Drag to reposition cover

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

Notice: Page may contain affiliate links for which we may earn a small commission through services like Amazon Affiliates or Skimlinks.

Dreece

Active Member
Jan 22, 2019
503
160
43
My 6610 now runs quiet. I put the other psu cable in. It's amazing. :eek:
So looks like it goes into turbo hairdryer mode to annoy the hell out of you until you give it what it desires, power redundancy. That wasn't in the manual, well the manual I read, it came with it for free, just one small page, titled, 'sold as seen, not for idiots'.
 
  • Like
Reactions: mathiastro

ThreeFN

New Member
May 17, 2017
4
4
3
To be fair to... myself... my 6450 is mounted top of a 4 post that holds 'all the tv stuff', in the living room next to the tv, and the rule of that rack is if it's louder than the PS3, it gets the axe or surgery.

Update on my rollout, I've got the 6450 deployed, uplink via S+RJ10 on single ~150ft run of CAT5e. Modules are probably running at 5gbps given 5e and distance. Debating if I want to shlep the rip-box (only other 10G nic server I have right now) just for the speed test...

Newest headache is now the XBOne. Apparently if it goes to standby and you have instant on / background updates turned on, it will yoyo the interface, both up/down as well as speed all over the place. There was a moment following a 'sh int br' of me saying "what in the world device do I have that's running 10M?!?!" Honestly I'd contemplate an orphaned 5port switch just to kill the log spam, but I'll be a good little engineer first and try and solve the problem.
 
  • Like
Reactions: arglebargle

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,728
3,078
113
33
fohdeesha.com
My 6610 now runs quiet. I put the other psu cable in. It's amazing. :eek:
So looks like it goes into turbo hairdryer mode to annoy the hell out of you until you give it what it desires, power redundancy. That wasn't in the manual, well the manual I read, it came with it for free, just one small page, titled, 'sold as seen, not for idiots'.
the proper manual (this thread) has mentioned that a few times :p it should only happen with rev A power supplies. Rev b and C should happily run at low speed with just 1 PSU active
 

Dreece

Active Member
Jan 22, 2019
503
160
43
85 pages is wayyyyy too much data, maybe a nice little update to the front page where you've already posted great tips, of typical common questions+answers and numpty newbie mistakes :oops:

This is the output relative to fans:

Code:
Power supply 1 (AC - Regular) present, status ok
     Model Number:    23-0000144-01
    Serial Number:    0HL    
    Firmware Ver:      B
Power supply 1 Fan Air Flow Direction:  Front to Back
Power supply 2 (AC - Regular) present, status ok
     Model Number:    23-0000144-01
    Serial Number:    0CB    
    Firmware Ver:      B
Power supply 2 Fan Air Flow Direction:  Front to Back
Goes to full-blast when I take psu 2 offline, and then goes back to whisper mode when plugged back in.
 
Last edited:

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,728
3,078
113
33
fohdeesha.com
Does it instantly go to full blast, or take a little bit? That's definitely not normal, I have 2 chassis here in a lab with 1 rev B plugged in and can barely hear them

if it takes a little bit, it's probably warming up to fan speed 2 threshold without the extra airflow of the second PSU fan. In that case the room they're in is probably just warmer than usual or the fan tray is on the wrong side compared to the PSU (if you only have 1 fan tray)
 

Dreece

Active Member
Jan 22, 2019
503
160
43
Instantly, well it rises to full under 2 seconds.

Do not know if this is relevant, it does state in the chassis output that Fan 2 is not installed, is that an optional fan kit?
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,728
3,078
113
33
fohdeesha.com
there's an optional second fan slot/tray on the back that's typically not needed. I would try powering off the switch, moving the fan tray you do have to the other slot, and powering it back on with 1 psu (the same single psu you tried before). I do remember a member having similar behavior with a single PSU when the fan tray was criss cross from it (or maybe next to it, can't remember)
 

Dreece

Active Member
Jan 22, 2019
503
160
43
Ok, I will do that on Sunday. Unable to for now as the switch is now core to the home-side topology and currently running some long-toothed number crunching tasks.

When I do take it offline, is there anything else you advise I consider/look at to report back?
 

arglebargle

H̸̖̅ȩ̸̐l̷̦͋l̴̰̈ỏ̶̱ ̸̢͋W̵͖̌ò̴͚r̴͇̀l̵̼͗d̷͕̈
Jul 15, 2018
657
244
43
Do you guys believe me now that these things need basically zero cooling at homelab usage levels? :p

as for the PWM noise, without cobbling a bunch of shit together the easiest thing would probably be just tap off the raw 12V from the PSU and drive a fan with it, and size the fan so the full speed CFM is your ideal CFM/noise (eg a very small/slow fan)
Oh I never doubted you, I just thought better safe than sorry y'know. The only reason I care right now is that the 10Gb switch chip gets stupidly hot when it's in use and there's no airflow, the chips near the 1G ports seem totally fine passively cooled.

If I tap the 12v supply to drive a quiet fan at full speed is it safe to hook the tach line up to the header for failure alerting? I haven't touched fan control circuits since before everything switched from linear regulation to PWM so I don't really know if they're doing anything tricky.

If anyone else is going to do this a Sunon maglev V3 fan would be ideal at full speed, they're damned quiet and the switch really only needs the tiniest amount of airflow to drop temps by like 15-20C.

