Foundry EdgeIron: Entry-Level Managed Edge Switches

01 /What EdgeIron was

EdgeIron was the value tier below FastIron. From around 2002 Foundry Networks sold it to customers who wanted a managed Gigabit or Fast Ethernet switch with VLANs and SNMP but did not need PoE, chassis redundancy or the IronWare feature set. The switches are generally understood to be OEM-sourced designs badged by Foundry, which explains why their firmware, CLI and web interface share nothing with the rest of the catalogue.

The line let Foundry quote a complete network, core to closet, at a price that the FastIron alone could not reach. It was aimed at schools, branch offices and small businesses, and the same hardware appeared under other labels from other vendors.

02 /Models people still find

03 /What the record shows about EdgeIron

EdgeIron has the thinnest documentation trail of any Foundry line. Foundry's 10-K for 2001 records the EdgeIron 4802F, launched between 2001 and early 2002, as a Layer 2 switch one rack unit high, rated at up to 10.1 million packets per second, managed through a command line, Telnet, a web interface and SNMP, with RADIUS authentication. The 10-K for 2003 calls the family the Layer 2 wiring closet switches.

A capture of the family page from November 2005 lists the 10/100 and Gigabit units as the 2402CF, 4802CF, 24G and 48G, and a 10 Gigabit group as the 24GS, 48GS and 8X10G. The 48G and 8X10G are absent from the models table above, and the capture shows the 24GS and 48GS on sale by late 2005, earlier than the 2007 date in the timeline, which came from press coverage. The 10-K for 2007 gives standalone EdgeIron units a five-year hardware warranty, and Brocade's 2009 annual report still names EdgeIron among its switch families, so the line did not end at the acquisition.

A visible correction with its source beats a quiet edit, which is also how this site keeps archived copies of vendor guides.

04 /Why the user guides were so widely linked

Two PDFs, the combined 24G / 2402CF / 4802CF user guide and the later general EdgeIron guide, appear in an unusual number of inbound links to this domain. University IT departments installed EdgeIron switches in departmental closets and published setup notes that pointed at the PDF. Forum answers about VLAN configuration or a forgotten password did the same. Because the CLI matched no other Foundry document, the PDF was the only reference, so it was linked rather than paraphrased.

05 /Management differences from FastIron

An engineer used to IronWare finds EdgeIron unfamiliar. The CLI uses a different prompt hierarchy, different keywords for VLANs and link aggregation, and a web interface that was the primary management path for many buyers. Configuration files are not portable between the two families, and the default IP and password recovery procedures differ. IronView Network Manager could see EdgeIron devices through SNMP but managed them at a shallower level than FastIron.

Console# show system
Console# show version
Console# configure
Console(config)# vlan database
Console(config-vlan)# vlan 20 name staff media ethernet
Console# show vlan
Console# copy running-config startup-config

06 /Capabilities

Feature sets were typical of managed Layer 2 switches of the period: port-based and tagged VLANs, static and LACP trunks, spanning tree, port mirroring, IGMP snooping, rate limiting, SNMP and RMON groups. Some models added static routing between VLANs and basic access lists. There was no PoE on the mainstream models and no stacking. Firmware updates arrived through the Foundry support site until the acquisition and then stopped.

07 /Running one today

The 24G and the GS models are inexpensive managed Gigabit switches for a lab: single power supply, modest draw, and on some units a fan that can be swapped for a quieter one. They are adequate for VLAN segmentation and trunking practice. Expect no firmware updates, a web interface that modern browsers may render poorly, and management protocols (Telnet, HTTP, SNMPv1 and v2c) that should stay on an isolated network. For learning IronWare, buy a FastIron instead. EdgeIron shares one trait with the short-lived AccessIron routers: the documentation PDFs are remembered better than the hardware, which is why both keep entries in the Foundry catalogue archive.

08 /Checking an EdgeIron claim from the IronWare side

The EdgeIron command line is not IronWare, so the reliable place to test what an EdgeIron is doing is the FastIron or BigIron it uplinks to. The read-only transcript shows what the uplink carries and what is learned behind it.

device# show interfaces brief
device# show vlan
device# show mac-address
device# show arp
device# show log

If show vlan shows the expected VLANs tagged on the upstream port and show mac-address lists the hosts behind the EdgeIron on them, its tagged VLAN membership is correct whatever its web interface displays. Hosts on one VLAN only mean an untagged uplink or mismatched identifiers.

• Pitfall: an EdgeIron does not run IronWare; the 2001 filing describes its own CLI and web interface.
• Pitfall: port counts in listings come from the family name, not the label; read the label.
• Where a claim cannot be tested on the unit or matched to a dated capture, leave it unverified. The provenance section explains why that habit is worth keeping.