Recommendation for 48 port POE and non-POE switch

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darkconz

Member
Jun 6, 2013
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Hi, I am looking to upgrade my switches and I am wondering what is the most economical but not too much technological behind switches.

For non POE I have Cisco 2690G-24 ports. I would like to increase the port density because I am running too many 24 port switches.

For POE I have Cisco 3750-48 ports. These are not POE+ compatible and some of the newer devices I have to run power injector which I want to remove in this upgrade.

Can somebody recommend some switch? I've taken a look at Dell X1052(P), Dell N2048(P), and Juniper EX-3300(P). Is it a good idea to have all of the same brand and model so I could stack them together? I need 4 switches, 2 POE and 2 non-POE.

Also stacking will reduce number of my uplinks. Are there other more current brand and models I should take a look?

Thanks in advance.


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pricklypunter

Well-Known Member
Nov 10, 2015
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Just for compatibility/ inter-operability reasons alone, it's always a good idea to keep your infrastructure from the same manufacturer, that being said, I'm happy to break down that infrastructure into readily identifiable blocks, or layers if you like, and spread my choices over several manufacturers, providing of course, that each fully support open standards and protocols.

On the Cisco front, you have the 2960S series, HP have their 25xx series, and going towards the less expensive end of the market, Trend also have a few as do several other smaller players. There are plenty of options out there as far as switches go, but you pay a real premium for poe+ in a switch. My advice would be to get your hands on a couple of decent used, port dense, midspan injectors from powerDsine/ Microsemi etc which can be had relatively cheaply, and put your hard earned money into some good non poe+ switches instead. In terms of power usage there's really nothing in it between the two, but it will give you flexibility without additional cost and in my experience a bit less heat to deal with :)
 

darkconz

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Jun 6, 2013
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Thanks for your reply and I do agree with you that mix and matching isn't that great. That is why I am upgrading the whole set of switches to one manufacture.

I had considered mid span but I want to remove as much unnecessary things from the rack.


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Blinky 42

Active Member
Aug 6, 2015
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Unless you are doing complex stuff like multi-chassis LAG where everyone's implementation is different then no real problems mixing brand of switches as needed. For proper "stacking" with a (simulated) unified control plane you need to check the vendor to make sure the models you want can stack together, typically it is limited to the same generation & family of silicon inside the switch to have stacking work.

I personally like juniper and have a number of ex3300's for personal and work use. The cli makes more sense than cisco's, and Juniper's web UI is usabe for most things and blissfully Java free.
I also have a large number of older but still capable HP switches (29xx and 28xx) and they are fine as well, but can be cheaper to pick up on the used market.

I would consider if you want to have any 10Gb networking or faster in your network, and for 10Gb what media (fiber, copper) to help narrow down your choices. If you have the budget, I wouldn't buy anything w/o some 10G on it, at least to interconnect the switches.
 

darkconz

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Jun 6, 2013
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Thanks for your replies, I looked at Juniper EX3300 and their 24 ports are even more expensive than the Dell N2048's 48 ports. I have used Dells before and find them ok to deal with. Never used Juniper and I am not sure if the premium to get Juniper is worth it in terms of quality of OS and hardware.
 

pricklypunter

Well-Known Member
Nov 10, 2015
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I love Juniper stuff, but man is it expensive for what you get. HP and Cisco are my devices of choice. It's always a tightrope walk getting lower power, lower noise and least cost, you'll most likely only achieve two of those considerations and have to make a compromise on the other :)
 

KypDurron

New Member
Feb 16, 2017
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May have missed it but are you needing Layer 3 or are semi smart switches an acceptable solution?
 

darkconz

Member
Jun 6, 2013
193
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18
I have a layer 3 switch, just plain layer 2 is sufficient


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KypDurron

New Member
Feb 16, 2017
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What power budget are you looking for? Do you need 30W to all 48 ports or just some ports that can handle 30W while other ports pulling less?
 

maze

Active Member
Apr 27, 2013
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Im loving working with the Aruba/HP 2530.. stable and their warranty.