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.

tommybackeast

Active Member
Jun 10, 2018
286
105
43
You need to obtain more knowledge of VLANs in order to understand what others are recommending. Check out some videos on Youtube or articles on the web. Here's one that's easy to understand.

The 7150-C12P is silent because there is no fan. Mine is not deployed but without any ports used its top vents are lukewarm to the touch.
Thank you for the URL : and thanks for real-world info on the heat from a 7150 (I asked given where I am thinking of putting it should I buy one).

I do understand the macro concept of VLANs and segmenting. I am comfortable with tech; but very far from an IT pro. It's the real-world actually DOING the VLANS and Trunks; and doing it 99.999% securely that worries me.

I have good hardware for pfSense box with Dual SFP+ to go into 7250-48p, and had found someone to pay $ to help me set it up (including doing DHCP on the 7250, etc) but he had a major personal issue crop up.

Most gently said: i respect many/most on this thread are IT pros; or experienced /r/homelab users; but creating a secure network of pfsense + packages + brocade VLANS + DHCP + figuring out the entire network config is very daunting task for a noob. also, for good or bad, I learn by doing something complex with a smart person over my shoulder; I never learn complex things by only watching youtube. i've watched hours of Terry Henry videos and many others, but I still don't understand in my gut HOW-TO actually do it real-world.

so any pfsense + brocade experts wanna help me design the network VLANs and make $ by helping me over the phone let me know :) (serious)
 
Last edited:

Spearfoot

Active Member
Apr 22, 2015
111
51
28
...can the 7250+7150 combo do this. (so I know it's ok to start shopping for one)
Yes, those two switches will absolutely do what you want.

And so will many other combinations of switches. Brocade/Ruckus may not be the optimal choice for you; everyone's needs and situation are different, so that's something you will have to decide for yourself.

PS: as you have a 7150 : are they as silent reviewers have stated? how hot does the unit get? can you put your hand on the outside of it?
The 7150-C12P is completely silent -- it has no fans. It gets warm to the touch but won't burn your hand by any means. I run a small, whisper-quiet Caframo Chinook fan on my desk top to keep everything cooled off and my C12P doesn't even get warm. The fan is by far the loudest piece of gear in my office.
 
  • Like
Reactions: tommybackeast

tommybackeast

Active Member
Jun 10, 2018
286
105
43
Yes, those two switches will absolutely do what you want.

And so will many other combinations of switches. Brocade/Ruckus may not be the optimal choice for you; everyone's needs and situation are different, so that's something you will have to decide for yourself.

The 7150-C12P is completely silent -- it has no fans. It gets warm to the touch but won't burn your hand by any means. I run a small, whisper-quiet Caframo Chinook fan on my desk top to keep everything cooled off and my C12P doesn't even get warm. The fan is by far the loudest piece of gear in my office.
thank you for confirming the 7150 will work in the 2nd floor home-office as a "branch" switch (btw, what is the correct IT term for this scenerio? 7250 in basement and 7150 on 2nd floor..... the 7150 could be called a what exactly? "extension switch" ?
 

klui

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
824
453
63
for good or bad, I learn by doing something complex with a smart person over my shoulder; I never learn complex things by only watching youtube.
I don't learn like that. Having someone watch over me when I do something new is like relying on training wheels. I would need a separate set of training wheels for every new problem I have to solve. You can try breaking a large problem into smaller, more manageable pieces and solve little problems and connect them until you've solved your original problem. Think about how the folks in the space program developed the entire ecosystem to go to the moon. There were no smart people who did that before. They broke down an overwhelming problem into smaller easier-to-solve problems. I don't think you're supposed to learn complex things by watching a 5-15 minute Youtube video. You do that by taking a course. Youtube videos typically show you solutions to simple problems that could be combined to solve a more complex problem.

I understand and retain that knowledge better when I associate a problem I have and think of various ways to accomplish the task through trial and error. Yes it can seem daunting when there is a very complex system but it could be understood if I think logically about what I want to accomplish and move one step at a time. If I try to create the entire solution all at once there are too many pieces for me to juggle. The important thing for me is to learn by repetition through changing configurations, and adding/deleting components. Think about what needs to be done, create theories on what must happen, apply changes and see if they align with theory.

Let me ask: How do you assemble a jigsaw puzzle? I tend to either start from the corners, edges or concentrate on a patch and work my way out. I don't try to put every distinct piece in their right place.

