10-Gigabit Ethernet (10GbE) Networking - NICs, Switches, etc.

[Incroyable HULK]

Hello all, First post here. Awesome site btw, I was glad when I found I was not alone doing this kind of stuff!

Anyway, I have a question and I was hoping you guys can help me answer this. I am in the same boat about 10Gbe switch...

I am currently building a NexentaStor SAN for use with 2 XenServers.

For optimal performance I purchased a INTEL EXPX9502CX4 Dual Port PCI-Express 10Gbe card for the NexentaStor. I am hoping I can hook each XenServer (Single Port PXLA8591CX4) to any of the 2 ports and make sure that the content is accessible to both server. Is this possible without a switch?

I searched several networking terms and can't find an answer (link aggregation, multipathing, nic bonding, etc.) The real question is if I create some iSCSI share, are they bound exclusively to 1 port?

 

[MiniKnight]

you can manually configure port to port IP v4/ v6 communication easily

generally you want to have one client access one iscsi share at a time

 

[Incroyable HULK]

Thanks MiniKnight. I will look in the NexentaStor documentation about this.

All I want is the XenServers 1 & 2 to be able to "see" the content of the NexentaStor SAN and get the benefit of motion & copy between the XenServers... all this without an expensive 10Gbe Switch.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Emulex 10GbE adapters
Also has HP and IBM branded controllers

Attto 10GbE adaptors

Mellanox 10-40GbE adaptors

 

[cactus]

Has anyone used one of the Emulex or Mellanox 10Gbit fabric cards?

 

[OBasel]

Has anyone used one of the Emulex or Mellanox 10Gbit fabric cards?

Which ones? CX-4, sfp+, RJ45?

Aren't those expensive?

 

[Uzuncakmak]

Great source of info here and thank you all for all the contributions you have been making here and thus making our lives, technically,easier and cheaper..

I am on the verge of setting up a network with 20 windows machines. They all have Broadcom inboard 1 gbe cards. I will use on of these machines as a file server to the network and another machine as a workstation.. What I want is : a gigabit switch that connects to all machines. But server must have a 10 gbe connection to the switch and workstation must have 10 gbe connection to the server.. What will be the cheapest of setting this up less than 1500 $...

I have been reading lots if solutions up here but dunno which suits me the best or if any..

 

[OBasel]

10 gigabit ethernet switches are still really expensive. Maybe you can find a gigabit switch with a SFP+ uplink and use that for the server and workstation.

 

[mobilenvidia]

Supermicro X9DRH-7H My new favourite board

Supermicro X9DRH-iTF

[URL="X9DRW-3TF+"]Supermicro X9DRW-3TF+[/URL]

 

[awedio]

10GBe on the cheap, for your desktop or home lab

http://youtu.be/27yWzZiLJyk

I ran some tests http://dl.dropbox.com/u/23588594/NTttcp_test_results.txt

Also posted a quick video (see above link

I ended up using NTttcp because they had instructions on optimized settings for 10gig

 

[Egbert]

I took the time to read through this entire thread and came away with a lot of understanding of the various possibilities for 10Gbe. I just bought two Intel X520-T2 adapters from ebay to use at home. However, these don't look like they come with low-profile brackets, which I need for one of my computers. Does anyone know where I might be able to obtain a low-profile bracket suitable for an Intel X520-T2?

 

[wookienz]

I watched that you tube video, jesus that guy is dry!

 

[TechIsCool]

Alright I am going to bump this thread. I have a single desktop that I would like to link with my X9DRH-7TF that has dual 10GBe I am looking for something that is quite but still not going to cost me my 500 dollars. It seems like x997 is the right choice but I am going to have to heat sink mod it because the desktop its going in is very quiet.

Also does anyone they are will to part with for a good price?

 

[Patrick]

I just realized that I have two Intel EXPX9501AT (X997) sitting around. PM me if you are still looking.

 

[Patrick]

How about custom boards made for intel, dell, hp, supermicro? Would like to see similar thread to the lsi raid controller threads.

 

[_Adrian_]

Hey guys just getting ready to deploy a larger 10Gb network.

Firewall -> HP DL360 G4 - Dual 3.6GHz Xeon w/ 8GB Ram and 2x 72GB SCSI U320 ( RAID 0 ) Running pfSense 2.1
Servers-> 4x HP DL580 G4 - Quad Xenon 3.4GHz DC w/32GB RAM and 2x36GB SAS ( RAID 0 - OS ) + 6x 300GB SAS drives Running Windows 2008 Server R2 - Datacenter
NAS -> HP DL360 G4 Dual 3.6GHz Xeon w/ 8GB Ram and 2x 72GB SCSI U320 ( RAID 0 ) Running FreeNAS w/ SmartArray 6404 attached to 4x HP MSA20 drive shelfs ( up to 12x 2TB drives )
Switches -> IBM TopSpin 120 and Woven Systems TRX-100

Need to get a few more cables though as at the time I only have 3x 2M Gore cables and need at least 3 more 2M and 4x 3M cables

 

[cactus]

Adrian is this a lab?

 

[Patrick]

I have a TopSpin 120 sitting around that I still have not gotten to even plug in. Too busy to tinker with a project like that at this point.

 

[cactus]

I just got a 20Gbps dual port IB HP card off ebay today. Need to get a second card and some cables. I have two Dell XR997s to compare the setup with. For now I will be going windows to Linux, so I'm not suck to finding a ESXi or OI compatible card(needs on-board ram?). I may use a Linux VM and NFS share from the OI storage box. I was suck on no inexpensive cards being ESXi compatible, I never thought of just passing it through to a VM. Found a lot of inexpensive(<$100) SDR and single port DDR cards, even a few PCI-e 16x QLogic cards.

 

[_Adrian_]

Adrian is this a lab?

Sorta

I use it as a small webserver and mostly as a NAS for my movies and music...

And yes... been told already that its overkill
And theres also 2x HP R5500 UPS as well...
You know... just in case deal LOL