Brocade MP8000 - 10Gbit switches

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Chuckleb

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Mar 5, 2013
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So a coworker found these and bought one for use with the Mellanox and Brocade 1020 cards. These guys work pretty well as 10Gbit switches and everything works as long as you use Brocade cables. He bought some Brocade copper and that works well. He'll be testing out some Fiberstore optics later when they come in, but if they're programmed as Brocade, they should work as well.

Brocade MP8000 | eBay

Sub $700 for a lot of ports.. 24 10G ports for sure. I think the 8 FC can also be used somehow. I don't remember how much he BO'd for.

I think this may be the best deal for "relatively-cheap" 10GbE.
 
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azev

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Jan 18, 2013
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wow nice find, i wonder what kind of cli this switch uses or everything configured on GUI ?
 

Chuckleb

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Ok, going through my chat logs... seems he got one for $490 BO. I think it's CLI only, I'll confirm with him. I don't think it was using that much power, probably in the 120W range. I doubt he'd run it at home if it were 306W. Also probably depends on traffic.

Good price to grab one though @Patrick ;) Could also move this to deals forum at that price. Either way, really interesting switch.
 
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TuxDude

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Sep 17, 2011
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I just read through all the specs listed in an e-bay listing from the link in the OP - it does look like a nice switch especially at that price. I haven't used any of Brocade's ethernet gear but I've use lots of their FC gear over the years and I've always been quite happy with it. From those specs (which could be wrong, e-bay is not the greatest source for accurate tech info) it supports both CLI management (SSH or serial console) as well as a basic web-based GUI - what Brocade calls WebTools is a java applet served from the switch over http that provides a GUI for management.

Also looking at the spec-sheet Patrick linked above, you can also use Brocade's Data Center Fabric Manager (DCFM) software to manage these switches. It comes in Pro, Pro Plus, or Enterprise versions, and Pro is free to download and use.
 

Chuckleb

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I guess I was wrong. It does use about 300W as measured from the UPS. That's with unused ports disabled as well. It has a JAVA UI. But on the other hand, it runs great! He hangs his head in shame since it uses more power than his servers...
 

Patrick

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@ItsChrisG since I imagine you colo a lot of your boxes, You are going to spend $20 more a mo just to power this thing.

I do really like the FC + 10GbE aspect though. Also, if you were planning to rip it out in a year, it might be worth it.
 

TuxDude

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I do really like the FC + 10GbE aspect though.
That part does make it interesting - that switch has everything you need to attach native FC storage arrays to servers with 10GbE CNA's with FCoE.

Makes me think you could do some rather odd all-in-one type configs with it. Pass through a FC HBA to a NAS VM along with its drives and have the VM be a FC target, then consume that storage using FCoE from the host(s).
 

firenity

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Jun 29, 2014
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We actually have these at work.
I had no idea they did 10GbE, as we only use them for FC.

Great find, the power consumption is a bummer though.
 
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ItsChrisG

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Feb 3, 2015
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Yeah, power consumption at 300W+ ended up being a killer for me, sux!
Would be nice to find another 24x 10G SFP+ switch for same price range but lower power usage!
 

bds1904

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Aug 30, 2013
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This switch makes me think a little. I currently run a brocade 200e for my fc switch at home and 2 quanta lb4m's. I could do 2 DAC's each to 5 servers for 10 total 10gb with brocade 1020's plus 4x 4gb FC connections round robin going to the 2 FCOE interface on each machine.

That would leave me with redundant network links and FC links along with a full 8Gb FC and 10Gb networks. Interesting.

Adding that I would eliminate my 200e and a lb4m it would likely add 100w to my setup. Doesn't really add any more than adding any other 10Gb switch with more than 2 interfaces.
 

Curdie

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Aug 12, 2015
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I purchased one of these along with some 1020Ns and some Brocade 57-0000075-01 transceivers. Works fine- except I can't connect my Cisco SG300 or Catalyst 2960 switches. The Cisco log reports:

Error %LINK-E-PortParamNotSupported: Port gi4 doesn't support auto negotiation: enable parameter, aggregated

The Brocade MP8000 doesn't seem to notice that anything has been connected at all.

Am I doing this wrong? Can I not connect a 10gb SFP+ to a 1gb SFP, or is this a Brocade thing? Any advice would be super welcome.
 

Patrick

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IIRC - Some switches have 1/10 gbit ports. Some will only run at 10. I may be wrong here.