Cisco 3550 without ip's, advantages and disadvantages?

I have 'inherited' a network with six 3550 switches. One of them has an
ip, five of them do not. I can get to all of them using the web display
manager. Can someone point me to a discussion on the advantages and
disadvantages of having or not having an ip assigned to the box?

thank you

 

simple answer: assign them each an IP address

Otherwise how do you get TFTP to the box to work ,SNMP, etc, etc

 

[mh]

| simple answer: assign them each an IP address
|
| Otherwise how do you get TFTP to the box to work ,SNMP, etc, etc

They *can* be managed as a cluster, with only one externally visible
IP address. Whether that is a good idea is another question entirely
(we never use the cluster facility for 3550).

Steinar Haug, Nethelp consulting,

 

If you are using CMS then this would explain this paticular setup.

I would pose the question of how would you get to a particular switch
if CMS is broken. I suspect you would have to be one the console port
of the "broken" switch

Now just imagine that you are home....

 

Right, until CMS screws up ...

 

So what I'm hearing is that there is no downside to assigning an ip to
each unit; and there's no reason not to? The previous guy was just lazy?

thanks folks,