msi wrote:
Hi

While I can imagine that that choice might be quite good, please consider some things unrelated to the model choice:
ArubasOS on your current HPE switch is quite a bit different from Netgear's CLI. This means that you will have to be enough proficient in both syntax which can lead to increased operational cost for added learning/training or lost time to adapt for both syntax. I think that's my biggest concern. -This is a concern of mine as well.
(The 3500yl is also end of sale sice 2014, maybe it could be worth considering an upgrade at some point?) - I know these are quite old, and I plan on replacing them as well. I would replace them with Netgear swtches for maximum compatibility. I would need 1 x 48 port (non-PoE) for workstations, laptops and 1 x 24 port w/PoE for VoIP, and wireless access points. I'd like both to have 10G uplinks for conneccting to the M4300-8X8F. Any recommendations?

From those 16 ports per M4300-8X8F switch at least 2 will be "lost" for the stack interconnectivity which gives you 14 usable ports.
Your HPE switches seem to be standalone models, so you can use the 2 X2 slots to distribute within a LAG across the 2 Netgear stacked switches. (What are you using the CX4 connection on the picture for?) -The CX4 connection provides 10Gb link between the 2 x 3500yl switches.
With that imagined config you have 12 remaining ports per switch. If your servers have each 2x 10G ports that's 5 ports per switch (if using distributed LAGs across the stack) so you are down to 7 free ports, which is not that much anymore.
And then you need to keep track if those ports are SFP+ OR copper since this model has 8 of each per switch.

Whant I want to say is: Count the required number of ports AND type of ports you need. There are other half-wide M4300 models with varying mixture of SFP+ and copper ports (up to 24 ports).-Budgetary constraints limit me to choosing the 8X8F. I'd be fine with all SFP+ ports, but having a mix doesn't bother me. I have to purchase 3 additional 10G cards. If I purchase copper cards I wouldn't have to buy SFP+ transceivers, which would save me some money.

Also keep in mind that even with a staggered reboot during firmware updates (check the forums) there is a minimal downtime of a couple of seconds where no traffic passes on the ports until a new stack master is elected. If you server cluster cannot survive this, this won't be a good choice. (Only much more expensive datacenter switches can do that, but that's in another price range) -I typically schedule maintenance after hours, I'm hoping this isn't much of a concern. I'm glad you mentioned it because I wasn't aware of this.

The J8436A X2 module is 10GBASE-SR so you need 10GBASE-SR SFP+ modules on the Netgear switches. The original module is the AXM761. You wrote you have SC (to) LR multimode cables - I guess you meant SC to LC? -Sorry, I used the wrong term. I've attached a pic showing both ends of the cable I have (LR often means "long range" and in fiber often indicates single mode whereas here you are using multi mode transceivers)

As I don't use NMS300 I can't tell you anything about it.

Concerning premium support: For the first 90 days after purchase you get phone and mail support included, afterwards you can buy ProSupport for Business (not having had the need for it I can't tell, but I've made good experiences with regular support cases for bugs without ProSupport) https://prosupport.netgear.com/business/ -That's great to hear, I could apply the $$$ towards another switch! I really do appreciate your advice. Thank you very much!

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