topic Re: X590 still a good option? in ExtremeSwitching (EXOS/Switch Engine)

X590 still a good option?

nixcraft — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 10:45:40 GMT

I'm looking at X590 for a top-of-rack installation for a small business. Is this model still a viable option in terms of end of life and support? Are there any murmurs it might go EOL soon? I can't find when it was released, but I think at least five years ago.

I read that software support is two years after end of sale, but it isn't in the end of sale list yet. So hopefully there is some life left.

Re: X590 still a good option?

Chris_H — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 14:14:39 GMT

I guess the main question should be: how long do you need firmware updates for?

The x590 is not supported in the newest main-branch (33.x) anymore, but as long as 32.x is still maintained (it now moves from feature branch to maintenance branch) there will still be updates. The most recent 32.7-release goes EOVM in April 2026, but new releases will probably push that out by a few months. At that point there won't be any further bug-fixes or improvements.

Hardware support should be a few years longer, but then possibly without new firmware releases.

Depending on the use-case, table-size requirements and such, a 5520 may be the option with a longer life-span at a similar list price.

Re: X590 still a good option?

nixcraft — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:29:06 GMT

This would be for a small server rack installation with two stacked switches. About five 10Gb servers and a couple more 1Gb servers and few 1Gb connections for infrastructure. Uplinks to other 10Gb switches and 10Gb firewall pair.

Normal office use utilization so only occasional usage peaks mostly for backups. Nothing that I would imagine approaching hardware limits.

The 5520 series doesn't seem to have copper 10GbE model which is a requirement. But X590 being mature hardware and software, it probably won't matter much if the firmware doesn't get new releases in the latter part of the lifetime of 5-7 years if the hardware is still under warranty and support. I guess the worst case scenario would be some software vulnerability that wouldn't be patched, but management is on an isolated network anyway.