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

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TonyArrr

Active Member
Sep 22, 2021
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Straylia
Fortunately there is a tieback ground from the workshop to my home since the shop is powered by a subpanel from my home breaker panel. I have been running a 2G LACP connection between the 2 buildings for 12 years without a single issue.

Unfortunately Digging a new trench is not feasible as I am not willing to cut a section of concrete out of the driveway and patch it. Both for cost and cosmetic reasons. I completely understand what you are recommending and why, but I am just going to have to do the best with what I have. The distance involved is approx 150-200 feet. I'll have to re-measure the cable length and edit this post once I have done that.



Thank you for the advice. Due to the distance is it worth while to invest in the FS SFP-10G-T-100? These are expensive at $169 each. Would a less expensive SFP accomplish my goals? Do the FS modules down negotiate? Assuming I manage a 5G link does the 7250 support flow control?

Edit: According to the features comparison chart at the bottom of the product page here: https://www.fs.com/products/178031.html?attribute=95047&id=4452815 it appears that the SFP-10GM-T-30 is the only module that will auto negotiate. The 10G-T-100 supports manual configuration which I am not really sure how you would do that unless the link rate is manually set in the switch.
From memory, earlier in this thread @fohdeesha confirmed that the ASIC doesn’t support 2.5 or 5 Gbps at all, so to do multigig you need a SFP that can handle the 10G to nG drop itself, usually doing a bunch of pause frames to the switch to manage it.
(Would appreciate confirmation on that though, in case my memory is mangling it)

Is there really no way to retrofit fibre in? A soil area alongside the driveway? Tying it to the end of the existing copper and using the copper as a pull rope to get the fibre through? A surface route using some sort of casing?
(Just spinning ideas in case an option has been overlooked)
 

TonyArrr

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Sep 22, 2021
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Straylia
I'm a little hesitant to mount a fan on the ASIC as it seems like a destructive process (I see the recommendation to use self-tapping screws to screw into the heatsink). If anybody has a better recommendation on mounting methodology that would be good.
I wouldn’t call it very destructive. The screws just end up pressing outwards against the outer most heatsink fins, so there is some scratches but you’re not boring holes through the finstack.
On mine I also added a couple washers between the fan and the heatsink around the front screws so that the fan was tilted slightly upwards towards the back, so that the airflow wasn’t just hitting the case and going everywhere but should mostly go towards the back fans.

PSU and MGMT temps stayed pretty consistent over the months I logged them after doing it, but I do like the thought of properly working out the static pressure etc, so following your findings with interest.

Aside from the thought of adding a third (and maybe forth) fan positioned beside the PSU to pull air through it, or even one over in front of the PSU to be blowing air across the board and PoE board surfaces (I have a 24P so there is room), but never got back to investigate further.

at least mine hasn’t suffered heat death in the intervening years
 
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verysneaky

New Member
Jun 1, 2025
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So I went deep down the rabbit hole and did a more formal analysis of the cooling requirement. I didn't want it to get lost in the sea of posts in this thread, so I've created it as a resource here. Warning: there's an extreme amount of over-engineering.

The outcome was that 3x Sunon MF40201VX-1000U-G99 (32.3 dBA) should satisfy my cooling requirements, but I still have some uncertainty about the characterisation of the system impedance. If this does pose an issue, my mitigation strategies will be to install another 3 fans Sunon fans in series (35.3 dBA), swap them out for 3 Wakefield DC0402812J2B-3T0 in parallel (42.8 dBA), or install an additional 60mm fan on the ASIC.

I'll update with the results when I have them.
 

Serveur

New Member
Nov 20, 2025
12
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Hello,

I wanted to go into VLANs to segregate PoE some cameras (+ other smart devices) in my network.
So I bought a used Brocade ICX6450 and managed to perform the initial setup following fohdeesha's guide.

But after reading quite a while on VLANs, I am still a bit lost on the next steps.

Currently I have a router (Fritz!Box) connected to simple switches.
I would like to have "smart devices" on a separate "IoT" network where I could:
  1. specify if the device can have access to Internet or not (e.g. upload weather data or push notification)
  2. specify which devices can a specific device have access to (e.g. for the doorbell to have access only to the doorbell monitor)
  3. access each devices from my normal network (to monitor cameras from my computer for instance)
Also it would be best if I can assign the IP addresses through DHCP from my router UI, as I'd prefer to have all the IP addressing in one place (for normal and "smart" devices).

If I understand correctly, I have to create 2 VLANs ("Home" and "IoT") and try to configure properly InterVLAN communication ?
But how about DHCP and internet access ? I need to setup something like DHCP relaying ?

It would be great if someone could point me to appropriate documentation or give me the keywords to look for.
Thanks !
 

tubs-ffm

Active Member
Sep 1, 2013
241
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Different reasons but I also moved from Aruba S2500 to ICX7250 just last night. After the fan mod, it's the same noise level (subjectively the brocade might be quieter in steady state, and objectively it is quieter at bootup).
Years ago I was playing with ICX 7250 and fans but I was not happy. I switched to the lower model ICX 7150 that supports fan less mode at zero noise.
This device now I am selling.
 

