Arista DCS-7050QX-32

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Patrick

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Starting a quick thread on the Arista DCS-7050QX-32 which is a 32 port 40GbE switch.

Useful Links

Port Configuration
24 of the 32 ports can be used with breakout cables to each become 4x 10GbE ports. In theory you could have 96x 10GbE ports from the switch. I did confirm using a Nebula branded QSFP+ to 4x SFP+ cable that this indeed works.

Setup Notes
EOS came on the switch with Zero Touch Provisioning setup. I followed the manual to setup a new admin password, exit ZTP and configure the management interface.

Update here is to user interface management 1 which is correct in the Quick Start guide above.

Airflow differences
Red handles on the fans/ PSUs = front-to-rear airflow (-F in model)
Blue handles on the fans/ PSUs = rear-to-front airflow (-R in model)

DCS-7050QX-32 v. DCS-7050QX-32S
The DCS-7050QX-32S has four additional SFP+ 10GbE ports and a quad core x86 processor (the -32 is a dual core x86 CPU.)

Switch Chip
These are both end of life and Broadcom Trident II based switches (Trident II is still widely used.)

Power Consumption
Power consumption claims 5W per QSFP+ port. With three QSFP+ ports active using DACs and a fourth using a breakout cable power on a single power supply is 112W-114W once it booted which is very good.

Although these are lower power per 10GbE port than the 16 port 10GbE switches like the Ubiquiti ES-16-XG, they still use over 100W and are loud data center products.

QSFP+ Compatibility
On QSFP+ DACs - I can confirm my Mellanox DACs are working on the QSFP+ ports as well as the Nebula branded breakout cable.

Current Pricing (Used)
The DCS-7050QX-32S sells for around $2300 as the low price on ebay, but most are $4000 or more
The DCS-7050QX-32 sells for $1200-$1400

Given this, the DCS-7050QX-32 is the better $/ port value.
 
Last edited:

CookiesLikeWhoa

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Sep 7, 2016
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Hopefully this is the right place for it!

How is working with the CLI on these switches? I haven't worked much with the CLI on switches before and primarily deal with Netgear switches which have a easy to get around GUI.

If you let ZTP do its thing, will the ethernet management port be accessible via SSH? (assuming a DHCP assigned IP address)

I was leaning towards a Mellanox sx1024, since it seemed to have a colorful GUI but these Arista switches are half the price.
 
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legopc

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The Netherlands
Hopefully this is the right place for it!

How is working with the CLI on these switches? I haven't worked much with the CLI on switches before and primarily deal with Netgear switches which have a easy to get around GUI.

If you let ZTP do its thing, will the ethernet management port be accessible via SSH? (assuming a DHCP assigned IP address)

I was leaning towards a Mellanox sx1024, since it seemed to have a colorful GUI but these Arista switches are half the price.
I worked a little bit with the 7124SX before and I very much liked the cli, it is a lot like Cisco cli.
 

Patrick

Administrator
Staff member
Dec 21, 2010
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Hopefully this is the right place for it!

How is working with the CLI on these switches? I haven't worked much with the CLI on switches before and primarily deal with Netgear switches which have a easy to get around GUI.

If you let ZTP do its thing, will the ethernet management port be accessible via SSH? (assuming a DHCP assigned IP address)

I was leaning towards a Mellanox sx1024, since it seemed to have a colorful GUI but these Arista switches are half the price.
I would have liked to go Mellanox with the Web GUI but price wise these Aristas are hard to beat. It was easier for me to just stop using ZTP and get going with the CLI.

Also, I did want to mention that at 32x 40GbE ports just filling ports with DACs is going to cost another $800-1000 more.
 
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CookiesLikeWhoa

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Sep 7, 2016
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Thanks for the information! I ended up picking up a Mellanox sx1024 for a really good deal off Ebay. Just need to find SFP+ transceivers for that don't cost $150 each.
 

deeplearningguy

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Jan 25, 2017
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I recently got a DCS-7050QX-32 for 1000$ off ebay. I think they might have taken a lower offer but did not try (stupid me).

Anyways, does anyone know a cheap way to get fro QSFP+ 40gbe to 1000 Base-T on this switch? I ordered a couple of these Arista Networks SFP-1G-T 100/1000BASE-T SFP Transceiver | FS.COM as they stated they would work on the 7050QS-32 without realizing they are SFP not QSFP (duh..) Maybe I could cascade them with something like this: Cisco QSFP to SFP or SFP+ Adapter Module Data Sheet
 
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Mark Wilde

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Aug 21, 2016
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I recently got a DCS-7050QX-32 for 1000$ off ebay. I think they might have taken a lower offer but did not try (stupid me).

Anyways, does anyone know a cheap way to get fro QSFP+ 40gbe to 1000 Base-T on this switch? I ordered a couple of these Arista Networks SFP-1G-T 100/1000BASE-T SFP Transceiver | FS.COM as they stated they would work on the 7050QS-32 without realizing they are SFP not QSFP (duh..) Maybe I could cascade them with something like this: Cisco QSFP to SFP or SFP+ Adapter Module Data Sheet
The QSA module is rare on the market and quite experience than the QSFP+ to SFP+ breakout cables. Why would you just buy breakout cables from fs.com? That might be more cost-effective.
 

sthsep

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Mar 7, 2016
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Yes you can. But you need to have the firmwarefile. I also got the switch recently for about 1000 Euro with VAT in EU.
 

mstrzyze

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Nov 9, 2015
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hello

generaly on Arista there are few features which needs licenses
-E routing etc
-V vmtracer etc
-Z ZTP, LANZ DANZ et

how do you check if switch has got that license ? ( question to sellers on ebay for example )

thx
 

mstrzyze

Member
Nov 9, 2015
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well i will answer :)

1. all features are honor based ( i looked for that for..2 or 3 days ;) show version license is not showing

2. updates - you need contract. on the internet you can find "few" older images..
EOS-4.14.6M i think is latest to grab..


i just got own 7050QX ( along with cisco nexus 7702 / F3 - 24x 40G ) so probably i will run them in parallel from 40G UCS servers ( ESXi maybe )
 
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sthsep

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Mar 7, 2016
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Be also careful Arista is heavily vendor locked so transceivers are blocked. I tried to bypass that in a newer firmware, but I think that also broke me some quite expensive transceivers (Or it was my connectX3 card they were very hot).
 

Chankster

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Mar 9, 2015
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We've allowed third-party transceivers on the majority of ours with 4.17 and haven't had any adverse side effects (10gb and 40gb transceivers/cables).
 
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