1Gb Switches with 10Gb Uplinks?

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A.D.STUDIO

New Member
May 27, 2020
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Looking for advice: Our main switch is 24-port 1Gb, but off that are going to be two more switches, one with 9 devices and one with 14. I'd really like those to be connected via 10Gb, so I'm looking to replace the main switch and add two more. What's out there which are 1Gb across the board but have a couple of SPF+ 10Gb ethernet connections? The cable already installed is RJ45 Cat6.
 

altmind

Active Member
Sep 23, 2018
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there's a million options. what are you targeting? PoE? lowest possible new or lowest possible used cost?
 

acquacow

Well-Known Member
Feb 15, 2017
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I went all netgear with my stack. The S3300 has RJ45 and SFP uplinks that are 10gig... So one goes to my 10gig switch just above it.

 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Those S3300's are nice if you dont need advanced features - quite efficient too (iirc the 28x was below 20W, definitely below 30).
If you want warranty buy new as the 'lifetime warranty' is not transferable (ie original buyer only).

If your good with SFP+ then there are really a gazillion options, new and used (Brocades), for ETH significantly less
 

dimka890

New Member
Feb 20, 2019
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Look at Quanta LB4M (48x 10/100/100 + 2x 10G SFP+) or Quanta LB6M (full 10G)
Nice switches for those price
 

blinkenlights

Active Member
May 24, 2019
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@A.D.STUDIO - I have heard good things about Netgear's business line as well as the UniFi switches mentioned. Since you are looking to buy new, I assume this is for business purposes and you will likely want/need a support contract. Unless you can swing substantial discounts (not likely for a SoHo/SMB/non-partner/non-family member) I would stay away from Cisco and Juniper - definitely not the lowest price available. Ruckus (Brocade) might have something close to your budget.. happy with their SilkWorm product years ago, happy with them as an individual user.
 

RTM

Well-Known Member
Jan 26, 2014
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There is not a lot of information to go on, as to what is needed, but it sounds as if it is for production use, in which case I suggest you get something where you are guaranteed software updates.
So as the others mention, there are plenty of options, so here are a few suggestions assuming you are buying from new:

Suggestion 0 (Mikrotik):
- 1x Mikrotik CRS317 (16x port SFP+ switch) / $ 328
- 3x Mikrotik CRS326 or CSS326 (24x1g + 2x sfp+ 10g) / $ 180 or $ 133 each

The CRS 317 acts as the core switch, where each CRS/CSS326 switch is connected via the 2 SFP+ ports in a LACP bond (giving redundancy and performance). Assuming you have servers, you can use the remaining 10 SFP+ ports for them.

This option is relatively cheap (compared to the number of ports you get), none of the switches support routing (adequately anyway) so are not L3 switches, but are pretty decent and the CRS326/CSS326 switches are fanless.

Suggestion 0.1 (Mikrotik)
Like the above, but without the CRS317 switch, you appoint one switch to be the core switch, and connect each other switch via a 10g link from it.
You don't get redundancy, but it is much cheaper. I suppose you could also connect the switches in a ring, but that setup relies on STP to not get you into issues with broadcast storms etc. and I don't know enough about that to recommend this type of solution.

Suggestion 1 (Cisco small business):
- 3x Cisco SG350X-24 (24x 1g + 2x sfp+ 10g + 2x RJ45 10g) / $ 455 each

Again you appoint one switch to be core switch, connect one other SG350X via the SFP+'s and the other via RJ45.
The benefit of this solution, is that it is a L3 switch and of course that it says Cisco on the box (which I assume is 80% of the reason why people buy Cisco). These switches are not fanless.

Final comment:
These are just suggestions, you could definitely also just mix it up if you wanted that.
Keep in mind prices are just whatever I was able to find quickly, so don't assume it is the cheapest possible.

You may also think about how your network is structured and future needs, like will you need to do network segregation and do you expect to need more switches like this in the future.
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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I have a bunch of the Cisco's too, they are nice (albeit a bit loud), draw more power then the Netgear above, but have more functionality too (eg Netflow)
 

A.D.STUDIO

New Member
May 27, 2020
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Thanks for all your responses. The extra detail follows. We are a non-for-profit educational institution, located in a large multi-storey building. We have one very basic 24-port gigabit switch. It almost entirely serves one end of the building, hard-wired to a number of wall outlets. The other end is serviced by a wifi router, connected to around 20m of cat6 cable from the switch. Unfortunately the electricians only laid three cables (Cat6) the length of the building, inside conduit which can only contain three cables.