TonyArrr

Active Member
Sep 22, 2021
181
93
28
Straylia
So I went deep down the rabbit hole and did a more formal analysis of the cooling requirement. I didn't want it to get lost in the sea of posts in this thread, so I've created it as a resource here. Warning: there's an extreme amount of over-engineering.

The outcome was that 3x Sunon MF40201VX-1000U-G99 (32.3 dBA) should satisfy my cooling requirements, but I still have some uncertainty about the characterisation of the system impedance. If this does pose an issue, my mitigation strategies will be to install another 3 fans Sunon fans in series (35.3 dBA), swap them out for 3 Wakefield DC0402812J2B-3T0 in parallel (42.8 dBA), or install an additional 60mm fan on the ASIC.

I'll update with the results when I have them.
Love your work, thats a great read. Looking forward to seeing more info added over time too!

I’m about to move home and have a few projects to take care of when I do, but I’ll see if I can get some reliable info (noise, temp, load) from my fan-modded 24P for you, in case it’s helpful to your posted data there. Might try out putting some fans in series too, if the new location leaks more noise than my current setup, I’d never even thought of that!
 

viperk1

New Member
May 23, 2023
11
5
3
Hello,

I wanted to go into VLANs to segregate PoE some cameras (+ other smart devices) in my network.
So I bought a used Brocade ICX6450 and managed to perform the initial setup following fohdeesha's guide.

But after reading quite a while on VLANs, I am still a bit lost on the next steps.

Currently I have a router (Fritz!Box) connected to simple switches.
I would like to have "smart devices" on a separate "IoT" network where I could:
  1. specify if the device can have access to Internet or not (e.g. upload weather data or push notification)
  2. specify which devices can a specific device have access to (e.g. for the doorbell to have access only to the doorbell monitor)
  3. access each devices from my normal network (to monitor cameras from my computer for instance)
Also it would be best if I can assign the IP addresses through DHCP from my router UI, as I'd prefer to have all the IP addressing in one place (for normal and "smart" devices).

If I understand correctly, I have to create 2 VLANs ("Home" and "IoT") and try to configure properly InterVLAN communication ?
But how about DHCP and internet access ? I need to setup something like DHCP relaying ?

It would be great if someone could point me to appropriate documentation or give me the keywords to look for.
Thanks !
Try this thread: https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...-vlan-routing-on-some-but-not-all-help.43731/
 
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Serveur

New Member
Nov 20, 2025
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Thanks I have read the thread there but I am still not sure.
With the "simple" DHCP server on my router (fritzbox), it seems that it will not work with VLAN (with DHCP relay or ip helper-address).
The DHCP server on the Brocade ICX6450 is not an "authoritative" one, so it won't work in all cases as well.

So it means that with this switch, I should either forget about DHCP (and assign IP address manually) or have another way to insert a proper (i.e VLAN aware) DHCP server between the router and the switch ?
 

tubs-ffm

Active Member
Sep 1, 2013
241
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So it means that with this switch, I should either forget about DHCP (and assign IP address manually) or have another way to insert a proper (i.e VLAN aware) DHCP server between the router and the switch ?
I cannot completely follow what you have configured.

A simple set-up would be an L2 configuration on the switch and your router is doing the routing between the different vlans by firewall rules managed by the router. This is called "router on a stick". But as far I know the FritzBox cannot handle vlans. You would need something better like Pfsense or OPNsense. The router OS also can do DHCP on all connected networks.

Doing routing on the switch in a L3 configuration and keeping control of the separation by access control list on the switch, I guess, is possible too. But this is getting complicate if your rules are complex. I gave-up on this.
 
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Serveur

New Member
Nov 20, 2025
12
1
3
My router is connected to my switch (only one cable), and the devices are connected to the switch.

The switch configuration is quite simple:
192.168.10.x/24 for vlan10, 192.168.20.x/24 for vlan20, and 192.168.30.x for vlan30.

Then I can simply add static routes on my router (Fritzbox) to handle requests from these IP range, so everyone will have access to Internet.
(I don't want to have something too complicated at the beginning)

This configuration works fine if I manually assign static IP address on each device.
But now I am being greedy and would like the IP addresses to be allocated by DHCP and I am stuck.

As I have quite a number of "fancy" devices, I will probably sooner or later have issues with a DHCP server which is not "authoritative", so the DHCP server on the switch will not work.
I've been told that the DHCP server on my router is too simple and so is useless with VLANs.

So what can I do with except putting another DHCP server between the router and the switch ?
I was really hoping to avoid having another device by buying this switch (ICX6450), but I did not anticipate that the DHCP server was not fully functional on this switch.
 

iiq_87cjs

New Member
Mar 12, 2022
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BoGs

Active Member
Feb 18, 2019
218
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So, my ICX 7250-24P arrived today. I'm using this cable to connect to the management Ethernet port (below), but when opening the Putty terminal (9600 8N1), there is no signal from the switch, even after resetting it. Is it the cable, or am I doing something wrong?

I can use a little help.

