Quanta LB6M (10GbE) -- Discussion

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dwright1542

Active Member
Dec 26, 2015
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Hey I've looked through the thread but still not sure if 1 gbps sfp adapters work?

Somebody said it worked for them but looks like it was a hidden patch cable lol
That was me. I do have one working, it's a Finistar, but it's in production, and I have no idea when I'll be able to take it out of service to check.
 

dwright1542

Active Member
Dec 26, 2015
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Are you planning to use this in a work/enterprise setting or home lab? I would avoid it like the plague for anything critical since you won't have a support agreement with it. Of course if price is your primary motivation then just keep a spare around for replacement, and be prepared to live with any oddities you discover. The less fancy features you're going to use, the more acceptable it may be to have this switch in your environment, IMHO.
I've got a bunch of these running hyperconverged iSCSI backends, critical, I just run them redundant so if one fails, it doesn't matter. It's been a year with no hiccups so far. I WAS running 8024F's and switched to these.
 

Kaishi

Member
Mar 7, 2011
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Are you planning to use this in a work/enterprise setting or home lab? I would avoid it like the plague for anything critical since you won't have a support agreement with it.
Just a home lab, nothing fancy or critical, but I do like to have my lab reflect what I'll encounter in work.

Of course if price is your primary motivation then just keep a spare around for replacement, and be prepared to live with any oddities you discover. The less fancy features you're going to use, the more acceptable it may be to have this switch in your environment, IMHO.
My only goal in the immediate is to provide 2x 10gbE ports to each of 4 servers, so I need 8 ports total. I'm torn between LACP vs dedicated ports. I'm trying to get live-migrations working, which means shared storage and faster links. quad-gig LAGs aren't cutting it.
 

wallysimmonds

New Member
Mar 7, 2016
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Interested in this switch too. What's the going rate (as in a good deal) for the switch and 3 nics (I'll be using twinax). I have two esx servers and a n40l. Would prefer to get them all in one place, and apparently some people have been picking up the switch for as low as $225?

Other than the 10gb feature I'm not really after much else - just for my home lab setup.
 

gr8ape

Member
Jun 15, 2015
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Hey, so has anyone had any issues with setting the serviceport IP? From what I can read, this is the MGMT ports on the switch. I keep getting "IP Address/Netmask entered conflicts with the configured IP Address/Netmask of the switch". Network parms are working for right now, but I fear that is not using the management ports. Or am I misunderstanding? Thanks!
 

Gandalf

New Member
Oct 29, 2016
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Can someone tell me if there is a quanta model with 10GBaseT ports?
Or any SFP+ for 10GBaseT compatible with LB6M ?
 

charlie

Member
Jan 27, 2016
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Budapest, HU
Why is not common? I have a bounch of 10GbaseT servers here.
You have, but thats not means its common. Check how many products you can find for 10GbaseT and how many for SFP+. Markets follow trends...

SFP have a one scale smalest latency than copper based solutions. Bandwith is only one thing.
 

Gandalf

New Member
Oct 29, 2016
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I'm able to find tens of 10GBaseT swithches, from any vendor. But as new, they are expansive. I'm looking at something like Quanta LB8, but I don't know how to buy in europe.

Do you have any advice on which SFP+ transceiver should I buy for the quanta that is also supported by Intel X520 ? Do you suggest the DAC/Twinax or plain fiber with SFP+ transceiver?
 

gr8ape

Member
Jun 15, 2015
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Do you have any advice on which SFP+ transceiver should I buy for the quanta that is also supported by Intel X520 ? Do you suggest the DAC/Twinax or plain fiber with SFP+ transceiver?
It may be cheaper to buy some ConnectX-2s as they seem to accept any old SFP+ transceiver. I've heard the X520s are very picky.
 

Kaishi

Member
Mar 7, 2011
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Update on my status: I bought a Quanta LB6M (wow it's heavy and saggy on my rack) along with 4x Intel X520-DA2. My plan is to have 2 ports in each of my 4 servers. My three VM hosts will use one port each for live-migrations (on a dedicated vlan just for that), and another port exclusively for iSCSI (again with a dedicated vlan). The storage server will present a 20gbe LAG to the storage vlan, to support iSCSI traffic.

My questions are as follows:

1) What's the latest and greatest software package that can run on these Quanta switches?

2) I generally mount network gear at the rear of my rack, but as this switch has straight-through airflow, that means it'll be intaking from the exhaust side. I'd like to reverse the fans accordingly, is that possible / safe? Alternatively, should I consider mounting it at the front?

3) the degree of sag has me kinda concerned because it's absolutely intruding onto the U below it. Is there an appropriate set of rails or a shelf of some kind that will support it better without intruding?

4) semi-related: is there a right way to do patch-panels? I have a front-mounted keystone patchpanel (all CAT6) that are female on one end on male on the other, intended to connect to ports on my 1gbe switch, to relocate the ports to the front. Is this a weird way to do it? Would it be more normal to do a female-female keystone and put a second patchpanel on the rear, then use male-male patchcables to the switch? It just seemed like a lot more hardware to do it that way.
 

PigLover

Moderator
Jan 26, 2011
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If I install a shelf like that, how can I screw the switch into the rack? Would it just be free-floating atop the shelf, retained only by gravity and friction?
You should be able to screw in the rack ears using the same screw that supports the shelf. There is normally enough play in the spacing for that to work.

Holding it all together while you screw it in can be challenging. Its easier with a friend - or two.
 

Fritz

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2015
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Yep, that's the way mine is mounted. No more floppy switch, lol.