Now, all of the teaching spaces and studios all over the building have just been fitted with wall outlets. Downstairs they all come to a point at the end of the conduit (where the wifi router is), and upstairs they terminate in the room above, with a link to the main switch via the conduit. I need a switch for nine rooms upstairs, and a switch for twelve rooms and two network devices (xerox printer, wifi router) downstairs. And again, bear in mind the cabling is all in place – Cat6 – and everything terminates to RJ45.

The electricians were about to install 10/100 switches, which I believe would be entirely inadequate. 14 devices bottle-necked through 100Mbps on one gigabit cable doesn't sound great to me. Perhaps we'd get away with gigabit switches, but it's still a bottleneck. Which is why I was considering 10Gb connections back to the main switch (which I'd have to upgrade).

Having said that, most of the additional rooms will likely only be used for internet, and our internet connection is 100/40. So perhaps not a big deal. But there is heavy use of video conferencing for remote teaching. Connected to our main switch we also have a NAS, FileMaker Server, Windows Server, another Xerox network printer, and another wifi router. So there's plenty of data flying around.

Hope that's clear. And if you've read this far, I'm impressed.
 

A.D.STUDIO

New Member
May 27, 2020
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I should add: VOIP is coming, although obviously not high bandwidth, and possibly video surveillance.
 

A.D.STUDIO

New Member
May 27, 2020
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0
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I like the look of the Netgear SS330 with the RJ45 10Gb ready to go, as the main switch. For the satellites, I'm looking for [8x 1Gb w/ 1x RJ45 10Gb] and [12x 1Gb w/ 1x RJ45 10Gb]. Are they not made in this small form factor?

[EDIT] Apologies, I should Google harder. Netgear GS110MX and MS510TX which are the same price here in Australia so not sure why I'd go for the former...

I don't know that I need stackable or even managed for the satellite switches. We just don't have a big budget and the main aim is to reduce bottle-necks.
 
Last edited:

elag

Member
Dec 1, 2018
79
14
8
There is not a lot of information to go on, as to what is needed, but it sounds as if it is for production use, in which case I suggest you get something where you are guaranteed software updates.
So as the others mention, there are plenty of options, so here are a few suggestions assuming you are buying from new:

Suggestion 0 (Mikrotik):
- 1x Mikrotik CRS317 (16x port SFP+ switch) / $ 328
- 3x Mikrotik CRS326 or CSS326 (24x1g + 2x sfp+ 10g) / $ 180 or $ 133 each

The CRS 317 acts as the core switch, where each CRS/CSS326 switch is connected via the 2 SFP+ ports in a LACP bond (giving redundancy and performance). Assuming you have servers, you can use the remaining 10 SFP+ ports for them.

This option is relatively cheap (compared to the number of ports you get), none of the switches support routing (adequately anyway) so are not L3 switches, but are pretty decent and the CRS326/CSS326 switches are fanless.

Suggestion 0.1 (Mikrotik)
Like the above, but without the CRS317 switch, you appoint one switch to be the core switch, and connect each other switch via a 10g link from it.
You don't get redundancy, but it is much cheaper. I suppose you could also connect the switches in a ring, but that setup relies on STP to not get you into issues with broadcast storms etc. and I don't know enough about that to recommend this type of solution.
Instead of the CSS/CRS326/ CRS317 combo you may also want to look at the CRS328: 4 SFP ports + 24 1G ports with POE.
 

gregsachs

Active Member
Aug 14, 2018
559
192
43
If you don't need to buy new, I"d look at the brocade 6450 or 6610s as extensively discussed. Readily available for <$200 for 48port with POE, and gives you the ability to do VLANS for network isolation, plus you could combine the three backbone lines you have into one link.
(hmm, australia may change the feasibility of this...)
 

nickf1227

Active Member
Sep 23, 2015
197
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For $75 shipped you can buy a very powerful layer 3 HP Switch with 4 10 gigabit uplinks:

The 3800 was basically designed as a campus core switch. You can't get a better switch for that price.

Modules for SFP+ to Ethernet run for $45 on Amazon

FWIW most servers you will find second hand are probably SFP anyway-- and those modules are ~$25 rather than $45.

HPE has a far better and longer track record than Brocade, let alone Mikrotik or Netgear.

Buy quality and save yourself the trouble. I have a stack of two of them (one POE and one not) in my house now. I used to run entire school buildings off of these switches.