Hi everyone!
I am aware that this may be a controversial topic that has been discussed before, but some of the existing threads include arguments probably not of relevance any more (e.g., power consumption of first generation NICs) or do not apply in my specific scenario (e.g., no plans to change to 10Gbit/s switching). So here goes:
We have a NAS (Synology DS1821+) which is used for central data storage via 1Gbit/s LAN to a multitude of users - there is no intent to change this. However, one of our servers needs access to a lot of data being stored on this server, which is why we thought to upgrade to 10Gbit for this single connection (going up to 25Gbit does not seem warranted since we use SATA drives in the NAS). The distance between server and NAS are just a few meters, so we would not need the benefits fiber provides in this area. Costs should be kept as low as reasonable.
- Would you suggest copper or fiber in this context?
- We initially planned to use Mellanox ConnectX-4 on the server, but even off-brand copper SFP+ modules are way more expensive than I thought - on the contrary, the fiber version of synology's NICs are more expensive
- We could also purchase a 10Gbit NIC for the server with RJ45: Do you recommend an Intel version? I have heard that Intel is leaving the networking market (but that may have been just for switches), so I am a little worried about long-term support. There are also versions of Intel NICs from different manufacturers (HP, DELL, etc.)...are these 100% compatible in any server (running Windows Server 2022) or just in servers of that manufacturer?
Just let me know what you think .
I am aware that this may be a controversial topic that has been discussed before, but some of the existing threads include arguments probably not of relevance any more (e.g., power consumption of first generation NICs) or do not apply in my specific scenario (e.g., no plans to change to 10Gbit/s switching). So here goes:
We have a NAS (Synology DS1821+) which is used for central data storage via 1Gbit/s LAN to a multitude of users - there is no intent to change this. However, one of our servers needs access to a lot of data being stored on this server, which is why we thought to upgrade to 10Gbit for this single connection (going up to 25Gbit does not seem warranted since we use SATA drives in the NAS). The distance between server and NAS are just a few meters, so we would not need the benefits fiber provides in this area. Costs should be kept as low as reasonable.
- Would you suggest copper or fiber in this context?
- We initially planned to use Mellanox ConnectX-4 on the server, but even off-brand copper SFP+ modules are way more expensive than I thought - on the contrary, the fiber version of synology's NICs are more expensive
- We could also purchase a 10Gbit NIC for the server with RJ45: Do you recommend an Intel version? I have heard that Intel is leaving the networking market (but that may have been just for switches), so I am a little worried about long-term support. There are also versions of Intel NICs from different manufacturers (HP, DELL, etc.)...are these 100% compatible in any server (running Windows Server 2022) or just in servers of that manufacturer?
Just let me know what you think .