First: I have zero need for additional 1Gb ports. Only SFP+ 10Gig.
That is totally fair, which is why I also mentioned the VDX and the Nexus. They are literally designed for the expressed purpose you are describing. The ICX 6610 is really designed to be a do-it-all type of switch, it's a campus switch with special sauce that would make a great "collapsed core" type of deployment. But that is not what you are asking for, so I understand the concern.
So to be clear, I really dont plan on doing any routing between vlans or anything else on this device. All routing will be performed by my router (Fortigate 201E). This includes any inter-vlan routing, etc. I dont need IGMP, or anything else, other then perhaps jumbo frames at some point (which, from what I understand, it supports in switch mode anyway).
I was not recommending that you change the topology of your network simply because those switches offer additional features over the Mikrotik. I was recommending that you consider other options because it is my opinion that a Mikrotik switch should not be used as the single point of failure for critical server infrastructure.
Consider this for a moment. The MikroTik CRS317-1G-16S+RM weighs approximately 2.5kg, or 5.5 pounds. It consumes a maximum of 44 W of power and has a heatsink sitting in the bakc of the unit with a heatpipe. Where is the airflow to cool the switch coming from? The internal fans are merely recirculating heat inside of the chassis?
Notice how simple that PCB is. There's very few components those fans are cooling... The design literally does not make sense in my opinion. It's 100% form over function. People see the heatsink and think oh look how cool that is!
Now, lets look at the inside of a Brocade ICX 6450, which is the baby brother of the 6610(pic curtesy of
@fohdeesha). Notice, it has an internal fan and heatsinks that actually receive airflow over them!
This is an older 1Gb switch with a pair of SFP+ ports. It's rated at 65 watts for the non-poe version
It's both larger and Heavier than the Mikrotik.
There's an old addage that I like to respect. In PC power supplies, heavier is generally better. More heatsinking, higher quality components, bigger capacitors, that sort of thing usually follow. In switches, I feel the same rule applies. I get that we are comparing two vastly different products here-- but my point stands. Even Brocade's EOL old gigabit switch has higher quality components than the Mikrotik....and that is Brocade! Brocade is like the cheap alternative to Cisco, HP/Aruba, Arista, etc, It's not even high end by comparison.
For the sake of the argument, this is the inside of a Cisco Nexus:
Let me also quote
@fohdeesha from the Brocade thread:
well, it's not particularly fair to compare them, one is an enterprise switch that's $3000 new, and one is a mikrotik device that's $130 new. The Brocade was intended for enterprise and campus environments for the most part and wear items like onboard flash are duplicated for redundancy, the power supply is much higher quality (Delta onboard instead of a wall wart), a lot more ESD input protection on the physical ports/PHY (most of the mikrotik devices I've taken apart have NONE), the software and hardware has been QA'd quite a lot more (I know the ICX engineering & QA team at brocade on its own was larger than all of Mikrotik as a company) - if you want a general idea of Mikrotik's level of QA, read through some of the Mikrotik megathreads here on STH
Lets not forget all of the CVE's active for Mikrotik right now:
Mikrotik Routeros : List of security vulnerabilities (cvedetails.com)
Or the Botnets targeting those vulnerabilities in RouterOS:
MikroTik blog - Mēris botnet
I would consider the brocades for sure, but literally my only concern is noise with these (I used to use a few LB4M's and those would be too loud... so I'm assuming these are similar in noise level). If I did go with them though, I'd def. do 2 of these switches just to allow for better resiliency more then anything.
You have 6 servers and a SAN in that closet. Unless they aren't real servers (Supermicro, HP, Dell, Cisco, etc 1U, 2U) I really don't think the noise of the switch will make any appreciable impact to your sound levels. LB4Ms are loud, totally understand the concern, but you are managing a fairly large deployment of other potentially loud and power hungry devices.
Luckily, I wont lose my job over this purchase, but I do have a budget I'm trying to stick too. That's my primary limitation in this instance.
I should also note: This will only be used in production type config for ~2 years or so. After which, all of my publicly accessible VM's will be mothballed (we are in the early stages now of moving to a SaaS cloud service).
Sure, maybe it's not a permanent solution right now. But plans change. What if you have to live with it for 3, or 4 or 6 years before you transition away? Budgets change, business needs change. As someone who has lived through the pain and is trying to save you from it, I wouldn't be so cavalier as you are in regards to the decision you are making. You obviously care, or you wouldn't have asked the question in the first place.
Imagine coming to work one day, and the entire company is at a standstill because the datacenter switch failed. All productivity is lost, and you do not have another switch to put in it's place. When your boss asks how you that happened, is your answer "because it was cheap and quiet" going to be adequate? I understand you are in a budget, and I am trying to offer alternatives of used enterprise-class hardware, rather than new SMB solutions. If this was for your house, I would not be so adamant here. But it's not.
At the end of the day, it's your decision. I am just trying to help.