Cisco 1000 series switches worth a buy for home lab

[robertkwild]

hi all,

i have an old HPE 1910-8G Switch and its served me well for the past 10 years i think…very well

but now my home lab i have out grown it, need more ports as ive used all my ports up

im looking at this

https://www.broadbandbuyer.com/products/41080-cisco-c1000-16t-2g-l/

reason want to get cisco is because my work place atm have cisco’s and it will be good to learn more about the cli etc and as this is using ios not the basic cli i think thats really good (same as nexus switches)

one thing i do know about cisco’s is everything is a paid license, my question is can i upgrade the firmware or is that going to need a license

thanks,
rob

[Flavio Miranda]

@robertkwild 

 If you want to practice cisco CLI, this switch will do but it is not the same as Nexus. This switch runs IOS, nexus is NX-OS.

 License does not prevent you from upgrade, license only unblock features. What will prevent you from download software for upgrade is the lack of a contract.

[robertkwild]

what are the main differences between IOS and NX-OS please

also does the switch i linked to support static routing as i saw its only a L2 switch and do ios switches have the default command to wipe the porrt and start again from scratch

[marce1000]

              - FYI : https://www.kwtrain.com/blog/comparing-cisco-ios-nx-os-and-ios-xr

 M.

[Flavio Miranda]

"Product overview

Cisco^® Catalyst^® 1000 Series Switches are fixed managed Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet enterprise-class Layer 2 switches designed for small businesses and branch offices"

1000 switch is Layer2.

NX-OS is lot different from IOS, mostly, in command sintax

[Ramblin Tech]

A subscription to the Personal edition of Cisco Modeling Labs gives you licensed access to virtualized IOS, XE, XR, and NX-OS nodes that you can arrange into networks of devices. Buying a single, low-end switch or router will be of limited utility in learning how to design, configure, and manage a Cisco network.

If you would prefer to not pay for a CML subscription, you can also sign up for free access to use an online CML sandbox.

[robertkwild]

So you can't make this switch a L3 by just doing a command to switch from L2 to L3

So am I right in thinking the longevity of the switches life I can upgrade the firmware free of charge?

[Ramblin Tech]

"So you can't make this switch a L3 by just doing a command to switch from L2 to L3"

From the Product Overview section of the datasheet : "Cisco® Catalyst® 1000 Series Switches are fixed managed Gigabit Ethernet and Fast Ethernet enterprise-class Layer 2 switches designed for small businesses and branch offices".  Datasheet indicates L2 only.

"So am I right in thinking the longevity of the switches life I can upgrade the firmware free of charge?"

This depends on whether or not the vendor you are purchasing it from is a Cisco-authorized reseller. From the Software Policy section of the datasheet: "Customers are provided with maintenance updates and bug fixes designed to maintain the compliance of the software with published specifications, release notes, and industry standards as long as the original end user continues to own or use the product or up to one year from the end-of-sale date for this product, whichever occurs earlier."

A key provision in the policy is "original end user". If this is a used/previously-owned switch, then the policy is void, as the original end user would be the one who originally purchased it from a Cisco-authorized reseller. If the switch is new, but the vendor is not Cisco-authorized (ie, purchased on the grey market), then the policy would also be void as Cisco would not recognize an unauthorized vendor's ability to legally distribute Cisco's copyrighted software (ie, the embedded IOS) to you. Always buy Cisco products directly from authorized vendors in order not to run afoul of Cisco's warranties and copyrights.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

BTW, for an "inexpensive" L3 switch, you might consider the Catalyst 1200 and 1300 series, or even, I believe possibly less expensive both to purchase and (software) maintain, the CBS 250 and 350 series.

[Joseph W. Doherty]

For learning (basic) IOS CLI, you might sign up for obtaining a copy of Cisco's (free) Packet Tracer.  (NB: besides not supporting all IOS features, some it does support do not work correctly.  [Its accuracy of operation has improved much over the years.])

Jim's recommendation of CML is good, and the devices it offers, I believe, pretty much supports all the configuration options of the real devices.  However, a couple of those devices need a hefty system to fire up.  I have a copy of CML personal, and on my PC, with 16 GB, I cannot fire up the "big" devices.

Jim also mentions the free on-line CML sandbox, but it has its own limitations, which may, or may not, impact your usage.

To summarize, I too believe, for learning, the more encompassing software products are better.  So, for home use, use whatever serves your network needs best, i.e. it's not really worthwhile, IMO, to try to have home devices for the additional purpose of learning.

[MHM Cisco World]

Try get old c3k it better than 1k series.

C3k have can run l3 protocol.

MHM

[robertkwild]

Bear in mind this is for a home lab so I want it to be cheap and not consume a lot of power