Lately there have been some changes in the way Juniper Networks is offering their QFX switches. As we have seen with the introduction of the Juniper SRX300 series, software has been separated from the hardware. This has created a lot of confusion amongst Juniper users. What do I need? What does it cover? And is software included in the QFX5200 switches? Looking for this information in the pricelist may leave you in the dark. So let’s shed some light on this.
Most traditional hardware vendors are moving towards becoming a software/technology vendor and this reflects in the way Juniper is offering the latest QFX and SRX platforms. We have not seen this in the EX portfolio yet. But it might be a matter of time before the high-end EX series will also share the same fate.
The QFX platform was initially designed to tackle the challenges in the Datacenter where low latency and throughput is king. Besides the separation of software and hardware the QFX5200 offers 10GbE, 25GbE, 40GbE, 50GbE and 100GbE interfaces for server and intra-fabric connectivity. Where the QFX5100 series offers 10GbE, 40GbE and 100GbE interfaces.
Back to the confusion. With the QFX5100 the basic Junos software is included. Additional software is only necessary in case full layer 3 or MPLS functionality is needed. With the SRX300 series as the kick off for Juniper in separating software from hardware, the high-end QFX5200-32C switches come without basic JUNOS software.
To complete the confusion however, not all of the QFX5200 switches are without JUNOS. The QFX5200-48Y is equipped with a basic JUNOS operating system.
To stop your head from spinning we have made a simple overview with the different flavours of QFX5200 hardware and software.
| Base Systems | |
| QFX5200-48Y | Equipped with Basic JUNOS |
| QFX5200-32C | No JUNOS Included, Additional Software Licenses necessary |
| QFX5200-32C Software Licenses | |
| QFX5000-35-JBS | Base Services Licenses for QFX5200-32C |
| QFX5000-35-JAS | Advanced Services Licenses for QFX5200-32C |
| QFX5000-35-JPS | Premium Services Licenses for QFX5200-32C |
| QFX5200-48Y Software Licenses | |
| QFX5K-C1-PFL | QFX5000 Class 1 Premium Feature License for QFX5200-48Y |
| QFX5K-C1-AFL | QFX5000 Class 1 Advanced Feature License for QFX5200-48Y |
