The HP ProCurve 3500/5400 range is working nicely for us. The 3500 is a fixed format 24/48 port 10/100/1000 with 4 dual-personality SFP ports. You can slap a 10Gig expansion module in the back. Around $3k/$6k for the 24/48 port We prefer the 5406 chassis, as it is more flexible. Does consume more space though. We only run basic L2 stuff, although the unit supports L3. Tim:> On Thu, Apr 3, 2008 at 10:05 AM, Kevin Blackham <blackham@gmail.com> wrote:
We run nortel 5530. They are not exactly "cheap" by my standards for 24 GE (10k list), but they do have 2x10G. Also they don't play nice with rstp to cisco, and I still can't figure out how to get it to show me stp port status. Both vendors in the tree think they're root. CLI is tolerable, but if you get into lacp config or want to know what knobs are set for a given port, you'll want to light them on fire (many vendors suck this way anyway). L3 features are lacking. No ACLs, pay extra for OSPF.
For 24 ports of GE and 2x 10G XFP, they'll work nice as a simple L2 switch, just don't stack em (does not work as advertised when making changes under load), and dump some of the vendor proprietary defaults such as nortel-mstp and mlt link aggs.
On 4/1/08, Pekka Savola <pekkas@netcore.fi> wrote:
On Tue, 1 Apr 2008, Andrew Staples wrote:
Speaking of running gig long distances, does anyone on the list have suggestions on a >8 port L2 switch with fiber ports based on personal experience? Lots of 48 port gig switches have 2-4 fiber uplink ports, but this means daisy-chains instead of hub/spoke. Looking for a central switch for a star topography to home fiber runs that is cost effective and works.
Nortel 5530 has 24x copper, 12x SFP and 2x10GE (XFP): http://www.nortel.com/ers5530
We don't have 5530's but we have good experience with 5510 as L2 device. In your case you may be looking for a larger number of SFP GE ports though.
-- Pekka Savola "You each name yourselves king, yet the Netcore Oy kingdom bleeds." Systems. Networks. Security. -- George R.R. Martin: A Clash of Kings