Building a Chelsio Switch using FreeBSD with Open vSwitch.

[frankharv]

Is anyone running Open vSwitch on FreeBSD? I see a package for it. Is there any port option which make that move desirable?
I tried Vale and did not like the experience.

I have Chelsio hardware and just bought a T580 to try 40GB networking.
My thought is 40GB for uplink ports and a bunch of T540 for client machines.

Thoughts?

 

[frankharv]

I researched Open vSwitch and it seems focused on providing for VM's.

What I want is a general switch OS. Not pfSense or OPNSense but maybe something more like Sonic or Onie.

I got excited when I found Chelsio has a mode called eSwitch but I can't get it working on FreeBSD.

My though was all these Chelsio have ASIC why can't they be a switch.

I see people talking about OpenWRT for a switch OS but Chelsio is not well supported there.

I kind of gave up and bought a N3K Cisco with 32 ports 40Gbe. It was cheaper than anything I can build.
Powered by an i3 Intel chip? That was surprising.

 

[frankharv]

Cisco N3K-3132Q-E was the charm. Quiet and 1U. No need for any switch OS. Just use proper tool. A proper 40G switch.
I saw alot of noise complaints and I don't see the problem. PWM fans and they are not loud.

Problem Solved?

No GUI is a tad challenging not knowing the command structure.
It does seem familiar to other Cisco offerings I own.

I was concerned N3K was bottom of the nexus line (N5K,N9K) but its better than anything I could build.

 

[NablaSquaredG]

Also: 170W IDLE Power

 

[frankharv]

I have Killawatt showing 85W/.7A idle with 4 connections and no loads on the N3K-C3132Q-E running single PS.
That was a nice surprise.

My VEP-4600 was also showing about the same.