Aruba MAS series SFP+ & POE+ switches sub-$100

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Dawg10

Associate
Dec 24, 2016
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Is your ambient temperature actually 42C? That's 107F... And the exhaust temperature at 44C is only 2 degrees hotter than ambient.

The reporting is funky.
 

myrison

Member
Jan 26, 2011
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I suspect ambient is measured somewhere inside the box in a place they think is away from main heat sources, but there's no way it's really 'ambient.' My basement runs around 19-20 degrees C, and ambient is reported at 52.

My temps are all quite a bit higher than @sic0048 (thank you for posting yours) who is running all stock fans, so I will probably replace the last two Noctua fans I put in as they're just not pulling enough air out compared to stock to keep things cool.
 

Dawg10

Associate
Dec 24, 2016
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I suspect ambient is measured somewhere inside the box in a place they think is away from main heat sources, but there's no way it's really 'ambient.' My basement runs around 19-20 degrees C, and ambient is reported at 52.
Unless you get a IR heat gun and actually measure wtf is going on you have no idea what you're looking at for temperatures. Ambient is ambient ie inlet air temperature.
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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The IR temp guns are super cheap on Amazon, I also picked up a DB meter so when I do product reviews and stuff I can give those measurements. I got the DB meter after I already racked these switches however so I cant give you good measurements with it next to other equipment.

The two Brocade switches I have on the way I will be sure to get the readings before they go on the rack.
 

myrison

Member
Jan 26, 2011
61
41
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Yeah I have one. The outside of the switch where the air comes in is about 26-28 C depending on exact location on the switch. (Quite a bit short of the 52 reported fortunately)
 

Ouraing

Member
Dec 31, 2018
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Are there any 10GBase-T SFP+ modules known to work with these?
I have tested the Ubiquity UF-RJ45-10G ($65 from UBNT store) module and it appears to work with my S2500 and S3500 switches, it's even recognized as a supported module under 7.1.3.2:

Code:
GE0/1/0
-------
Vendor Name               : UBNT
Vendor Serial Number      : X180A4200063
Vendor Part Number        : UF-RJ45-10G
Aruba Supported:          : YES
Cable Type                : 10GBASE-SR
Connector Type            : LC
Wave Length               : 850 nm
However after upgrading to 7.4.1.10 it no longer shows as supported

Code:
GE0/1/0
-------
Vendor Name                                : UBNT
Vendor Serial Number                       : X180A4200063
Vendor Part Number                         : UF-RJ45-10G
Aruba Certified                            : NO
Cable Type                                 : 10GBASE-SR
Connector Type                             : LC
Wave Length                                : 850 nm
But more importantly, it works:

Code:
GE0/1/0 is administratively Up, Link is Up, Line protocol is Up
Hardware is Gigabit Ethernet, Interface is GE0/1/0, Address is 00:0b:86:a2:35:b2
Encapsulation ARPA, Loopback not set
Configured: duplex (Full), Speed (10 Gbps), FC (On), Autoneg (On)
Negotiated: duplex (Full), Speed (10 Gbps)
 

blood

Member
Apr 20, 2017
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But more importantly, it works
This is fantastic to hear - especially because that's the most modestly priced 10GBASE-T SFP+ module I have found. Any chance you could blast it with some bits using iperf3 (or whatever) to see whether it's stable? I believe the issue with these copper modules is that they need more power than fiber transceivers and I'd really be interested in whether it runs clean or not. Any link flaps, drops, etc under load?
 

Ouraing

Member
Dec 31, 2018
25
28
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Any chance you could blast it with some bits using iperf3 (or whatever) to see whether it's stable?
Right now I've only got the single box with a 10G port, but I have some ConnectX-3s arriving next week for other boxes and will post what I see after getting that all set up.
 

jimmy_1969

New Member
Jul 22, 2015
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Jakarta
Hi,

I initially stumbled on Vicious' youtube channel and the Aruba set-up videos, and ended up here. I subscribe to the idea of re-proposing older enterprise gear to fit my home lab. Must be some good karma to be gained from providing a new home for retired equipment...

Would be interested in getting your opinion about best way to combine a Aruba S2500 with 10 GB copper RJ45. My NAS is equipped with a dual set of Intel 10 GB NICs (build guide here for background). The minimalist case design means there is no additional space to fit an additional network card. My use-case is connecting a NAS to a couple of servers all co-located in the same room.

Been researching this topic but found two stumbling blocks. One option would be using a SFP+ to RJ45 media converter, but for a home network solution that is way too expensive. A second option would be to use a SFP+/Copper RJ45 Transceiver, but have not found anyone who managed to overcome the heating and stability issues associated with that set-up. My set-up would require three transceivers and the accumulated heat/power consumption is a concern.

