What brand of switches do you recommend when buying used gear for a small business?
I want to be able to download user manuals, firmware etc without support contract and also use the switch features without a gazzillion of license requirements. Also nice if it's possible to find spare parts, for instance like fans.
The Cisco stuff is nice, but you need to pay $$$ for a support contract in order to download software. It is possible to find some of the software on non-Cisco sites (Cisco conveniently publishes MD5/SHA1 so you can be pretty sure it hasn't been tampered with), but that's not guaranteed to work at any time in the future. Manuals (both hardware and software) are available from the Cisco site without needing a support contract. If you register for an account (free), you can see some more things like bug details. Also, any recent Cisco products have "universal" software images, where additional features are extra-cost options. Switches either come with lanbase (full switching, no routing) or ipbase (full switching, enough routing for most users) by default. If you need an advanced feature set, have the seller send you the "show license" output to confirm the license(s) you need are installed. For example, here's a 4500X with an enterprise ("everything including the kitchen sink") license:
Code:
core1.nycsnyoo#sh license summ
Index 0 Feature: entservices
Period left: Life time
License Type: Permanent
License State: Active, In Use
License Count: Non-Counted
License Priority: Medium
Index 1 Feature: ipbase
Period left: 8 weeks 4 days
License Type: Evaluation
License State: Active, Not in Use, EULA not accepted
License Count: Non-Counted
License Priority: None
Index 2 Feature: lanbase
Period left: 1513 weeks 1 day
License State: Active, Not in Use, EULA not accepted
License Count: Non-Counted
Index 3 Feature: internal_service
Period left: 0 seconds
The above example also shows something unpleasant that Cisco has started doing - the lanbase license that this switch ships with by default isn't perpetual - it is a 30-year license (if I calculated that right). The extra-cost ($4620, yikes!) entservices license is perpetual. This probably doesn't matter as it is unlikely you will still want to be running the switch in 30 years, but...
However, the Cisco stuff is neither quiet nor energy-efficient. Even current-production products like the 4500X are quite loud.
The best time to buy Cisco stuff is when it is just starting to go End-of-Life. As a (router, not switch) example, the bottom fell out of the 3945 market last month when it no longer became possible to add 3945s to a support contract. Cisco will continue to release software updates for another 2 years. There are hundreds of 3945s on eBay that came from Gap stores and are selling for $150-ish. Given that the PoE power supply in those costs $85 on eBay, that's a pretty good deal for the whole router.
If you like the Cisco CLI (some people like it, some hate it), a number of vendors sell switches that run the "Fastpath" software. The Dell 8024 family uses it, as do some Netgear switches. It use to be only slightly compatible, but it has gotten better at looking like the Cisco CLI. I've heard that Arista was also Cisco-like (enough that Cisco sued them) but have never used those.