Aruba MAS series SFP+ & POE+ switches sub-$100

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Arion

New Member
May 11, 2017
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Man, these switches are so cheap it might be a cost effective way to get 10G between my basement rack and home office. I have a few CAT6 cable runs right now. Any thoughts on pairing this switch a SFP+-to-10gE adapter on each end? Like the Mikrotik. Is that crazy or potentially workable? I think I'm within 30m distance..
 

Dhiru

Member
Aug 14, 2016
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Any thoughts on pairing this switch a SFP+-to-10gE adapter on each end? Like the Mikrotik. Is that crazy or potentially workable? I think I'm within 30m distance..
You would be better off laying a fiber cable and connecting both ends directly. It's much more futureproof and works better than having media converters at both ends.
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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I want more :)
Got 10gb up and running.
A few issues here and there that I think are more related to my systems and firewall not the switch.

Thinking of using Layer 3 on here and breaking my servers into a 9000 MTU vlan, and let the switch do the routing.

The strangest thing, the only thing that broke from the upgrade is my Plex server.
Its ESXi virtualization of FreeNAS with a FreeBSD Jail running Plex.

It starts to drop packets over the 10gb link.
* My other jails work fine
* The Plex jail behaves if I switch back to the 1gb link
* The Plex jail also works if I stop the Plex services running on the jail.

It's the very specific combination of everything causing the issue.

I have the 24 port PoE model arriving tomorrow, and I have some Noctua fans arriving today to do a fan swap with.

I have already done extensive testing with the fans. It comes with 40x40x28mm fans and it uses a standard pin out but not a standard connector, so you have to cut off the plastic guide to get aftermarket fans to fit.

It does not complain if you run 3 pin fans, it will complain if you are missing a fan but still runs.

Stock fans wont spin up when using a Noctua LNA to step down the voltage, so I think 3 pin fans are the way to go so you do not need to worry about any PWM issues.
 

manxam

Active Member
Jul 25, 2015
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I have 3x 48 port coming my way.
Vicious, is yours 24 or 48? T or P model?
Curious about the fan replacement...
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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I have 3x 48 port coming my way.
Vicious, is yours 24 or 48? T or P model?
Curious about the fan replacement...
I got a 48T first because it was new/cheap and I figured it would have less power consumption and noise than a PoE model.

However my power draw of 45w Idle and about 50w with devices connected is very close to the reported numbers of the PoE model. So I think maybe the internals are the same thus no power savings or quieter fans.

Due to that I went and later bought a 24P so I can see if the reduced footprint lowers wattage, and to have some PoE capabilities, as well as the ability to use one large fan instead of 4 small fans to cool it.

I have been playing with the 48T so far, the 24P should be here tomorrow.

I am fairly certain all the models share the same fan connections and layout.
They are quiet, but not silent. the rest of my server rack is silent and its right next to my desk so thats why I am going the extra mile to make it a silent switch
 

blood

Member
Apr 20, 2017
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Maybe my lab is noisy enough that I can't appreciate the sound coming from my new S2500, but once it settles in it's quiet enough that I'm happy with the stock fans. Don't get me wrong, it roars for a few minutes while booting, but that doesn't last. I just wish I had ears for it!

I swapped out a Netgear GSM7328S v1 and a GSM7328S v2 for a single 48 port non-poe S2500. It uses less power and is quieter - and that's after I hacked holes into the tops of both Netgear cases and installed large+slow fans directly over the hottest spots and swapped out the stock fans with quieter ones.
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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Yes, brackets. I can't find them anywhere, or if I do the obscure site/seller wants more than the switch itself.
It took 2 failed experiments before I was able to make my own.

First tried some Cisco ears I had laying around, that failed.
Then thought about just getting angle iron at Home Depot, but it was too expensive.
Third was another set of brackets with lots of holes that lined up really close.
Not sure the item# of the part but a Cisco 3850 has the brackets you need.


Just a drill bit to make the hole a bit bigger and they fit perfect, also had to take off the indents on the back side of the bracket. So all in all needed a drill and a grinder/file.

The bracket holes on the switch are M4, and the stock screws are 8mm.

There is nothing stopping you from using longer screws but one part of the switch is very close to a capacitor, a 10mm or larger screw may come into contact with it.

Really wish I had a drill press and some other nice tools, I just have limited access to hand tools but I got the job done.
 
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kiteboarder

Active Member
May 10, 2016
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I want more :)
Got 10gb up and running.
A few issues here and there that I think are more related to my systems and firewall not the switch.

Thinking of using Layer 3 on here and breaking my servers into a 9000 MTU vlan, and let the switch do the routing.
Thanks for the info about the fans. Much appreciated.

I just wanted to share my experience with large MTU experiments. I found that it wasn't really worth the trouble. I didn't find much throughput improvement by increasing MTU. I would be interested to hear your real numbers for performance improvement.

A single NVMe drive can easily saturate a 10 Gb connection. What I found was that it's simply better just to buy one of those brocade 6610's if you want to connect two machines at 40 Gb.