Ouraing: I am looking forward to hearing more about your progress as your set-up has great potential. Also, how many of these transceivers is your switch equipped with? Is the heat an issue?

Your input is much appreciated.

//Jimmy
 

maereax

New Member
Mar 4, 2019
2
1
3
Hey guys, I received my switch tonight and am trying to configure. I did a factory reset and tried accessing via the web-ui after activating the quick setup. My computer was assigned the correct IP and i can get as far as the banner of the web-ui but no farther. I tried in chrome/ff/ie and ie with the address added to the compatibility list. I also read somewhere that someone got a switch with weird firmware and updating via usb worked for them, so i did it and am still having the same issue. Any thoughts?
 

manfri

Member
Nov 19, 2015
45
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Hey guys, I received my switch tonight and am trying to configure. I did a factory reset and tried accessing via the web-ui after activating the quick setup. My computer was assigned the correct IP and i can get as far as the banner of the web-ui but no farther. I tried in chrome/ff/ie and ie with the address added to the compatibility list. I also read somewhere that someone got a switch with weird firmware and updating via usb worked for them, so i did it and am still having the same issue. Any thoughts?
With others appliances i've ben successful operating from browser on a machine running an older os or older bbrowser (usually old porteble firefox)

https can also be a problem if ssl3 is disabled on the machine where i browse from...
 

ViciousXUSMC

Active Member
Nov 27, 2016
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Hey guys, I received my switch tonight and am trying to configure. I did a factory reset and tried accessing via the web-ui after activating the quick setup. My computer was assigned the correct IP and i can get as far as the banner of the web-ui but no farther. I tried in chrome/ff/ie and ie with the address added to the compatibility list. I also read somewhere that someone got a switch with weird firmware and updating via usb worked for them, so i did it and am still having the same issue. Any thoughts?
That was me, done a few tutorials on this switch. The last one I got I just could not get to this switch via Web until I updated the newest firmware to it.

Did you get the firmware I uploaded to the tutorial video? It's from HPE and newer than what Aruba has on their site. After that update any modern browser works fine for me.

Note: It's nice to go into it just to look at things, but ultimately most configuration for this switch is at the Terminal.
 

blood

Member
Apr 20, 2017
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Right now I've only got the single box with a 10G port, but I have some ConnectX-3s arriving next week for other boxes and will post what I see after getting that all set up.
I went ahead and ordered one of the modules from Ubiquiti. Once I made sure I had CAT6 or better from end to end, I was able to get a link up between my s2500 and an Intel X540-AT2 in another room - so a CAT6 patch from the switch to the patch panel, CAT6 in the walls about 20m and then another short CAT6 patch to my workstation. In total maybe 25m of copper.

I hit it with iperf3 for a bit and got around ~6gbps to other 10g connected hosts - so not as great as I was hoping for, but better than 1gbps for sure. I don't see any evidence of frame drops or errors and so far the switch seems to be running clean. I'll keep an eye on it.
 
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astrobyte

New Member
Feb 22, 2017
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30075
Thanks for that. I bought a DAC that wouldn't work from the S2500 (not Aruba certified either) to an X520 card. I did some research and bought a Molex one off eBay which is another option and a bit cheaper. 74752-1301 Molex 10GB SFP+ 3M Passive Cable SFP-H10Gb-Cu3M | eBay

Code:
GE0/1/3
-------
Vendor Name                                : Molex Inc.
Vendor Serial Number                       : 435732358
Vendor Part Number                         : 74752-1301
Aruba Certified                            : YES
Cable Type                                 : 10GBASE-DAC-P
Connector Type                             : Copper Pigtail
Wave Length                                : 0 nm
Cable Length                               : 3m
And from the other side:

Code:
ifconfig -v ix0
ix0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> metric 0 mtu 1500
        options=e400bb<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,VLAN_MTU,VLAN_HWTAGGING,JUMBO_MTU,VLAN_HWCSUM,VLAN_HWTSO,RXCSUM_IPV6,TXCSUM_IPV6>
        ether 0c:c4:7a:ba:b3:55
        hwaddr 0c:c4:7a:ba:b3:55
        inet6 fe80::ec4:7aff:feba:b355%ix0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
        inet 10.0.10.2 netmask 0xfffffffc broadcast 10.0.10.3
        nd6 options=21<PERFORMNUD,AUTO_LINKLOCAL>
        media: Ethernet autoselect (10Gbase-Twinax <full-duplex,rxpause,txpause>)
        status: active
        plugged: SFP/SFP+/SFP28 1X Copper Passive (Copper pigtail)
        vendor: Molex Inc. PN: 74752-1301 SN: 435732358 DATE: 2014-12-23

Thanks for this. I ordered the same ones, and they work great. Also, I offered qty 4 @ $8ea and it was accepted. This is with connectx-2 on the other end.

