Cisco SG300-28 (SRW2024-K9-UK)

[BSDMan]

Hi All

I need to purchase a 24 port gigabit switch that is fanless (passively cooled) for the lab I am building at home. I will be running between 6 and 8 VLANs, using IPv6 and running 3 ESXi hosts connected to it and each host has 5 NICs in it.

I have (almost) decided on the following switch:

http://www.broadbandbuyer.co.uk/products/9950-cisco-smb-srw2024-k9-uk/

Is this a good choice? Or should I be looking at another model that is more suitable? I'd like to stick with Cisco if possible and don't mind paying a bit extra for it.

I'll also be connecting my pfsense Netgate-2440 to the switch and would like to setup LACP with two of the firewalls interfaces.

Thanks!

 

[/usr/home]

I have a SG300-10 and they are great. Do note that the CLI isn't true IOS. Some commands are similar but they are not all the same.

 

[Daedalus0101101]

Its not a bad little switch. Depending on your comfort level as well, it could be a life savor or a hinderence. I have the exact same switch except with POE and its for light duty only. Doing VLANs on the SG line is a little more cumbersome than on the full Cisco Catalyst line.

 

[BSDMan]

Thanks for the replies.

/usr/home: I didn't know this switch didn't use a "true" IOS so thanks for mentioning that. I don't think it really matters though for a home lab setup?

Daedalus0101101: Could you expand on what you mean when you said it could be a savour or a hinderance? When you say light duty use only can you be a bit more specific please?

Basically I want to use this switch for the new home lab I'll be setting up later this year. I'll have 3 hosts connected to this switch and each host will have 5 gigabit NICs (although one of these is IPMI). I'll have up to 50 VMs running and need at least 6 VLANs.

Another important point is that I would like to use two of my gigabit NICs on my pfsense box for LACP to the Cisco switch. I'm still researching it but I may setup LACP for my ESXi hosts too (4 gigabit NICs per LACP/LAG).

To be honest, I won't be pushing huge amounts of data through this switch although I will mention that I will be running VMwares VSAN (which is like a RAID over the network for drives) and be using vMotion/HA. I'll also be running Veeam backups each night.

I'm no switch/routing expert but I *think* the Cisco SG300-28 switch is up for this task? I know it doesn't run the full IOS but I'm not so sure thats an issue here. I'll probably stick to the GUI anyway as the point of my lab is for virtualisation and although I am interested in Cisco I don't want to spend weeks setting up something that could take minutes in a web GUI!

The big draw for me to this switch is the fact that its fanless! This is a must. It seems to be loaded with good features too for the price but I am open to suggestions to consider another switch. I only need to purchase the switch in a few months time so I don't have to rush ;-)