Refurbished Hardware?

[Emeds]

I have sort of an off color question here. Have any of you deployed refurbished equipment? What has your experience been?
We have decided on an Extreme BlackDiamond as our core switch. I was asked to put together a summary for the bean counters of buying this switch new versus refurbished (yeah-thats what I was hired for!!).
Anyway, it looks as though we can get the switch itself and hot spares for less than half of a new switch.

Any gotchas I should know about?

 

[rn4it]

We have been using Extreme for approx. 5yrs now, over that time we have had some blades replaced or are summits(edge switch) replaced. Some of them were return and repair, refurbished by Extreme. They were pretty solid, I can't vouch for a 3rd party company that did the refurbishing. What I would say is get extra blades so that if one fail you have one to failover to. I'd also get a good support contract with extreme, and make sure your using extremeware version 7.2 or better.

Overall I'd perfer to go with new over refubished. 1 thing you need to look at is how much downtime can you afford? From that look at how much redundancy you can afford to build in to the network? If you have good support with Extreme/vendor and some redundancy at the core so that if there is a failure that network can still be operational then you should be ok.

The only gotcha, is my own paranoia which is refurished parts have been refurbished. Therefore, something went wrong that had to be corrected and that means something else could go wrong.

cheers

 

[clayfoxmvp]

I am cheap and I have several sites with extreme, since it is the corproate standard but it is all refurbished and/or used. I buy spares but I have paid probably 10% of what I would have paid new. I have had some issues from time to time but I think everyone has and the new equipment does not seem to make much of a difference. I love refurbished, most never had an issue in the first place but when it comes back it gets more checking and quality work than the new stuff does the first time. ALso I figure used stuff has been working and passed the break-in stage. I think it does come down to the criticality of your network but I have used extra equipment to do Spanning Tree and actually have redundant core switches, etc in. There is plenty on ebay and many companies like Cable Express and others who deal in refurb equipment. I have purchased Alpine chassis that would cost 30K new for 1500 dollars several times as an example.
But it is all what you are comfortable with but I would try some refurb stuff, especially for the edges, a summit 48 is only a couple hundred bucks on ebay.

Clay

 

[nweqjim]

This is an area close to home for me. I work for the largest dealer of refurbished Extreme equipment. To clarify, refurbished in networking gear is different than a warranty buy back on a wear and tear item such as say a household vacuum. Refurbishing essentially means fully testing all functionality of a given component. Remember, ALL networks run on used equipment.
A key component here is downtime, but buying new does not preclude downtime. If you can buy your gear at a good price through a reputable comapny that is willing to advance replace a failed component you will be much ahead of the game, especially if you budgeted a hot standby.
Additionally, unless you need the newest bleeding edge hardware and Extremeware and can deal with bug fixes, then solid previous release equipment may be just what you need.
To give you an idea of what any piece of equipment is subjected to see below.
Jim Birney


Network Liquidators World Class Testing Process

Network Liquidators provides a One Year Replacement Warranty (end-user customers only) on all equipment sold after June 1st, 2005. This is better than most manufacturers who normally offer a 90 day warranty with new equipment. We are able to do this because we only deal with products from the most reliable manufacturers and we make sure that the equipment you are buying has been thoroughly tested before shipping it to you.

We are proud to say that the failure rate during the Warranty period of equipment that we sell is less than 1%.

Network Liquidators puts all equipment that we receive through the following testing procedures:
When a piece of equipment is received, it is first subjected to a physical inspection to ensure no damage was incurred during shipment.
It is required that all internal and external serial numbers match, and all manufacturer markings/labels are intact. Any units found with these deficiencies are returned to the seller.
All units that do not have their tamper stickers intact, or are broken, will be opened and heavily scrutinized. If the main board or other internal components are missing hardware the unit will be returned to the seller or completely refurbished by Network Liquidators engineers.
If a piece of equipment has any repairable minor damage to the case or has missing screws or mounting brackets we fix and/or replace them.
All equipment is powered and run at all input voltage capabilities.
All products are upgraded to the latest diagnostic software and tested at the highest level possible.
All equipment is allowed to warm up to normal operating temperature before any further diagnostics are performed. This helps in finding any thermal problems the unit may have.
If the equipment has the ability to run internal diagnostics they are performed. All internal diagnostic results are recorded and a copy is included with the unit when purchased.
Any empty chassis we acquire are populated to capacity with known functional blades to ensure all slots, power receptacles, and connectors are functional.
All hot swappable cards, power supplies, and modules are tested to ensure they do not leave you with down time in the event you ever need to change a faulty component.
All switches have every ports individually tested to ensure they operate at peak performance.
All redundant systems are put through fail over tests to verify reliability.
All equipment is configured and tested under real conditions to insure proper operation. This includes all layer 2, 3, and 4 protocols that the unit is designed to support.
Once a piece of equipment passes all diagnostic steps, it is thoroughly cleaned and packaged for stock.
Any unit that has been in stock is rechecked prior to shipping when it is selected to fill an order.
If a unit from stock is updated with a different operating system, additional diagnostic tests are run and the new test results included with the unit.
All products we ship are professionally packaged in either the original manufacturers boxes or with our state of the art custom fit Insta-Pak system to ensure that your equipment arrives to your company in excellent condition.