For Aruba shops, I somewhat disagree with the last 3 points. 2% is way overkill for spares just sitting on the shelf.
Although you can cycle stock, there is no need to do so. We have had very few DOA Aruba APs and they do not deteriorate with age There is absolutely no need to pull out your spare & upgrade them unless you expect very urgent replacements. It does not take very long for am AP to upgrade the code from the controller. My advice may not apply to non-Aruba shops. YMMV. Bruce Osborne Senior Network Engineer Network Operations - Wireless (434) 592-4229 LIBERTY UNIVERSITY Training Champions for Christ since 1971 From: Jeffrey D. Sessler [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, February 27, 2018 11:23 AM Subject: Re: Offline/Spare Gear Inventory Size * Look at the turn-around time for warranty replacement. The free limited-lifetime may take longer than if the AP is under an extended contract. * Evaluate your deployment plan. If your deployment is coverage-based, where the loss of a single AP could be devastating to clients, then keep more spares. If you have a dense deployment where the loss of one or more APs is of little consequence, keep less. * Spares are technology collecting dust with the same life-cycle as those in production. If you have 5000 APs and spare 2%, that’s 100 APs that would likely cover a moderately sized building, and provide a lot of in-fill. * If you keep spares, make sure to cycle them into production i.e. always install them into a new project, and put new APs back on the spare shelf. * When you upgrade controller code, pull those spares out and let them upgrade too, then test that they still work. Jeff From: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> on behalf of "Trinklein, Jason R" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Reply-To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>> Date: Monday, February 26, 2018 at 10:21 AM To: "[email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>" <[email protected]<mailto:[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 [email protected]<mailto:[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. ********** Participation and subscription information for this EDUCAUSE Constituent Group discussion list can be found at http://www.educause.edu/discuss.