Your 7250 and 7150 are edge switches. Meaning they are typically used to connect edge devices like computers, APs, printers, and cameras. Consider instead a core switch that's used to provide connectivity to edge switches. Perhaps a better way to describe your topology, or most home topologies, is to use upstream/downstream instead. Here your 7150 would be a a switch downstream from your 7250--the 7250 would be the upstream switch from your 7150.
 

tommybackeast

Active Member
Jun 10, 2018
286
105
43
. Here your 7150 would be a a switch downstream from your 7250--the 7250 would be the upstream switch from your 7150.
Thank you - Those terms make perfect sense.

Regarding the educational/learning aspects of what you wrote. Reality is we are all different. One of life's secrets is to figure out how you yourself work, how you need to process/learn new information. We all learn differently. Long ago I was an amateur photographer, learning all by myself with some books to guide me. But I had no one to stand over me and ask questions. When I did have a professional photographer to stand next to me, showing me things, I learned 100x faster/better. Years later, I became a commercial photographer myself and found myself then helping out some amateurs who asked me for help. Circle of knowledge that keeps our civilization flowing and improving.

I don't learn anything by watching the electrician wire the outlet; but I do learn if I'm doing the work with him standing next to me telling me what to do, and what not to do. Hence my desire/need to find someone to pay $ to help me over the phone with my pfsense + Brocade home network design + VLAN for in my case, that will be money well spent as I learn by doing-it with smart person to guide me, and prevent dangerous security errors.

Think about a surgeon : would you want someone to operate on you who watched 10,000 hours of youtube -or- do you want your surgeon to have learned their skills by having other surgeons show them the process while standing over them.
 
  • Like
Reactions: kache and fohdeesha

tommybackeast

Active Member
Jun 10, 2018
286
105
43
a big thank you for that URL - I'm multi-tasking right now, and that detailed post you wrote up is blurring in front of me, but certainly shall read it tonight when I can focus 100%. I'm printing it out onto paper so i'll have it and doesn't get lost in the pile of browser bookmarks; or 100 open browser tabs. yes Sir , your words are worthy of being printed onto real paper :)
 

Tenshou

New Member
Nov 2, 2019
10
1
3
1597344094466.png
On the 6610, is it possible to use the 2 breakout ports as Trunks to other switches with normal QSFP cables? Or they must be connected to the normal ports?
 

adman_c

Active Member
Feb 14, 2016
257
135
43
Chicago
Sorry, missed a notification and life got me away from this thread (not worry, not for bad things).


Yea... it says... buuut...



Mine does this as well, same power usage as another user in this thread. I don't know if it was a typo in the brochure or if the power supply used has changed during the lifetime of the model, or whatnot... but yea, the power usage is higher than what it says.



Fair enough, but the real question is: are we sure that the 6450-48P will draw the stated 50W, or would it exceed like the little brother? I don't have an answer about this.
Just to add another data point here, my 6450-24p draws 32-33w with nothing but the console cable plugged in. I don't think the switching load my office/lab machines put on it makes any measurable difference in the power usage. On the plus side, I'm replacing 3 different 8 port Unifi switches and a Mikrotik CRS305 with this one switch, so the power draw will work out pretty close to even.

Big thanks to @fohdeesha, @kapone, @infoMatt, and everyone else who has contributed to this thread.
 

Jason Antes

Active Member
Feb 28, 2020
224
76
28
Twin Cities
I saw your included URL of Synology+10GB+SMB 3.1+Windows 10
The model I have could come with 10GbE but if it didn't there is no way to update it to be able to. Netgear was "nice" like that. My Synology NAS is also only 1GbE but it only has 1 port as it is a DS218+. I'm looking for a good rackmount 10GbE NAS that won't break my wallet but looks like I'll be waiting a while. The dual 1GbE will get me by for a while until all my Bluray rip and encodes are ready to push to it. It already takes way to long to copy a few much less do backups from it.
 

EngChiSTH

Active Member
Jun 27, 2018
108
45
28
Chicago
The model I have could come with 10GbE but if it didn't there is no way to update it to be able to. Netgear was "nice" like that. My Synology NAS is also only 1GbE but it only has 1 port as it is a DS218+. I'm looking for a good rackmount 10GbE NAS that won't break my wallet but looks like I'll be waiting a while. The dual 1GbE will get me by for a while until all my Bluray rip and encodes are ready to push to it. It already takes way to long to copy a few much less do backups from it.
how important is have to be rackmounted? I use qnap 332x for primary NAS for home and connect 10GB link between it and 6450 switch, zero issues, pretty happy. 332x gives me 3 primary HDD (bays) and 2 M2 SSDs if I want to (I use single one for automatic caching right now).
 

