[c-nsp] Cisco RPS for 3550 switch

[Terje Bless]

On 10/1/07, sthaug at nethelp.no <sthaug at nethelp.no> wrote:
> > Cisco should make at least one 1U switch with real dual power
> > built into the chassis or bring back a real RPS.
>
> Ah, but they *do* make such a switch. It's called the ME3400. Available
> in both AC and DC versions. We use the DC version, seems to work fine.
> Somewhat higher price tag than your "standard" 3560 switches though.

Well, if your only requirements are 1U and redundant power, the
Catalyst 4948 comes as a 1U form factor with redundant hot-swap power
supplies (and a hot-swap fan tray even). As I understand it, the whole
thing is essentially a 1U version of the Catalyst 4500 series chassis,
with a Supervisor IV and a 48-port GigE linecard welded into it.
Downside is, of course, the price.

We're trying these out as per-rack server switches in the data center.


On the RPS-300, we didn't do the checking we should have before buying
and ended up with what for us were essentially 30 boat anchors. My
conclusion in the end was that it's much better to keep (in our case)
a bunch of spare 3524s (another "brilliant" purchase, *sigh*) and
replace the entire unit in case of PSU (or other) failure. The RPS-300
and its ilk simply makes zero sense to me (even if it's now dirt
cheap).


HTH, -link