Thanks again!
 

Arion

New Member
May 11, 2017
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You would be better off laying a fiber cable and connecting both ends directly. It's much more futureproof and works better than having media converters at both ends.
Yeah unfortunately I don't have conduit between the locations and it was a pain in the ass to run the CAT6 cables when I did it 10 years ago and I'm not looking to repeat that.. I don't *really* need 10G between my home office and basement, but it would be nice :) I'm willing to invest $220 though (Aruba switch + 2x 10G SFP+ adapters) if it would work..
 

debbient

New Member
Jan 15, 2019
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Hello everyone! Just made an account here to say thanks to Vicious for posting about the deal. Ordered myself the s2500-48t and have it updated and ready to go. Now just waiting for some compatible DACs to get here so I can plug them into my server!
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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I didn't post the deal, just a lot of participation in it :)
I got my S2500-24P today.

It came with some mid of the road firmware. I with a factory reset still was not able to get into the web interface.
So I had to update the firmware with the USB method. Super easy but one Catch 22. Put the firmware file on the root of your USB drive and inside of a folder called arubaimage. If you do not it will not find the file.

After updating to the new firmware I got to the web interface fine.

As far as power specs.

The S2500-48T uses 45w of power idle and about 50ish with things connected.
The S2500-24P uses 55w idle and I have not connected much to it yet but I expect similar gains.

So the non poe model does use a bit less power but not dramatically so, this is also 24 vs 48 port so I am sure the 48 port PoE uses even more power. Noise is the same on both, might do my fan mod tonight.
 

manxam

Active Member
Jul 25, 2015
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It came with some mid of the road firmware. I with a factory reset still was not able to get into the web interface.
So I had to update the firmware with the USB method. Super easy but one Catch 22. Put the firmware file on the root of your USB drive and inside of a folder called arubaimage. If you do not it will not find the file.
Am I right in assuming that, using the LCD and buttons, there's an option for "update firmware via usb" or similar?
I suspect my devices will require updating and doing it this way would be easier than running an old browser or IE to configure, update, configure.
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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Am I right in assuming that, using the LCD and buttons, there's an option for "update firmware via usb" or similar?
I suspect my devices will require updating and doing it this way would be easier than running an old browser or IE to configure, update, configure.
Yes download the firmware and put it on root of the drive in a folder called arubaimage
This is the easiest way to do the firmware, just did it today since I was having issues getting to the web interface with the firmware version it shipped with.

Use the buttons and navigate to the Maintenance option and select Update Image.
If's fairly simple as long as you know about naming the folder.
 
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Jon Massey

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Nov 11, 2015
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Been using my S2500-24P for about a year no problems at all. Great switch, doesn't seem fussy with transceivers and easy to comprehend CLI
 

jbrukardt

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Feb 4, 2016
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These looks like really solid upgrades for all of us running old Nortel/Avaya POE switches. Im generally happy with my current ones, but POE+ is a nice upgrade.
 

debbient

New Member
Jan 15, 2019
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My mistake, thank you @cheezehead* for posting the deal and thank you @ViciousXUSMC for posting those videos.

I have successfully setup 10G links for my desktop and my esx server. Although unsuccessfully with my Cisco 10G dacs. Switched to Arista 10G optics I had laying around and it came right up! Now copying my plex libraries over to freenas at 250MB/s.
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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My mistake, thank you @cheezehead* for posting the deal and thank you @ViciousXUSMC for posting those videos.

I have successfully setup 10G links for my desktop and my esx server. Although unsuccessfully with my Cisco 10G dacs. Switched to Arista 10G optics I had laying around and it came right up! Now copying my plex libraries over to freenas at 250MB/s.
I am sure 2gb/s could be your storage limitation, but just a FYI I had an issue with Freenas only giving me about 3gb/s when all my other VM's were 9gb/s+.

It took me a while to figure out the issue. Freenas Mods were (well atleast one in particular) very rude and blamed my hardware and configuration for the issue. I knew it wasn't.

I never saw an issue until I upgraded to 10gb but it has been there all along.

It had to do with how the Jails were bridging the network adapter. If I shut down all my jails I got about 6-7gb/s. Once I new that was the issue I came up with my own solution.

I added more vNIC to the VM, and directly connected my jails to those new adapters in Freenas. Now I get 9gb/s+ just like all my other systems. As a bonus I was able to re-enable the blocking of forged transmits and turn off promiscuous mode on the vSwitch.

I am playing around with Layer 3 and VLANs now to see if a 9000MTU is worth it, and pushes me all the way to 10gb.

Speaking of, anybody interested in me taking the time to record a video that goes over the VLAN setup and such on this switch? It's not like a normal switch. You can not configure interfaces directly and instead have to create a profile and apply it to the interfaces. I am not sure why... It also is missing some other basic commands that I see in Aruba documentation for other models. I assume its the nature of this switch. I think it was made to be configured via a controller much more so than as a stand alone switch.
 
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