UPS and network switch recommendations

[Kevin M. Cox]

Hey gang, I ran a search but didn’t find any threads on topic. I’m hoping some of y’all more experienced users can give us some advice. We don’t have any (fulltime or otherwise) IT staff. I know more then anyone at the office (just enough to be dangerous! ) so IT duties have fallen to me….

A little background: At work we currently run about 20 clients (two OS X.3.9 the rest OS 9) off of an ASIP 6.3 server. We’re going to upgrade half of the office to new hardware with 10.4 while keeping the rest on OS 9 (because one particular software package would be $20K to update). We’ll also be getting a new Xserve. We store most files (images, Quark documents, Illustrator files, text files) on the server so they can be accessed by everyone. Our current network is a mix of Cat3 and Cat5 cables strung randomly throughout the ceiling connected by three 16 port 10/100 switches.

The questions: First we’re going to need a new UPS for the Xserve and we’ll keep the old Beige Desktop G3 (ASIP server) around also. I’m looking at the APC Smart-UPS 1500VA USB & Serial RM 2U 120V. Does anyone have any experience with this model? Is there another that y’all would recommend over this one?

Second, we’re going to have the network professionally rewired with Cat6 and a single (most likely 24 port) 10/100/1000 network switch. I’m looking for recommendations on switches. Price is a factor and I’m sure we’d like to keep it under $1,000. However if there is a compelling reason to spend more we will. Do we really need a managed switch, or will unmanaged work just as well in our small office? If we need managed what “layer” do we need? (I honestly don’t know the difference between layer 2/3/4 switching.) Here are a few choices I’ve been looking at, I’m definitely wide open to suggestions.
http://www.3com.com/products/en_US/detail.jsp?tab=features&pathtype=purchase&sku=3C16479
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&scid=39&prid=569
http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&scid=40&prid=673
http://www.smc.com/index.cfm?event=viewProduct&localeCode=EN_USA&cid=7&scid=&pid=1414

Thanks in advance for taking the time to respond.

[chiefgeek]

We’re running two xserves using the APC 3000 and it works just fine. The model you are looking at will be perfect. I’ve installed three of those for customers with G5 Xserves and they work great. Plug in the USB, config in sys pref and go.

We’ve always used Asante switches due to their longtime Mac friendliness. I’ve got a GX5-2400 and an older GX4-224 and we can move image files around the network at 30-50MB / sec. We did have some trouble with the 2400 and our Cisco T1 router not autonegotiating, however. Best part was, neither one was reporting that fact. Asante was very helpful (when pushed) and we resolved it by plugging into the 224.

[Kevin M. Cox]

Thanks for responding guys. I basically just wanted to make sure there weren’t any known issues with those choices (like the often talked about Cisco switch/spanning tree problem).

Thanks again.

EDIT: It wasn’t addressed specifically, but I guess y’all are saying we don’t need a managed switch for our environment?

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