Code:
GE0/1/0
-------
Vendor Name                                : Molex Inc.
Vendor Serial Number                       : 435733214
Vendor Part Number                         : 74752-1301
Aruba Certified                            : YES
Cable Type                                 : 10GBASE-DAC-P
Connector Type                             : Copper Pigtail
Wave Length                                : 0 nm
Cable Length                               : 3m


GE0/1/1
-------
Vendor Name                                : Molex Inc.
Vendor Serial Number                       : 400330671
Vendor Part Number                         : 74752-1301
Aruba Certified                            : YES
Cable Type                                 : 10GBASE-DAC-P
Connector Type                             : Copper Pigtail
Wave Length                                : 0 nm
Cable Length                               : 3m


GE0/1/2
-------
Transceiver not present


GE0/1/3
-------
Vendor Name                                : Molex Inc.
Vendor Serial Number                       : 400330641
Vendor Part Number                         : 74752-1301
Aruba Certified                            : YES
Cable Type                                 : 10GBASE-DAC-P
Connector Type                             : Copper Pigtail
Wave Length                                : 0 nm
Cable Length                               : 3m
 
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james23

Active Member
Nov 18, 2014
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big thanks to ViciousXUSMC for his post / info and vid (and OP for posting this great deal). here is info i can add:

we got several of the s2500 48pt gig POE sws, they are fairly quiet once boot up is done. one of my fans has a whine/a tad faulity, but its not too noticeable. (these are going to closets of buildings anyway so not a big deal)

I connected one of its front panel ETH ports to my sw, and on my Mikrotik i added a static IP of 172.16.0.250 (and added a masq. rule for my subnet to that subnet), and hit the gui config on the SW's front panel. I was then able to login to it via chrome, i did the basic config (added a few ports to the mgmt interfaces), set it to dhcp, and then after reboot it pulled a dhcp from my router.
pretty good / easy!

I hooked it to my ePDU, and here are loads (only 1 eth , non poe, connected):
boot up: ~77w (for about 25s , then ~66w)
idle: ~65w
(a bit heavy on the power usage, but these are older SWs so relative to that generation its not too bad actually)


something interesting, like others, the latest FW i could find online was 7.4.0.4 , but my switch, out of the ebay box came with 7.4.1.4 ! (the build date looks similar to 4.04 though). maybe this is the same as others and there is a typo somewhere. (so i didnt have to do any FW update):

upload_2019-4-11_15-32-52.png
 

ske4za

Member
Feb 4, 2019
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AndyO

New Member
Jun 18, 2017
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I'm having big trouble getting this to work, maybe someone can point me in the right direction... I bought a S2500-24P on eBay for $90, and it even came with the rack ears already installed. I have done the following:
  • Upgraded both partitions to ArubaOS 7.4.1.10
  • Factory reset
  • Initial configuration from DHCP from front of the switch
  • Deleted stacking ports
  • Set port 0/0/23 as "uplink" port.
To my inexperienced (with enterprise switches) eyes everything looked right. I added a patch cable from my current un-managed Netgear switch to port 0/0/23 of the new switch, and connected the FreeNAS server to port 0/1/0 via 10GbE-SR fiber. I could not access the server from my office PC. Based on a comment made by Vicious in his "getting started" video about not setting an uplink port I guessed it was probably the port configuration. So, using Configuration/Ports from the Aruba Web-GUI I moved 0/0/23 back into the "default" profile.

At that point I could access the FreeNAS server from my PC. Thinking I was home free I moved all the other connections from the Netgear switch to the Aruba switch. I quickly found out that nothing that going through the Aruba switch could access the router to get a DHCP address, or access the Internet. I could still access everything from the PC, but no traffic was getting through to the router although I could ping the router from the shell of the FreeNAS server.

To keep most things working (like the phones) I've moved everything except the FreeNAS back to the Netgear switch, and everything works, except that the FreeNAS server can't access the Internet.

Here's a drawing of the topology (not including a couple dozen or so WiFi devices):Network.jpgMy goal is to replace the Netgear switch in the server rack with the Aruba, and connect my office PC directly to the Aruba with 10GbE (link in green, disconnected now). I tried it, but my PC can't see the server to get an address from DHCP. When I set a static IP address it works, but there's no Internet access (and the Chelsio NDIS driver keeps going GSOD on me).

I've done lots of google searching, but can't figure out what port or stack setting on the Aruba needs to be changed. Thanks, all!
 

ske4za

Member
Feb 4, 2019
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@AndyO Where is your DHCP server, the ASUS router? And my money is on your spanning tree blocking ports when it's connected to the switch. Do a
Code:
show spanning-tree detail
on the command line to see if it's blocking the port. That caught me when I was hooking it up and couldn't access the network when it was connected to another switch upstream.

edit: AVM60 :cool: here I am thinking of an X4500 to replace my X2300!