Jason Antes

Active Member
Feb 28, 2020
224
76
28
Twin Cities
how important is have to be rackmounted? I use qnap 332x for primary NAS for home and connect 10GB link between it and 6450 switch, zero issues, pretty happy. 332x gives me 3 primary HDD (bays) and 2 M2 SSDs if I want to (I use single one for automatic caching right now).
I have a 19" 42u rack. My Netgear is a rackmount but my Synology isn't. So while it would be nice, it isn't life and death. Just works better for cooling.
 

EngChiSTH

Active Member
Jun 27, 2018
108
45
28
Chicago
I have a 19" 42u rack. My Netgear is a rackmount but my Synology isn't. So while it would be nice, it isn't life and death. Just works better for cooling.
how much storage do you want in the NAS (my need were simple and 15TB was enough for me)? When I looked
- I did not see anything Synology that has SFP+ and decent price
- I refuse to pay crazy prices for old Celeron hardware just because it is in NAS
- QNAP had much better choices however to go below $100/drive bay I picked 332X with SFP+
 

PnoT

Active Member
Mar 1, 2015
650
162
43
Texas
Has anyone setup snmp to monitor temps for their 7250? I'm having a tough time trying to figure out which OID to use.

snChasActualTemperature .1.3.6.1.4.1.1991.1.1.1.1.18 returns an integer of 163 and the description states each unit is 0.5 degrees Celcius but when doing the math doesn't add up to what sh chassis has for either the mgmt plane or the psu temps.

What am I missing?
 
  • Like
Reactions: tommybackeast

vangoose

Active Member
May 21, 2019
326
104
43
Canada
Has anyone setup snmp to monitor temps for their 7250? I'm having a tough time trying to figure out which OID to use.

snChasActualTemperature .1.3.6.1.4.1.1991.1.1.1.1.18 returns an integer of 163 and the description states each unit is 0.5 degrees Celcius but when doing the math doesn't add up to what sh chassis has for either the mgmt plane or the psu temps.

What am I missing?
I use Zabbix to monitor with Brocade Foundry template.
 

3nodeproblem

Member
Jun 28, 2020
48
11
8
This is probably a stupid question but don't find it mentioned in the thread: In absence of a serial cable (still waiting for delayed delivery out in the sticks), is there any management that can be done by default on 6450?

Tried connecting the mgmt port to a computer running a dhcp server - I see it getting an IP address assigned and can ping it but it doesn't seem any TCP ports are open, and only UDP 67/68.
 

PnoT

Active Member
Mar 1, 2015
650
162
43
Texas
I use Zabbix to monitor with Brocade Foundry template.
Thanks for the template I found a few items in there. I figured out why the numbers weren't adding up... I have 2 brocades and was pulling info from the wrong one so the temps didn't match oops.
 

Dave Corder

Active Member
Dec 21, 2015
291
184
43
41
I recently acquired another ICX6610-48P from eBay for dirt cheap. It was sold as being bricked ("It stopped booting fully after a firmware upgrade"), but that's fine with me - my primary reason for purchasing it was to swap the 40 GbE daughtercard into my existing, functional 6610 that has one defective 40 GbE port.

Just for grins, though (and before I go through all the effort of taking both of them apart), I pulled a PSU and fan tray from my working unit and stuck it in this one to see what state it's in.

It's stuck in a boot loop of some kind. The PSU fans rev up upon having AC applied, run for a couple seconds, rev down for a few seconds more, and then rev back up again. Repeat x inifinity.

On the console, this is what I get (over and over again). Hitting 'a' or 'b' as prompted looks like they work, but they do nothing to interrupt the boot looping - it just reboots again a few seconds later.

Code:
ICX Boot Code Version 10.1.00 (grz10100)
Enter 'a' to stop at memory test
Enter 'b' to stop at boot monitor
Boot(Mem-Test)>aaaaaaaaaaaaaaa$
ICX Boot Code Version 10.1.00 (grz10100)
Enter 'a' to stop at memory test
Enter 'b' to stop at boot monitor
Boot(Mem-Test)>bbbbbbb$
ICX Boot Code Version 10.1.00 (grz10100)
Enter 'a' to stop at memory test
Enter 'b' to stop at boot monitor
***** Interrupted by entering 'b' *****
.$
ICX Boot Code Version 10.1.00 (grz10100)
Enter 'a' to stop at memory test
Enter 'b' to stop at boot monitor
***** Interrupted by entering 'b' *****
.$
ICX Boot Code Version 10.1.00 (grz10100)
Enter 'a' to stop at memory test
Enter 'b' to stop at boot monitor
Any hope of recovering this short of JTAG?