48 port 10Gb SFP+ switch recommendations - iSCSI / vSphere

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i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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CLIs are UIs
I know that I'm not the only "not network engineer" here who uses and prefers enterprise network devices over consumer/prosumer network devices.
The clis I have used where not complicated, but I also don't run overly complex configurations on my switches/routers...
Used enterprise stuff on ebay is cheaper than mikrotiks new stuff.
My arista & brocade switches are not deeper than 45cm, only my 6036 is almost as deep as the supermicro stuff
I've seen and smelled that magic smoke of fried electronics at home, now I pay more for enterprise stuff and didn't see that smoke in the last 7 years anymore
 
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tjk

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Mar 3, 2013
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Third they are innovative, again get me a router that has these features like this one https://mikrotik.com/product/ccr2216_1g_12xs_2xq
No one else makes those, none, in a 1U with those kind of ports
It will take the Enterprise like a blade looking box to do what that thing does in a 14.5 inch deep 1U device
Can i add more power efficient than your bloatted Enterpirse brands too?
Yup with the radioshack power, i mean if it works who cares if its radioshack
No wonder they the Enterprise folks overcharge you guys to the bank to make you happy
You guys love to be lied to at a cost, and they got your bank accounts to deal with it
When you get more experience and actually deploy mission critical networks or have revenue on networks that require 100% uptime, you'll learn about things like deep packet buffers and such when you mix 100g and 10/25g.

Again, no one is stopping you from deploying Tiks, have at it, enjoy it, I hope you get 100% uptime out of it for the next 20 years!

The rest of us that have been doing this for a long time, in non homelab setups, know better. Especially at scale.
 

tsteine

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May 15, 2019
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To be clear here, no one here would complain if Mikrotik started delivering hardware and software on the level of companies like Arista or Cisco, especially if they did so at even 2x or 3x what Mikrotik sells their gear for.

What we are saying is that Mikrotik is not there yet (if ever), and they still have a long way to go before they get there.
What is most likely going to happen though, is that they get there, and start selling their switches at the same price points as the other "giants" because being cheaper than everyone else is no longer their only selling point.
 
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RTM

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Jan 26, 2014
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I stopped reading the posts in this thread, as it seems people have stopped actually trying to help the OP, and the thread as descended into something of a flame war.

That said, I am loving the analogies :p
A better comparsion would be a truck (enterprise) vs. the cheap toyota (consumer/prosumer)...
One is made for "harsh" conditions and the other is made for working reliably and transporting goods :D
But... what if the truck is a Ford? (Fix Or Repair Daily) :cool:
Generally speaking I'll take a Toyota over a Ford any day.
 
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tsteine

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I stopped reading the posts in this thread, as it seems people have stopped actually trying to help the OP, and the thread as descended into something of a flame war.
Thanks for the (admittedly deserved) cold shower, and on that note.

@Bergo

If you're looking for 10gbe with redundant power supplies and multi-chassis link aggregation, I would probably just pick up a pair of used Arista 7124SX switches or something equivalent. I see a few listings for 7124SX switches at $450 each.

Just know that they suck back some power, compared to newer gear.

If you must have 48 ports, you can also find 7148S but they're a bit more expensive, I see one listing for $800-
 
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tjk

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Thanks for the (admittedly deserved) cold shower, and on that note.

@Bergo

If you're looking for 10gbe with redundant power supplies and multi-chassis link aggregation, I would probably just pick up a pair of used Arista 7124SX switches or something equivalent. I see a few listings for 7124SX switches at $450 each.

Just know that they suck back some power, compared to newer gear.

If you must have 48 ports, you can also find 7148S but they're a bit more expensive, I see one listing for $800-
Can those run latest EOS?
 

RTM

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Jan 26, 2014
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Okay... so I have read a few more posts (all of OP's), so I will contribute a bit, gopefully it will actually be useful :)

The way I see it, given that you (OP) have had one bad experience with UBNT gear, you should opt for a safer choice here.
There is nothing wrong with taking a little extra risk every now and then when there is room to do so, but having gone down the wrong road once, I think it is only reasonable to opt for a more conservative choice here, meaning Cisco/Juniper ideally or Arista/Brocade/Ruckus/HPE/Aruba/etc.

I don't like it one bit, but there is some truth to the old, "no one's ever gotten fired for choosing Cisco/Microsoft/IBM"

With that in mind, @Bergo I suggest you give some thought into whether you want to have software updates for the switch and whether or not you are willing to pay for that privilege.

Some of the vendors (Cisco and Juniper but afaik also Arista) require that you have a support agreement to get updates, so that'll probably limit your options a bit. Additionally some of these do not like if you buy a device used (at least Juniper do not like this).

As someone pointed out earlier this is STH, and someone is sure to suggest a Brocade switch (though as far as I know this isn't EOL) as such you may want to look at this Ruckus ICX7750 switch, at $1100 it seems to fit the budget (though there is only one):

I don't believe that you need a support agreement with Ruckus (who acquired the ICX line from Brocade) to get updates for it - if I am wrong here, please correct me.
 
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tsteine

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I should note, for this specific listing the seller has listed in the description:
Code:
Aside from PSU1 Not Powering Up, the device is *Guaranteed in Working Order*
Removed from a working environment when a system was changed out...
So, if going for this specific unit, buying a psu would also be necessary.
 
