I have been in my current position as a "Systems admin" for just over a year, and most of my experience is in windows servers and AD administration. I've had to take on networking as well for this position- there has been a bit of a learning curve, but I’m picking it up. However, right now I'm having a pretty serious problem that I need some advice on.
About 4 years ago, the company upgraded all its switches to 3com 5500g units. They purchased some with PoE because they installed a new wireless network and needed those capabilities. Right before I arrived they installed a VoIP phone system on those same switches. Many of the PoE switches are 48 port devices and have 20 to 25 phones each.
Since December I have had 4 power supplies fail on these switches. All different switches, but all are PoE units. My question is- is it possible that these are overloaded? Could a newer VoIP system tax them to the extent that they begin to fail? What else could cause that many devices to fail in a short period of time? I’ve also considered that improper ventilation could be a culprit here as some of these are tucked away in literal closets….
Any thoughts or advice would be very helpful- Thanks in advance.l