one had the last firmware, while the latter will have new firmware for much time (now 9.0).
But is the new firmware a worth update? Which new features does it have?
ICX7xxx seems to have less port 10GB or 40 GB ports. ICX6xxx have a lot more SFP+ and QSFP+ ports
ICX7xxx have PoH support (90W), but I didn't find a device that use it. Also the last Wifi 6 Ap uses the PoE+ standard. Anyone could give me a list of these devices?
ICX6xxx vs ICX7xxx reliability and durability over time. (I wish to use it for many years)
.
So, I ask everyone to convince me which one is the best or alternative options (Brocade or other brand with similar performance).

I'm not in hurry, because the house will be ready and the end on the year

Thank you very much

 

[TLN]

I needed smaller switches and ended up with Aruba 2930f-8G: PoE, 8x1G, 2xSFP and most importantly fanless. I got multiple and can stack em into one big switch. You can mix and match models in the stack as well (all 2930f I mean).

 

[sko]

Depending on the budget: Cisco 3750X series or their successors 3650 or 3850.

The 3750X have reached end-of-support in october 2021, yet the platform is very mature and stable. So if you don't plan to put those into publicly accessible and/or production networks or edge scenarios, you should be perfectly fine running "outdated" IOS versions (especially if you only run them as L2 switches). The latest firmware can be downloaded after creating a cisco account - no valid contract needed. IOS 15.x even has honour-based-licensing, so you can just switch between lanbase/ipbase/ipservices (but just FTR: you may be in violation of the EULA by doing this...). For private use and because they are already EOL and no new licenses can be purchased through cisco you should be fine though...
They can also be stacked (data and power stacking) and even if this is not of any concern, they are even reasonably quiet, especially in 24-port configurations. I'm running a stack of 2 3750X-24 (one T and one P) at home with 2x 715W PSU and they are below the servers and even UPS in terms of noise. At work I'm sitting ~2m from the network cabinet with a stack of 3750X-48P and -12S with 4 PSUs and it is audible but absolutely bearable as they don't emit any high-pitched whining noises; it's more of a dampened humming.

The only major drawback of the 3750X: you can only get a maximum of 2x 10GBit via the C3X-NM-10G module per switch.
If you have a higher demand for 10Gbit ports (and a bit more budget available), you might want to take a look at the 3650 and maybe 3850, especially because they are also available with multigig-ports, e.g. the C3650-12X48UR with 48x UPOE; 12 of them 1/2.5/5/10Gbit and 8x 10GBit SFP+, so you might get all your connectivity needs fulfilled with only one switch instead of a stack of 2 or 3.
The 3650 and 3850 are also both stackable and have hot-swappable fans and PSUs (as the 3750X) - the major difference is the ability to extend the 3850 with modules like in the 3750X, whereas the 3650s are fixed-config switches.

 

[Balteck]

Thank you very much, so it is better to look for a Cisco, not Brocade, solution?

Anyway my budget is 500/600 USD

 

[Sean Ho]

I think the ICX line are great options, particularly with the peer support offered here in the mega-thread! It certainly helps that noise is not a concern for you.

Side note about your chosen NAS: 2011-1 is a rarely-used socket; note it's not compatible with either E5 v1/2 (2011-0) or E5 v3/4 (2011-3).

 

[sko]

For 500-600$ you might be able to get a good deal on a 3650 and even 3850 if you scout ebay or other sites.
Here in EU/Germany prices for used gear are heavily inflated, but I've even seen even a 3650-12X48 for ~600EUR a few weeks ago, so in the US you should find those switches very often in this price range.

As for "better": This pretty much depends on your exact needs and preferences and what switch or vendor might fit best for all/most of them.
I'm more familiar with cisco because that's what I've been working with the most part of the last ~15 years now - but you might also take a look at e.g. the juniper EX3300 series and the brocades you named.
I only had a few encounters with junos in recent times, but I was very impressed by it. The only (but IMHO pretty huge) drawback is the fact, that juniper won't give you any software updates without a valid support contract. (which is IMHO kind of stupid and can backfire very quickly if you leave hundreds of thousands of outdated/vulnerable systems out in the wild...)


My advice if you are still completely unencumbered by any vendor: usually most used enterprise switches for <~1000$ can be easily sold for the same price within a few weeks or even months (looking at the past ~12 months maybe even for more!). So if you aren't in a hurry you can just pick several options that might fit your needs and/or look interesting enough, wait for good deals and try them out until you find one that fits your needs and you feel comfortable with its CLI and ecosystem.

 

[Balteck]

I'm from Italy and prices is EU are very high compared on US price. I can import one from USA (I did it in the past, but it seems that now the shipping costs are insane: more than 600 USD for a ICX6610 that cost 500 USD).

I've seen Cisco 3650-12X48 at not less of 1500EUR...

My concern is about to buy a EoL switch (Ex4200, ICX6610 or other Ciscos) spending less or a more supported one (that have firmware update for years) spending more.

For example Fastiron 09.0.10 is a worth update on 08.0.30?
Because I will take for many years, maybe newer firmware = better IPv6 support?
But will it ever be used in the home or little lab?

 

[koifish59]

If you're willing to go with Prosumer hardware instead of used enterprise, then consider the QNAP QSW-M2116P-2T2S. It checks off almost every one of your requirements except redundant PSU and number of ports you use, which you can just add another ICX 7250-24 or 6450-24.

I was in the almost exact situation as you based on devices and requirements, but my search is finally over:

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/found-my-perfect-home-switch.36069/

 

[sko]

I'm from Italy and prices is EU are very high compared on US price. I can import one from USA (I did it in the past, but it seems that now the shipping costs are insane: more than 600 USD for a ICX6610 that cost 500 USD).

You gave your budget in $, so I infered you were from the US, sorry.
Yes, prices in europe are insane; but as said: the 3650s can be found occasionally around your budget. But my guess considering their end of sales and -support dates is, that they will drop considerably in prices in the next ~6-12 months. Cisco is currently pushing hard to get contracted customers from 3650/3850 to the newer platforms, so more and more of the substituted gear will show up in the grey market.

My concern is about to buy a EoL switch (Ex4200, ICX6610 or other Ciscos) spending less or a more supported one (that have firmware update for years) spending more.

If you go for a mature and stable platform (i.e. anything from the "big 3", cisco, juniper and brocade), and you don't put that gear into a critical production environment or make it somehow accessible from the internet (i.e. routing directly at the WAN), you are completely fine with EOL gear.
If theres a critical vulnerability for EOL gear thats still deployed very commonly or there are still a lot of valid support contracts, cisco usually still releases maintenance-versions of the last release even after the end of vuln/security support date. This is *mostly* true for anything that is released on the enterprise release train ('E' behind the major release number). E.g. the 3750X platform had its official end of vuln/sec support date on 2019/10/30, yet the latest software release for those switches 15.2.4E10 was released on 2020/04/07
There might still be some bugs or limitations, but they are usually very well documented and mitigations/workarounds are published.

TBH I'd go with EOL enterprise gear, that has been deployed thousandfold in critical infrastructure, at ISPs, in datacenters etc and has proven to be a rock-solid workhorse anytime over some new "prosumer" or SMB gear.
I'd even go as far as predicting (b/c I was proven right with that several times) that even a ~5-10 year old enterprise switch that once had a 5-figure price tag will still easily outlive any brand new prosumer/smb switch with the same current market price.

Although the EX4200 and ICX6610 are really old now - I'd look at least for the following generations (EX3300 and ICX7xxx) which are also widely available at very decent prices. Same goes for the 3750G/E or even 4948 catalyst series; those are really old by now and shouldn't be considered for a new deployment...