Thanks,

Amazon.com: OIKWAN USB Console Cable,USB to RJ45 Console Cable for Cisco Routers/AP Router/Switch Windows, Mac, Linux(1.8m,Blue) : Electronics
That is the wrong one for ICX7250 - as its miniusb - mine is the two below


The management port is for ethernet to manage the switch, not for console.
 
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BoGs

Active Member
Feb 18, 2019
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I dont think so the usb to computer needs to have FTDI chip in it to do rendering its somewhere in the thread as the switch does not. the ICX7250 and 7450 are the same :)
 
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Serveur

New Member
Nov 20, 2025
12
1
3
My router is connected to my switch (only one cable), and the devices are connected to the switch.

The switch configuration is quite simple:
192.168.10.x/24 for vlan10, 192.168.20.x/24 for vlan20, and 192.168.30.x for vlan30.

Then I can simply add static routes on my router (Fritzbox) to handle requests from these IP range, so everyone will have access to Internet.
(I don't want to have something too complicated at the beginning)

This configuration works fine if I manually assign static IP address on each device.
But now I am being greedy and would like the IP addresses to be allocated by DHCP and I am stuck.

As I have quite a number of "fancy" devices, I will probably sooner or later have issues with a DHCP server which is not "authoritative", so the DHCP server on the switch will not work.
I've been told that the DHCP server on my router is too simple and so is useless with VLANs.

So what can I do with except putting another DHCP server between the router and the switch ?
I was really hoping to avoid having another device by buying this switch (ICX6450), but I did not anticipate that the DHCP server was not fully functional on this switch.
I was experimenting with sharing the same "subnet" (divided by four using /26) over several VLANs and strangely enough it kind of work with the DHCP on my router.

Configuration of my router (on 192.168.178.1): DHCP server handling address on 192.168.178.x
Configuration of the switch:
VLAN1 (default VLAN):
- interface ve 1
- ip address 192.168.178.2/26
- ip helper-address 1 192.168.178.1
VLAN10 (on port 1 and 2):
- interface ve 10
- ip address 192.168.178.65/26
- ip helper-address 1 192.168.178.1
VLAN20 (on port 23 and 24):
- interface ve 20
- ip address 192.168.178.129/26
- ip helper-address 1 192.168.178.1

Before I connect my computer, I associate on my router the switch MAC address to an IP address which is compatible with the VLAN where I will connect, so 192.168.178.10 on VLAN1, 192.168.178.70 on VLAN10, 192.168.178.140 on VLAN20).
If I connect my computer on a port assigned to VLAN1, I received an IP address allocated by my router (checked on the router interface) and I can access Internet without any issue.
If I connect my computer on a port assigned to VLAN10 or VLAN20, it doesn't work (fail during the DHCP step as I haven't received any IP address).

I was fully expecting that it doesn't work at all. So now I am a bit scratching my head why it is working for VLAN1 and if could make it work with VLAN10 and VLAN20.
Can anyone explain to me what is happening ?
I am still reading a lot about the topic as I am learning on the go, so I am sorry if these are dumb questions.
 

tubs-ffm

Active Member
Sep 1, 2013
241
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Edit: Would this one work instead?
Instead of using the console, have you tried to connect your LAN to one of the ethernet ports and login via ssh or telnet?
I do not know what the standard configuration after reset looks like for every software version. But this might work.
 

TonyArrr

Active Member
Sep 22, 2021
181
93
28
Straylia
I was experimenting with sharing the same "subnet" (divided by four using /26) over several VLANs and strangely enough it kind of work with the DHCP on my router.

Configuration of my router (on 192.168.178.1): DHCP server handling address on 192.168.178.x
Configuration of the switch:
VLAN1 (default VLAN):
- interface ve 1
- ip address 192.168.178.2/26
- ip helper-address 1 192.168.178.1
VLAN10 (on port 1 and 2):
- interface ve 10
- ip address 192.168.178.65/26
- ip helper-address 1 192.168.178.1
VLAN20 (on port 23 and 24):
- interface ve 20
- ip address 192.168.178.129/26
- ip helper-address 1 192.168.178.1

Before I connect my computer, I associate on my router the switch MAC address to an IP address which is compatible with the VLAN where I will connect, so 192.168.178.10 on VLAN1, 192.168.178.70 on VLAN10, 192.168.178.140 on VLAN20).
If I connect my computer on a port assigned to VLAN1, I received an IP address allocated by my router (checked on the router interface) and I can access Internet without any issue.
If I connect my computer on a port assigned to VLAN10 or VLAN20, it doesn't work (fail during the DHCP step as I haven't received any IP address).

I was fully expecting that it doesn't work at all. So now I am a bit scratching my head why it is working for VLAN1 and if could make it work with VLAN10 and VLAN20.
Can anyone explain to me what is happening ?
I am still reading a lot about the topic as I am learning on the go, so I am sorry if these are dumb questions.
is it because your DHCP server still had a valid lease for your computer’s MAC address for the IP it got when connected to VLAN1?
does the issue still happen if you set the leases to expire after 1 minute on the DHCP server an wait at least that long between unplugging for a VLAN1 port and plugging in to a VLAN10 port?