Current RFPs posted by the BISD #303 Technology Department

Posting: November 28, 2023
Deadline for Proposals: January 8, 2024 4:00 p.m.

FY2023-2024 BISD Network Switch Refresh (Full RFP in PDF Format)
 

Related Questions and Clarifications for FY2023-2024 BISD Network Switch Refresh

Q:  I understand you are currently a Ruckus wireless customer, would you be open to evaluating Ruckus for your switches?

A: We are open to receiving bids from all enterprise switching brands.  Just make sure what you quote is equivalent to the Juniper EX 4000 series we currently utilize.

Q:  Would you be open to a quick Ruckus switch demo sometime next week? 

A:  We have a 2 week process after bidding closes where we will analyze the different vendors and get to understand the product better.  Not going to schedule any webinars or demo's while the RFP is open. 

Q: How many OSPF areas are in use?  

A: 11 instructional, 2 non-instructional.  If you look at the appendix, you can see which closets require OSPF, its typically the MDF in each building

Q: What type of MMF is in use for the 40G connections OM1, OM2, OM3, OM4. If OM1 or 2 how many pairs are available? What type of optic connector is in use currently ie. MPO?

A: We are using OM4 MMF with this type of optic. <https://www.fs.com/products/36179.html>

Q: Regarding the EX4600 switches, it looks like there are many unused fiber ports on the existing switches, would a 24 port switch work here?  

A: Yes that should be fine

Q: Are the EX4600 acting as both a fiber agg for the various schools as well as connecting servers?  

A: Correct, servers don't plug directly into this switch, but the server switches do.  These are core switches that have direct uplinks from our main campus dark fiber, our leased lit fiber to remote sites, uplinks from our datacenter switches, and our connection to the Internet.  Every module not serving a school directly I put under non-instruction

Q: What are the 40G QSPF+ ports being used for? Are they a LAG between the two EX4600s or are they server connections? Are they being broken out in 4 10G connections?  

A: They are a LAG between 2x Juniper EX-4650's which we use for our datacenter switches (servers/backup/storage/etc...)

Q: Are individual schools uplinked directly back to the datacenter or are they configured in a ring topology?  

A: Dark Fiber is linked directly.  Our Leased Lit Fiber has their own network but it shows up to us as a direct link

Q: Is there any redundancy configured for the school uplinks, for example 2 fiber uplinks per school using LAGs or STP or OSPF

A: There are two ports at each site in a LAG going into different points of the stack.

Q: I only count 2 EX2300-C-12p’s in the Instructional area of Appendix A. However the table in 2.1 on page 8 lists 3 in the instructional area. Is that a typo on page 8? If not, where is the other 12 port switch located or is it net new?  

A: Net new, want another one for an office area

Q: When I count up the total number of EX4300 switches in the Instructional space in Appendix A, I am coming up 2 EX4300s short of the amount listed in the table on 2.1 on page 8. Is that a typo on page 8? If not where are the other 2 EX4300s located or are they net-new?

A: Net new, we have a few closets running low on port count and I want to add an additional switch to those

Q: I noticed several EX4300-24P switches in Appendix A, are those all being replaced with 48p switches?  

A: I'm asking for 48p in all locations for simplicity and due to the number of new ethernet devices coming in the network.  We may negotiate down to 24 ports later in some locations, but I think this is a good baseline.  If you would like to indicate the cost of a 24p per unit on the quote that would be appreciated.

Q: How are you currently firewalling east west traffic in the data-center?

A: We are implementing VMWare NSX Distributed firewall on our server infrastructure.

Q: If the ex4600’s are connecting to servers, would a switch that incorporates East/West firewalling and datacenter telemetry be a preferred solution?

A: Not in the scope of this project

Q: I see there are multiple schools utilizing OSPF in multiple closets, would the district be open to consolidating OSPF routing to a single switch cluster in a designated MDF closet per school?

A: We have OSPF on every switch that we define new VLAN's on.  The High school is the only location we define OSPF in more than one location.  At the high school, we could realistically define all our routes at the Core switch and not utilize OSPF in the separate buildings. That would reduce the license count by 4.  If the OSPF license is a nominal expense, this could be a way to reduce cost.

Q: If the district plans to stay with Juniper would you prefer to utilize your existing Juniper optics or would you prefer to replace them with new optics?

A: We would most likely stick with the existing optics we already have.

Q: Are the switches in BHS100-MDF, BHS200-MDF, BHS300-MDF and BHS400-MDF all in the same room?

A: No, they are 4 separate buildings on the same campus.  If this question is in concern to OSPF licensing costs, we could use the CORE switches as the routing point for these 4 buildings and have them programmed more as access layer switches.

Q: Are your access points on Ruckus Cloud or Smartzone?

A: Virtual smartzone vm