Lessons learned: using outdated hardware

ehnde

They say an expert is someone who has made every mistake possible. If this is true, I'm on my way down this path!

I bought a Cisco 3524 recently. Of course it's EOL like most lab equipment, but this switch is SO OLD many commands work differently. Just in the past hour I've discovered:

• The interface range command is not available on this switch
• You need to use the "vlan database" command as opposed to the more modern "vlan" command used on newer switches.

This is from one hour of use in a very small scope of available commands. I should have asked you guys for advice before buying this switch, but on a more positive note if I were to see one of these in production (lol) I'd be familiar with older commands.

earweed

Good lesson to learn. Hopefully you got it (the switch and the lesson) cheap..lol
I'm keeping this in mind while assembling my Cisco lab. You will, as you noted, be at an advantage over some people as you stated since you have now used those earlier commands.

ehnde

$59 (free shipping)

mikej412

Still a nice switch -- and good as a 3rd and/or 4th lab switch for some VTP and STP labs.

I have a couple in my home network connected via fiber to a 3550.

impz

ehnde wrote: »

$59 (free shipping)

I actually was going to buy a couple of those when I was first building up my lab. I believe at that time, it was going for $30 shipped until I saw this 2950T someone was selling for $50 shipped so I grabbed that instead.

Those 2 gigabit Ethernet ports are working out nicely for me because I don't have to transfer large files from 1 pc to the next using a external hard disk again.

wbosher

I used a 3524 in my lab and found it quite useful. Most of the commands are the same, and even the ones that aren't, are very similar. Having said that, I used packet tracer to do most of my switching labs.

hermeszdata

ehnde wrote: »

They say an expert is someone who has made every mistake possible. If this is true, I'm on my way down this path!

I bought a Cisco 3524 recently. Of course it's EOL like most lab equipment, but this switch is SO OLD many commands work differently. Just in the past hour I've discovered:

• The interface range command is not available on this switch
• You need to use the "vlan database" command as opposed to the more modern "vlan" command used on newer switches.

This is from one hour of use in a very small scope of available commands. I should have asked you guys for advice before buying this switch, but on a more positive note if I were to see one of these in production (lol) I'd be familiar with older commands.

Don't sell them short just yet. You can still upgrade the IOSs. I have 2 of these (PWR versions) in my Voice lab with 2 3550s (1 PWR). The 3500XLs may not handle the interface range command, but CNA (Cisco Network Assistant) does. Much of my switch maintenance (out of laziness) is handled with CNA.

This is how my 35**s are set up:

3524-XL-EN-PWR - IOS c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin
3550-24-SMI-PWR - IOS c3550-i5k2l2q3-mz.121-22.EA8a.bin (I have not taken the time to upgrade the IOS)
3550-48-SMI - IOS c3550-ipservicesk9-mz.122-50.SE3.bin

There are always work arounds.

ehnde

hermeszdata wrote: »

Don't sell them short just yet. You can still upgrade the IOSs. I have 2 of these (PWR versions) in my Voice lab with 2 3550s (1 PWR). The 3500XLs may not handle the interface range command, but CNA (Cisco Network Assistant) does. Much of my switch maintenance (out of laziness) is handled with CNA.

This is how my 35**s are set up:

3524-XL-EN-PWR - IOS c3500xl-c3h2s-mz.120-5.WC17.bin
3550-24-SMI-PWR - IOS c3550-i5k2l2q3-mz.121-22.EA8a.bin (I have not taken the time to upgrade the IOS)
3550-48-SMI - IOS c3550-ipservicesk9-mz.122-50.SE3.bin

There are always work arounds.

I'm using the 120-5.wc17 as well. It was a 7 year update Went from 2000 to 2007. Thanks for the tip about Cisco Network Assistant. I've never heard of it. Definetly going to check it out today!

chmorin

This is a similiar conclusion I came to when I was using it in my voice lab. I had to tinker with trunk links to compensate for the lack of a functional voice vlan command. It was someone on these forums whom helped me too. They are usefull as basic functional layer 2 switches. Personally though, I'd rather use a 2950.