To be fair to... myself... my 6450 is mounted top of a 4 post that holds 'all the tv stuff', in the living room next to the tv, and the rule of that rack is if it's louder than the PS3, it gets the axe or surgery.
The PWM whine from the 6450 at low speed is the loudest thing in my office when the air filter isn't running. If it's more noticeable than my desktop it goes under the knife until it isn't :)
 
  • Like
Reactions: fohdeesha

klui

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
824
453
63
I just went through all 84 pages of this thread and like Vicious I got the S2500 and would like to check out these Brocades. I have my S2500 working in my lab-lab (not home-lab) with my home config with another FW and am anxious to see what kinds of response I'll get with my CX3s even though I have no need for the extra bandwidth. These switches are at a nice price point, with all the port types I'll need for the near future, compared to the Arista 7050Q/Qx available on eBay. Having worked with the Arista 7060CX2-32S for a project, I've gotten to like them quite a bit.

Thanks fohdeesha for your enthusiasm and generosity in sharing your knowledge for not only these Brocades but the Aristas and other topics in other threads.
 

arglebargle

H̸̖̅ȩ̸̐l̷̦͋l̴̰̈ỏ̶̱ ̸̢͋W̵͖̌ò̴͚r̴͇̀l̵̼͗d̷͕̈
Jul 15, 2018
657
244
43
I just went through all 84 pages of this thread and like Vicious I got the S2500 and would like to check out these Brocades. I have my S2500 working in my lab-lab (not home-lab) with my home config with another FW and am anxious to see what kinds of response I'll get with my CX3s even though I have no need for the extra bandwidth. These switches are at a nice price point, with all the port types I'll need for the near future, compared to the Arista 7050Q/Qx available on eBay. Having worked with the Arista 7060CX2-32S for a project, I've gotten to like them quite a bit.

Thanks fohdeesha for your enthusiasm and generosity in sharing your knowledge for not only these Brocades but the Aristas and other topics in other threads.
The prices on the dual 10Gb CX3s have started dropping in the last couple of months too. I need a couple more cards and it's tempting at this point to just switch to buying MCX312's and skip the need for the QSFP to SFP adapters. $25/2x40Gb VPI board is a damned nice price, but once you've added on $12*2 per card for the QSFP adapters you're right up into the same price range as the 2x10Gb cards anyway. I don't know if there's much difference in power draw but I'd imagine the 2x10Gb boards are at least a couple W lower than the 40/56Gb model.

I meant to post this last week when my switches arrived, after all of the horror stories of poorly packaged switches it was nice to have these arrive packed well: https://photos.app.goo.gl/PFPHKmW2z7WvG2628
 

u238

Member
Aug 11, 2018
40
10
8
Say I had a dumb switch (my ISP provided ONT / router / switch device) and a stack of 2 ICX switches. Is there any way to create a two link failover type lagg setup between the dumb switch that doesn't support LACP and the switch stack?
 

arglebargle

H̸̖̅ȩ̸̐l̷̦͋l̴̰̈ỏ̶̱ ̸̢͋W̵͖̌ò̴͚r̴͇̀l̵̼͗d̷͕̈
Jul 15, 2018
657
244
43
Say I had a dumb switch (my ISP provided ONT / router / switch device) and a stack of 2 ICX switches. Is there any way to create a two link failover type lagg setup between the dumb switch that doesn't support LACP and the switch stack?
If you just want to add redundancy to your dumb L2 switches connection to the stack spanning-tree should do what you want. Turn on 802.1w for the vlan your dumb-switch traffic is interfacing with on the stack and plug your redundant links into different stack switches on that vlan and that should be it. If you lose the stack switch with the currently active link RSTP will re-learn the topology and unblock another link to take over.

You almost definitely want to use 802.1w here instead of OG STP, as I understand it it's a lot faster at handling newly plugged devices. Also, beware of "rstp" vs "802.1w" while configuring -- "rstp" is a Brocade proprietary early implementation of the spec, it might not play nicely with other rstp capable devices.
 

Churchill

Admiral
Jan 6, 2016
838
213
43
My switch arrived but it did not come with a console/serial cable. Much hunting later and I found some on amazon and they will arrive on Monday. Then i'll flash the 6650 to the latest and go from there.

Overall: The sound is NOT that bad, but I don't have anything plugged into it just yet. No louder than my supermicro servers that I have running in my office and will be quiter once I close the doors to silence all the gear.
 

fohdeesha

Kaini Industries
Nov 20, 2016
2,728
3,078
113
33
fohdeesha.com
My switch arrived but it did not come with a console/serial cable. Much hunting later and I found some on amazon and they will arrive on Monday. Then i'll flash the 6650 to the latest and go from there.

Overall: The sound is NOT that bad, but I don't have anything plugged into it just yet. No louder than my supermicro servers that I have running in my office and will be quiter once I close the doors to silence all the gear.
can you link the serial cable you ordered for the 6650? there's some listed on amazon that don't have the right connector (or are just a usb cable)
 
  • Like
Reactions: tjk

Hum

New Member
Apr 10, 2019
2
0
1
Do you have what pinout you did to create this?
Got my 7250-24P today and initially I powered it up without the console plugged in. This unit takes way longer to boot than the 6610 and I thought it was DOA since the fans weren't coming down.

I built a mini-usb to RJ45 so I could use my standard Cisco cable and then I saw that it was in fact booting, it just sits at "Starting Kernel" for a long time before moving along..

Here is the pinout for the contraption I made. Seems to be working well.
Code:
Mini-USB           Keystone (568B)
========            ===============
1 (VCC)            N/C
2 (UART RX)        6 (Grn)
3 (UART TX)        3 (Grn/Wht)
4 (Reserved)       N/C
5 (GND)            4 (Blue)
Off to tinker!!

Thanks!!
Riley