Cisco's Catalyst 2960X-24PS-L is a 24-port Gigabit PoE+ access switch with a 370 W power budget and 4 SFP uplink slots fixed at 1 Gbps, running the LAN Base image in a single rack unit. Its forwarding rate is 71.4 Mpps and its stack fabric is FlexStack-Plus at 80 Gbps across eight members, consequently letting a pair in a small closet behave as one managed switch rather than two.
Ports, power and uplinks
All 24 access ports are 10/100/1000 and all of them can source IEEE 802.3at PoE+. The shared budget is 370 W, which Cisco's figures translate to 12 ports at the full 30 W a PoE+ endpoint may draw or 24 ports at the 15.4 W ceiling of standard PoE. Uplinks are 4 SFP slots fixed at 1 Gbps, which is what the trailing S denotes across this sub-series. Forwarding rate is 71.4 Mpps.
Four separate Gigabit uplinks suit a topology that values paths over throughput. Two links to each of two distribution switches survives a single fibre, transceiver or upstream chassis failure, and it does so without any 10 Gigabit optics in the design. Where raw uplink capacity matters more than path count, the SFP+ variant of the same switch is the better answer.
| Specification | Catalyst 2960X-24PS-L |
|---|---|
| Access ports | 24 x 10/100/1000 Ethernet |
| PoE standard | IEEE 802.3at PoE+, up to 30 W per port |
| PoE budget | 370 W combined |
| Ports at the 30 W PoE+ ceiling | 12 |
| Uplinks | 4 x SFP, 1 Gbps |
| Software image | LAN Base |
| Forwarding rate | 71.4 Mpps |
| Forwarding bandwidth | 108 Gbps |
| Switching bandwidth | 216 Gbps |
| Active VLANs | 1023 |
| Rack height | 1RU, 1.75 in |
The 1023-VLAN ceiling is the quiet upgrade over the previous generation
LAN Base on the 2960-X carries 1023 active VLANs against 255 on the LAN Base image of the 2960-S. For a single-tenant office that is irrelevant. For a school district, a hospital campus, a managed-service provider or any site that segments by department, device class or tenant, it is the difference between a design that scales and one that has to be re-planned. Forwarding bandwidth also rises to 108 Gbps and switching bandwidth to 216 Gbps.
The reason it goes unnoticed is that VLAN ceilings only bite once, and they bite late. A closet commissioned with a dozen VLANs will run for years before anyone counts them again, and by the time the count matters the switch is embedded in a working design. Checking the ceiling against a three-year plan rather than a first-day configuration is the cheapest piece of diligence available on an access switch, and it is the one most often skipped.
Stacking, and one model in this sub-series that cannot
FlexStack-Plus gives this switch 80 Gbps of stack throughput across eight members, and it is backward compatible with the FlexStack found on the 2960-S and 2960-SF, so a mixed stack is legal at 40 Gbps with four members. Stacking with a 2960-XR is not supported in either direction.
One warning that belongs on any 24-port 2960-X page: the 24PSQ-L in this same sub-series does not stack at all. It looks like a sibling on a price list and behaves differently in a rack, so a stack design that assumes family-wide support will fail on that one part number.
Where the 24PS-L sits in the 2960-X range
The 24-port models diverge on uplink media and, in one case, on how many ports are actually powered. The third row of this table is the one to read carefully.
| Model | Access ports | PoE ports | PoE budget | Uplinks |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2960X-24PS-L | 24 Gigabit | 24 | 370 W | 4 x SFP, 1 Gbps |
| 2960X-24PD-L | 24 Gigabit | 24 | 370 W | 2 x SFP+, 10 Gbps |
| 2960X-24PSQ-L | 24 Gigabit | 8 | 110 W | 2 x SFP + 2 copper |
For 48 ports on the same uplink media and a full 740 W budget, the Catalyst 2960X-48FPS-L is the direct scale-up. The Catalyst 2960S-48FPS-L is the previous generation and is the right buy only when matching an installed 2960-S closet. The current-generation equivalent is a Catalyst 9300 24-port model.
Lifecycle and support horizon
This model is named in Cisco end-of-life notice EOL13603 for the Catalyst 2960-X product family. End-of-Sale for the hardware was 31 October 2022, the Last Ship Date was 30 January 2023 and End of Software Maintenance was 31 October 2023. The Last Date of Support and End of Vulnerability and Security Support both fall on 31 October 2027, with End of Service Contract Renewal on 29 January 2027.
A hardware support window running several years past the point Cisco stopped shipping is precisely what makes a refurbished purchase rational rather than merely inexpensive. The date that matters most in planning is 29 January 2027, because after it a Cisco contract can no longer be placed on the switch even though Cisco continues to support the hardware until October of that year.
Condition, testing and what ships
Refurbished enterprise hardware bearing the original Cisco part number. Each unit is tested inbound, then disassembled, cleaned, inventoried and held as known-good stock; at order time it is assembled, configured and bench tested a second time before packing. Whole systems including this switch carry the 2-year Enterasource warranty, and shipping is free FedEx Ground to the lower 48 states.
SFP transceivers, FlexStack-Plus modules and stacking cables are quoted separately. Cisco software entitlement does not transfer with used hardware, so the feature level required should be confirmed against your own licensing before ordering.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many access points can a Catalyst 2960X-24PS-L power?
From a 370 W shared pool, twelve at the full 30 W an IEEE 802.3at PoE+ device is permitted to draw. A typical indoor dual-radio access point sits under that ceiling, so real deployments commonly land between twelve and twenty-four powered devices. The reliable method is to add the actual class draw of every endpoint and compare the total against 370 W rather than counting ports.
What is the forwarding rate of a 2960X-24PS-L?
Cisco publishes 71.4 Mpps for this model, alongside 108 Gbps of forwarding bandwidth and 216 Gbps of switching bandwidth on the LAN Base image. Those three figures together describe a switch that will never be the bottleneck in a 24-port access closet, which is why the buying decision on this model rests on power budget and uplink media instead.
How many VLANs does the 2960-X LAN Base image support?
One thousand and twenty-three active VLANs, against 255 on the LAN Base image of the previous 2960-S generation. That fourfold increase is the least-discussed upgrade between the two generations and the one that matters most to any site segmenting by department, tenant or device class. LAN Lite variants in the same sub-series remain capped at 64.
Do all 2960-X 24-port models stack?
No, and this is a genuine trap. Most of the sub-series supports FlexStack-Plus at 80 Gbps across eight members, but the 24PSQ-L does not stack at all and the LAN Lite models marked LL do not either. A stack design that assumes family-wide support will fail on those part numbers, so confirm stacking against the specific model rather than the series.
How does Enterasource prepare a refurbished 2960X-24PS-L?
The switch is tested on receipt, then stripped, cleaned and inventoried into stock as a known-good chassis. When it is sold it is rebuilt to the requested configuration, powered up, configured and tested again on the bench in the period immediately before packing. Physical condition is recorded against that individual serial and disclosed on the listing. The catalogue sits on the Cisco networking hardware page.
