We don’t keep a percentage. We’ve got 13,000 APs, and we replace a handful each month. We make sure we’ve got a suitable replacement or substitute for all production gear, but we don’t necessarily keep a dedicated repair stock. The normal quantity that flows in and out of our shop is usually sufficient to cover any failures we might encounter. We don’t stock old hardware without a good reason. We’ll replace an old AP model with a new one if we can.
Controller failures are also rare. We’ve only ever replaced a couple, and at one point we had 64 deployed in our network. Keep one of your largest model on the shelf and trust next day replacement support for the rest. Chuck Enfield Manager, Wireless Engineering Enterprise Networking & Communication Services The Pennsylvania State University 119L, USB2, UP, PA 16802 ph: 814.863.8715 fx: 814.865.3988 From: The EDUCAUSE Wireless Issues Constituent Group Listserv [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Trinklein, Jason R Sent: Monday, February 26, 2018 1:21 PM To: [email protected] Subject: [WIRELESS-LAN] Offline/Spare Gear Inventory Size Hi All, I’m curious to know the size of your spare gear inventories. Do you keep a percentage of each model of AP in inventory, and what is your reasoning? Storms? Last minute/emergency wireless coverage needs? What percentage of your live gear do you keep as offline inventory? (100 live APs with 1 inventory AP = 1% offline inventory). With Xirrus, we had an offline inventory of more than 10% of live inventory. We kept that inventory to cover the high failure rate of the equipment, the incidence of hurricanes and lightning strikes in our area, the broad range of AP models on campus, and last minute large events in low coverage areas. We are evaluating the minimum offline inventory for our new Aruba gear as we finish up the vendor switch. I have been thinking 1-2%, but I want to see what you guys do first, and why. Thank you, -- Jason Trinklein Wireless Engineering Manager College of Charleston 81 St. Philip Street | Office 311D | Charleston, SC 29403 <mailto:[email protected]> [email protected] | (843) 300–8009 DID YOU KNOW? The Princeton Review selected the College of Charleston as one of 50 schools focused on providing students with practical experiences that take their academics to the next level. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
