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

[Jeff Kell]

On 11/28/2012 5:38 PM, Bernie wrote:
> 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.

We inherited some really old Dell switches from one of our
research/academic departments, but after having insufferable issues just
getting a trunk up, gave up on it, reset to factory defaults, and used
them as dumb flat-vlan switches for a bit.

We are evaluating a number of switches for wireless upgrades and VoIP
suitability, trying to generalize a PoE/Gig capable configuration rather
than running every special case (APs, cameras, signage, VoIP phones, and
everything else that shows up) into their own dedicated corner of the
wiring closet with jumpers going everywhere.

The PowerConnect 7048P was suggested and we're evaluating a stacked
pair.  Their general configuration is much more IOS-like (assign vlans
at the interface, rather than assigning interfaces at the vlans like HP
/ Foundry / Brocade / others) and the initial setup looked promising,
until we hit the spanning tree issue, and thus my original question.

I've floated feedback / inquiries back to the sales team and the techs /
consultants they brought with them.  So far it's silence on the 7048P
and a suggestion of the stackable Force10s as offering better
interoperability with out-of-the-box Cisco PVST.  They seem compatible
with everything we've done testing on other than a lack of PoE+ (not
that we necessarily need it for much of anything at this point, but
seemed to be a future-proof option to have).

I'd rather have the odd switch or two in the closet for the odd PoE+
need or two, than crash the network with a spanning tree meltdown.  So
the lack of PVST tolerance may well be a show-stopper for Dell
networking here unless some other options materialize.  We ran into
similar issues with Procurves early on, but have almost retired all of
those mistakes after some spanning tree issues reared their ugly heads.

Of course I'd love to just stack some 3750Xs (stacking data and power)
and be done with it, but we're a few truckloads of cash short of that
for the access layer (although we remain staunchly Cisco layer-3 at this
point).

Thanks for all of the feedback and discussion on this topic!

Jeff