SG300-28 already leaving a bad taste in my mouth...

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Jul 20, 2015
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Well I bought a Cisco SG300-28 for a quarter rack that I have co-located.

I don't really have much experience with managed switches but here's my inital impressions:

* The web interface is slow. Reminds me of a $20 wireless router.

* Upgrading the firmware/boot code is a multi-step pain. Why can't there simply be a one-click upgrade that checks for and installs an authenticated firmware from Cisco's website?

To upgrade to the latest firmware I have to upgrade to an intermediate firmware, reboot, upgrade to a new boot code, then upgrade to a new firmware.

But here's the kicker. The firmware can be upgraded via https, but the boot code needs scp or tftp. No problem, right? I run an ssh server. But can I put in a custom port? Nope!

I have no idea whether alternative switches have one click upgrades (even if you have to one click to an intermediate firmware, and then one click again to the final that would be okay).

But they should. Everyone should.

Even if you assume your users are experts, there's no reason to waste all your users times. 500,000 Cisco SMB switches sold to customes (just a guess) times a half hour an upgrade, is a lot of wasted users time.
 

Mike Bailey

Member
Sep 24, 2015
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Stick with the console. I have one serving as my network core at the moment (upgrading to ES-48-Lite soon). I don't even bother with the web console anymore.

If you've used Cisco hardware (not linksys rebrand), the CLI is IOS which works OK.

You can do what I did: Pick up a Cisco 2651xM, an NM-16A (or NM-32A) and a Cisco Octal cable (see CISCO Octal Cables - Monoprice.com).

You can connect up to 32 console devices via the 2651XM. Most of the hardware I've bought recently has console ports, it's *way* easier to reconfigure over the CLI. Especially when you get pretty good at just typing it out in notepad and copying it into the terminal.

If you have any questions, feel free to PM. I'm going to eventually do a writeup on a low-cost OOB management solution from the networking side of things, so it would just kick start that for me :)

For what it's worth, I got my SG300-28 about a year ago and did the firmware upgrade and L3 reconfiguration (fun fact: if you change from L2 -> L3, it erases your config).

I've done one other upgrade since then but I haven't really bothered with keeping up with their firmware updates since they've rarely added anything worthwhile.
 

Mike Bailey

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Sep 24, 2015
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@Patrick, I assume you mean this guy? No, I've not heard of it before. I tend to like the 2651XM + NM-32A combo because you can usually pick it up for about $80 on ebay. I've set it up a couple times at my current workplace because of how cost effective it is.
 
Jul 20, 2015
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For what it's worth, I got my SG300-28 about a year ago and did the firmware upgrade and L3 reconfiguration (fun fact: if you change from L2 -> L3, it erases your config).
So should I just go ahead and change it to L3 now before I really start using it?

Is there any draw back to operating it in L3 mode? Would it slow switching down at all? I think I saw some threads complaining about L3 switching speed with the SG300 models, but I really didn't investigate. Could have been user error I guess on their part.

I assume if it erases the config, I'll have to have my colo facility reconfigure it so I can login. That's probably fine, it's probably free to do so.
 

Pete L.

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Nov 8, 2015
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I've installed a bunch of the various Cisco SG Switches and I don't recall the firmware process being that painful but it has been a while and as other mentioned I haven't really bothered to keep up with updates as the switches have been rock solid / very reliable for me. I can't think of a single issue I've had with the regular or POE Versions. I don't mind the Web interface at all, want to see SLOW? Check out the new Dell X1000 series switches you will love the cisco a million times over and what is even better is on the dell's they stripped out a lot of the CLI functionality =(
 

Terry Kennedy

Well-Known Member
Jun 25, 2015
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www.glaver.org
You can do what I did: Pick up a Cisco 2651xM, an NM-16A (or NM-32A) and a Cisco Octal cable (see CISCO Octal Cables - Monoprice.com).
One thing to be aware of is that the 2651 has been end-of-life for a long time and the firmware for it has a large number of known vulnerabilities. That may not matter, depending on where on your LAN (firewalled, etc.) you connect it. A 2811 would be a more recent replacement, yet still reasonably priced.

I've also found the NM-16A/-32A to be susceptible to bad ports. I've changed the RS-232 drivers on a number of these cards and they still grow more dead ports (the usual symptom is that the port can receive but not transmit).
 

Mike Bailey

Member
Sep 24, 2015
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So should I just go ahead and change it to L3 now before I really start using it?

Is there any draw back to operating it in L3 mode? Would it slow switching down at all? I think I saw some threads complaining about L3 switching speed with the SG300 models, but I really didn't investigate. Could have been user error I guess on their part.

I assume if it erases the config, I'll have to have my colo facility reconfigure it so I can login. That's probably fine, it's probably free to do so.
Yep, make sure you configure it as L3 ahead of time. Once it comes online, it will have nothing but the stock config on it.

I've been running one in my switch core in L3 and I haven't really noticed any significant latency impact. A cursory ping between two routed networks on the device shows up as < 1 ms latency.