3550 replacement - 24 or 48 GigE ports

netspork · July 27, 2015, 07:23:10 PM

I've asked this in a different way in that other forum (which has apparently just totally disappeared, what's up with that?), but I'll ask again.

One client I work with is cheap, and to be honest, that's most of my experience since working with small ISPs since the mid 90's. I generally can do pretty cool stuff on a small budget. Anyhow... we currently buy very cheap 3550's for use in smaller metro buildings where we buy a metro-e tail circuit back to our NNI and re-sell within the building. Most customers want less than 100Mb/s, so we're generally OK. Rate-limiting works well enough for sub-port-rate connections (it's a bit hackish how we do the egress towards the customer, but it works).

However, we have a location (and hopefully eventually a few more) where we have more than one customer that wants more than 100Mb/s.

What's a decent replacement for the 3550 that gives me a basically compatible config, but 24 or 48 10/100/1000 ports?

EOL is fine, obviously.

wintermute000 · July 27, 2015, 07:49:17 PM

2960x but check the features, it's an access switch not metro Ethernet

Otanx · July 27, 2015, 09:29:49 PM

Depends on the exact features you need. 3550-12T which I am sure you already know, but it doesn't have the port count you want. 2960G and 3560G models are in the middle of EOL and have a couple years till end of hardware support. I don't know of anything cheaper/older with 24/48 gig interfaces. Get them on ebay for sub $400.

-Otanx

Reggle · July 28, 2015, 06:56:19 AM

Check out a 2970, they come in two models. The 1 RU is perfect. Gig interfaces and sometimes remarkably cheap. It's layer 2 only, not sure if you're really using layer 3.

Nerm · July 28, 2015, 08:27:07 AM

I second the 2960G's. I have a lot of small clients on tight budgets and those have been great for price vs performance/features. Do keep in mind though that they aren't using them in a carrier capacity though so you would have to research the feature set to make sure it matches what you need.

digitheads · July 28, 2015, 12:02:44 PM

I agree, the 2900 series is a knotch above the 3500 series - lots of limitations lifted, and you can run IOS 15.0, not 12.5

netspork · July 31, 2015, 12:37:31 PM

Damn, sorry for the delay, something is eating the forum notifications along the way it seems.

I'll check these out - we do need basic L3, so I think that kills the 2960-X, but what about the 2960-XR?

Also as a quick fix, I could use a 3550-12T if it's feature-compatible with the 24/48 port 3550's we run now. Any weird limitations on that specific switch, like smaller buffers or a backplane with less than line-rate bandwidth?

edit: also what about the 3750 series? Those are plentiful and cheap as well... Not immediately clear what the differences are in the various models.

wintermute000 · August 01, 2015, 04:38:39 AM

seriously, if you're looking @ EOL stuff (for new deployments... er, ok) then just go and grab the cheapest HP/Huawei/Dell etc. multilayer and be done with it.
Heck, why not consider the small business SG-300 series, works fine in my lab.

yes, anything a 3550 can do, a 3750 can do, except better, and the hw queues are different.

netspork · September 17, 2015, 04:30:01 PM

Just a quick followup - swapped a 3750 in, everyone is happy, even me.

I had to alter my rate-limiting setup a bit, but that actually made it a little less stupid than it was before.

One day I'll look at some non-cisco options, but for now I need something Rancid can talk to and I like being able to move configs around easily. Web UIs can suck it.