Brocade ICX Series (cheap & powerful 10gbE/40gbE switching)

[ambient1]

Thanks to this thread, I've had my ICX6610-24P for a few weeks. It only came with one psu and one fan, and was missing the blanks for the rest. I ended up paying $200 delivered. It was the regular front-to-back airflow, but I like my switches in the rear of the rack. I ended up turning all the fans around and that seems to have worked fine. For the psu fan I ended up not being able to reuse the silicone tabs and just using machine screws to mount the fan. I followed fohdeesha's excellent guide and got everything mostly up and running. I'm still waiting for transceivers and cabling before I move my lab to 10GB.

I also have a ICX6610-48P in the mail which was a barebones unit without fans or psus. I thought I got it for a good deal ($90 delivered) but the prices of fans and psus are ridiculous.

 

[fohdeesha]

have you rebooted the switch with the dac plugged in?

 

[Dave Corder]

have you rebooted the switch with the dac plugged in?

Just a soft reboot so far. I'll give a hard reboot a try.

Edit: no luck

 

[fohdeesha]

in celebration of hitting 100 pages I looked a little harder and found more license to give to members

if you're having any kind of issue or question that's not license related, please post it in here instead of PMing me. I have a lot of PMs I'm never going to have time to get back to

 

[MikeWebb]

just went to see if the devplops link you sent forever ago still worked.....loving the new page. Sorry that it all had to come to that. Yay 100 and Yay my ICX6610. Just about to load R code and move S to secondary and have a look see at that.

 

[bit.rot]

Finally replaced the stock fans, one was giving a weird wobbly grindy type of sound that I didn't quite trust. I also didn't care to lower the CFM too much (it's in my basement) so I picked up the following from digikey: Sunon MF40201VX-1000U-G99.


Pretty painless swap, only issues were getting the wiring right. Old fan used Yellow as +12V and Green as the Tach:


New fans use Red as +12V and Yellow as the Tach:


Other minor issue was that the hole size on the fan for the screws was bigger, so I couldn't reuse the old nubby screws. Luckily I had some spare screws from something that fit perfectly:


All cozy:


Temps rose around 6 degrees, hovering around 43C. Like I said they're not whisper quiet but are softer on the ears and they move plenty of air for me to not give it even a second thought.

 

[katilinus]

@bit.rot - still having the 60W power draw from the 6450 ?

 

[tommybackeast]

I have said ears and decent CAD knowledge, I'll see what I can draft over the next few days.

Since it's a waterjet, I figure countersinks won't be possible? I'll skip them if it's preferred.

Any preferred file format? Inches or mm?

I know nothing about CAD and waterjets, etc.

Question: what process does allow for countersunk holes? (other than manual method)

 

[tommybackeast]

A 3-axis CNC would be hilariously overkill; the ears are basically a thick piece of bent sheet metal with holes. A waterjet cutter and bending brake should be plenty enough.

Still, if you're interested, here's the 'bent' version of the part; rack ear

I know nothing about CAD : just wanted to say that URL was interesting to look at, thanks

 

[bit.rot]

@bit.rot - still having the 60W power draw from the 6450 ?

I forgot to mention that, when I had it out of my rack it was using less, i think around 30-40w. turns out someone had plugged in a battery charger into my rack that I hadn’t noticed and was accounting for the increased draw at both my measuring points

 

[maes]

Question: what process does allow for countersunk holes? (other than manual method)

pretty much any conventional 3-axis CNC would be able to do it. A waterjet cutter that can do 5-axis could also do it since it can angle its cutting nozzle relative to the piece.

 

[nthu9280]

Are we trying to design a Rube-Goldberg solution for brackets?
It's quite possible that I'm missing something really obvious.
I know Rackmount kits are little pricey. But if you add your time and materials and for the low volume batch, not sure if these attempts are much cheaper even if you own CNC Milling machine or a Waterjet.

 

[mb300sd]

Just cutting a couple out to help the community. Got the file from @maes, doesn't really take me any time other than sticking the material in and clicking go. The waterjet sits idle in my garage 99% of the time, I got it for making custom engine parts. Mines a 2 axis (OMAX ProtoMax), so basically just 2D parts.

 

[tommybackeast]

pretty much any conventional 3-axis CNC would be able to do it. A waterjet cutter that can do 5-axis could also do it since it can angle its cutting nozzle relative to the piece.

Thanks for the video... never saw a 5-axis water jet before.... What do they cost? $25k? $50k? $100k?

Do they use more or less power than a rack of Dell 2950 servers?

 

[tommybackeast]

[QUOTE="
It's quite possible that I'm missing something really obvious.
[/QUOTE]

It's because it CAN be done Buying stuff on ebay is boring, making your own Rack Ears for yourself and online friends is something a bit different.

I mean this entire forum site is about people having old enterprise gear running in their house

 

[tommybackeast]

Just cutting a couple out to help the community. Got the file from @maes, doesn't really take me any time other than sticking the material in and clicking go. The waterjet sits idle in my garage 99% of the time, I got it for making custom engine parts. Mines a 2 axis (OMAX ProtoMax), so basically just 2D parts.

I have no clue who besides myself would have interest, but can you make a simple youtube video while your machine makes a Rack Ear ...

I've never seen a waterjet in person; but on youtube and TV but I think they are such as interesting machine.

 

[kroy]

Anybody know if it's possible to get OSPFv3 on the 6450?

 

[Terry Wallace]

No countersinks unfortunately. mm preferred. No need to fully model it, just a flat part with the offset where the bend needs to go is perfect (so I don't need to reflatten it for cutting).

mbsod,
Any chance you'd be interested in making some back long ears for 6610's or 6450's These things droop like a mother with just the front 2 ears. I know a number of us have 4 post racks or cabinets and some long brackets like the ones form the 4 post rack kit would be a god send. Would definitely pay you for them and shipping as you can't find them on ebay

 

[BeTeP]

@Terry Wallace,
I do not know how much you are looking to save but it is not going to be that much. The new NavePoint Universal 1U Rack Mount 4-Post Shelf Rail Kit is $32 shipped from Amazon. APC 2U Universal Rail Kit (P/N 0M-756H) can often be found under $20 on ebay. I just paid $26 shipped for a set of 2 (open box, missing screws).

 

[kapone]

@BeTeP - I was about to suggest something similar. While I applaud the effort and ingenuity in making "things"... sometimes we get tunnel vision.

The Navepoint brackets work great for lots of stuff. My amplifiers for e.g., they have rack mount brackets, but no "rear" mount. Did the manufacturer really think I was gonna mount a 90lb amp in my rack with just the front ears?? The Navepoint works great for that, so a 6610 is a piece of cake.

p.s. Assuming your rack has U shaped channels (like a lot of cheap racks), you can mount the Navepoint (or others like it) to the inside of the channel. Makes for a clean install on the front.