[c-nsp] MST Experiences: was Re: Dell switches (specifically PowerConnect 7048P) and Ciscos

[Blake Dunlap]

There are a variety of reasons I won't touch or recommend the Dell switch
gear. Some of which include lack of rpvst, horrible management interface
when trying to troubleshoot (try finding mac address tables, etc), poor
documentation (or even deliberate misinformation) of important specs like
buffer sizes and/or ASIC port mappings.

For a products claiming to be enterprise level, they are very poor devices.
They may slowly be getting better, but its pretty clear that they don't
take network hardware seriously. I'd never use them as anything more than a
desktop small office switch without some real changes apparent.

-Blake

On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 4:38 PM, Bernie <zenbernie at gmail.com> wrote:

> Randy is correct about FTOS and convergence. The implication of per vlan
> topology convergence is an engineering matter which has yet to "bubble up"
> to management here as a concern worth addressing.
>
> It's clearly highly relevant in some environments, but Dell is gaining
> market share with the STP functioning as-is. While I can bring discussions
> like this to management attention, the system is set up to listen to the
> people making sales decisions at customer locations. I'd urge anyone who
> wants this changed to contact your sales rep.
>
> Regards,
>
> Bernie
>
>
> On Wed, Nov 28, 2012 at 3:10 PM, Randy <randy_94108 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > my experience with FTOS is pre-Dell so things may have changed since.
> >
> > FTOS- RSTP is a *single-instance* of spanning tree for all vlans -
> > definitely not what I would deploy.
> > Cisco R-PVST is *per-vlan* and juniper, foundry, extreme do the same.
> >
> > FTOS and Cisco PVST work fine
> > FTOS PVST and Cisco PVST+ work fine: just no benefit of rapid convergence
> > via  uplink-fast or backbone-fast as in PVST+ for indirect link failures.
> >
> > I believe the original question was about R-PVST so no, FTOS doesn't do
> > that as far as I know.
> > ./Randy
> >
> > --- On Wed, 11/28/12, Vinny_Abello at Dell.com <Vinny_Abello at Dell.com>
> wrote:
> >
> > > From: Vinny_Abello at Dell.com <Vinny_Abello at Dell.com>
> > > Subject: Re: [c-nsp] MST Experiences: was Re: Dell switches
> > (specifically PowerConnect 7048P) and Ciscos
> > > To: p.mayers at imperial.ac.uk, reuben-cisco-nsp at reub.net
> > > Cc: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> > > Date: Wednesday, November 28, 2012, 11:36 AM
> > > Dell FTOS has PVST on our Force10
> > > switches. I won't claim familiarity with it or differences
> > > to Cisco PVST+ as I don't work in the F10 group, but I know
> > > it's there. I can find a Dell F10 contact for you if you
> > > have questions about it. Interoperability testing has been
> > > done and documented here:
> > >
> > >
> >
> http://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/shared-content/data-sheets/en/Documents/DELL_Force10_Interoperability_Guide.pdf
> > >
> > > -Vinny
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net
> > > [mailto:cisco-nsp-bounces at puck.nether.net]
> > > On Behalf Of Phil Mayers
> > > Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2012 7:34 AM
> > > To: Reuben Farrelly
> > > Cc: cisco-nsp at puck.nether.net
> > > Subject: Re: [c-nsp] MST Experiences: was Re: Dell switches
> > > (specifically PowerConnect 7048P) and Ciscos
> > >
> > > On 27/11/12 12:27, Reuben Farrelly wrote:
> > >
> > > >
> > > > What vendors, other than Cisco, support some form of
> > > Rapid-PVST?  I
> > > > believe Arista do on their switches - are there any
> > > others?  If it's
> > >
> > > Extreme, Foundry, HP in older firmware (newer firmware
> > > dropped it in
> > > favour of MST, IIRC - sigh). I think it's pretty widespread,
> > > TBH.
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