Lately I was looking at the Cisco Redundant Power System 2300, because this unit delivers power supply redundancy and resiliency for different power requirements. The RPS 2300 helps to seamlessly failover in the event of power failures.

Depending on the number of internal power supplies, the RPS 2300 can provide redundant power of up to two of six connected switches and/or routers. The RPS 2300 supports 1150W AC or 750W AC power supplies. With two 1150W AC power supply modules, the Cisco RPS 2300 can fully back up two 48-port switches that are delivering 15.4W of PoE on all ports.

The RPS 2300 has enhanced capabilities when used in conjunction with Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E, like:

• The ability to remotely place the RPS or any of the six individual RPS ports in active or standby mode;
• Setting priorities for each RPS port;
• Failure and exception history reporting;

Normally when switching back from the RPS to normal AC power, the switch reboots. When backed up by a Cisco RPS 2300, a Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E is capable of reverting back to its own power supply without rebooting. I really like this feature, because in normal operation a network administrator could miss a power failure of the primary AC and the backup operation by the RPS. When switching back uncontrolled, the reboot of the switch could cause serious problems in the network.

The Cisco RPS 2300 supports two power supplies as mentioned before. These power supplies are also compatible with Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E switches. The supported power supplies are:

1. The C3K-PWR-1150WAC power supply;
2. The C3K-PWR-750WAC power supply;

The Cisco RPS 2300 can operate with one or two power supplies. If two power supplies are installed, the must be of the same type.

When choosing to use the Cisco RPS 2300, you should pay attention to spare RPS cables. The Cisco Catalyst 3750-E and 3560-E switches use different RPS cables (CAB-RPS2300-E) compared to other switches (CAB-RPS2300). More information about the Cisco RPS 2300 can be found in the following PDF file.

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René Jorissen

Co-owner and Solution Specialist at 4IP Solutions

René Jorissen works as Solution Specialist for 4IP in the Netherlands. Network Infrastructures are the primary focus. René works with equipment of multiple vendors, like Cisco, Aruba Networks, FortiNet, HP Networking, Juniper Networks, RSA SecurID, AeroHive, Microsoft and many more. René is Aruba Certified Edge Expert (ACEX #26), Aruba Certified Mobility Expert (ACMX #438), Aruba Certified ClearPass Expert (ACCX #725), Aruba Certified Design Expert (ACDX #760), CCNP R&S, FCNSP and Certified Ethical Hacker (CEF) certified. You can follow René on Twitter and LinkedIn.

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