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uberguru

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Jun 7, 2013
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Not saying mikrotik is the best networking brand, just saying for like 99% of what you need, they will meet it
And for 5-10% and less of the price you pay your over priced gears, that you cant afford brand new
keep buying 15 year old gears and claiming all benefits of the brand name, with outdated licenses
the same support you claim mikrotik does not have even though you can get paid support from certified consultants
you dont have the support for your old gears either, but its ok to be hypocritical

If i want to get the enterprise brand, i will go with fortinet, not any of the hype-jobs mentioned here
I decided between fortinet or mikrotik, and choose mikrotik
Why? mostly because of price AND the reasons i mentioned here => https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/48-port-10gb-sfp-switch-recommendations-iscsi-vsphere.36001/post-331991

but i like fortinet alot, and if not mikrotik, it will be fortinet
cheers
 
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uberguru

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OP @Bergo has been helped already

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/48-port-10gb-sfp-switch-recommendations-iscsi-vsphere.36001/post-331871

and others have chipped in their recommendations also
cheers
 

LodeRunner

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Apr 27, 2019
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Okay... so I have read a few more posts (all of OP's), so I will contribute a bit, gopefully it will actually be useful :)

The way I see it, given that you (OP) have had one bad experience with UBNT gear, you should opt for a safer choice here.
There is nothing wrong with taking a little extra risk every now and then when there is room to do so, but having gone down the wrong road once, I think it is only reasonable to opt for a more conservative choice here, meaning Cisco/Juniper ideally or Arista/Brocade/Ruckus/HPE/Aruba/etc.

I don't like it one bit, but there is some truth to the old, "no one's ever gotten fired for choosing Cisco/Microsoft/IBM"

With that in mind, @Bergo I suggest you give some thought into whether you want to have software updates for the switch and whether or not you are willing to pay for that privilege.

Some of the vendors (Cisco and Juniper but afaik also Arista) require that you have a support agreement to get updates, so that'll probably limit your options a bit. Additionally some of these do not like if you buy a device used (at least Juniper do not like this).

As someone pointed out earlier this is STH, and someone is sure to suggest a Brocade switch (though as far as I know this isn't EOL) as such you may want to look at this Ruckus ICX7750 switch, at $1100 it seems to fit the budget (though there is only one):

I don't believe that you need a support agreement with Ruckus (who acquired the ICX line from Brocade) to get updates for it - if I am wrong here, please correct me.
Depending on your budget, you may want to give the ICX 7750 a pass because the PSUs are often $400 - $500 each, if you can find them (RPS9-E/I) and the fans are also outrageous ($150 a tray or more when available; ICX7750-FAN-E/I)
 

LodeRunner

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Apr 27, 2019
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huh? there's a bunch for like 40 bucks brocade rps9: Search Result | eBay
That's what I get for searching exact model numbers. That's much more supply than was around last time I looked. Fans remain scarce though.

Ecit: Ah, it shares a PSU with the ADX/CER/CES/VDX families. I guess the only catch then is to make sure the seller knows which airflow direction it is, because most of those PSUs do not appear to be marked.
 

uberguru

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Jun 7, 2013
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4 x QSFP28 100G switch
$799 brand new
dual hot-swappable power supply
41W max power usage
full L3 switch with RouterOS

need i say more?


cc @Bergo
 
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fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
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fohdeesha.com

4 x QSFP28 100G switch
$799 brand new
dual hot-swappable power supply
41W max power usage
full L3 switch with RouterOS

need i say more?


cc @Bergo
I think you're lost - if you're trying to advertise switches with last-gen marvell prestera ASICs with tiny packet buffers and a control plane with less RAM and clock speed than my watch, this place will be more your speed: r/homelab
 

tjk

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Mar 3, 2013
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I think you're lost - if you're trying to advertise switches with last-gen marvell prestera ASICs with tiny packet buffers and a control plane with less RAM and clock speed than my watch, this place will be more your speed: r/homelab
Rubbish! You just fall into the Enterprise Vendor marketing hype!

I was going to buy a couple of these and connect them to my dell R710 servers running connectx-2 PCI 2.0 4x 100G adapter that has a raid6 array of Samsung QVO drives, blazing fast!

What's a packet buffer? Can I buy XL packet buffers and swap them out? Can I also buy a new ASIC on ebay and swap it in?

/s
 

egoistdream

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Mar 26, 2016
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Hello! I am looking for some recommendations on cost effective 10Gb switching with decent parts availability. This is for a small internal use vSphere cluster, hoping to save some money buying used + spares instead of new. I'm presently using Juniper EX4200's in a stack, but want to move to 10Gb. important features would be power supply redundancy and ability to do MLAG/VPC across a virtual chassis. I've got 3 Dell R640 hosts running esxi 7.0u2, A few Dell Equallogic iSCSI SANs, and a few R720XD's running Veeam for backups. I tried a pair of unifi XG16's, but I'm unhappy with them, some weird software bugs where they're flap between an adopted/adopting state.
I'm hoping to upgrade to some all flash storage, 10Gb iSCSI (currently multiple 1Gb links with MPIO), and replace the R720CD's with an R740XD2. I plan to ditch the 1Gb switches, just run copper GBICs for ILO connections etc. I've hot a pair of HA Sophos XG firewalls which support 10Gb over SFP+, and there is little east/west traffic, so L2 is fine in this environment.
budget - Maybe $2-3k? cheaper is better, but quality is best.

Maybe a pair of Cisco Nexus 3K's? Cisco Nexus 3064-X, 3064-T, and 3064-32T Switches Data Sheet - Cisco
HI,

I have two nexus 3k switches and the issue is that they are not working good with HSRP and if you try to use VRRP instead there is no ipv6 support.
If you want to use just as L2 switch they are good.

Regards