Guys, it's been two years since I joined.
While I didn't spend much time here a lot of info you post here was proven to be very useful.
It's a pleasure to be here. I learned a lot. Like, a whole lot. Rewind 2 years ago and I didn't know what a rack unit means. I didn't know how switches hang in there. Not only I have a homelab now, I'm rapidly expanding that, and have a whole damn zoo of all sorts of things that I use and learn now. I knew nothing about fiber networks 2 years ago, now I feel like I can fill in some gaps in this field for a newcomer like I was back then.
Because both of these things are NOT obvious for someone who never saw or dealt with racks and fibers. It's NOT that obvious that fiber is just a physical thing, layer 1, and what the heck FC is and what's IB and that they're different from Ethernet. In fact, I didn't entirely realize what Ethernet is, and was generally referring to twisted pair as eth. I didn't know a lot of things and it takes some time to RAPIDLY take off from that place I was 2 years ago and land where I am today, knowing if not everything but a lot of things about how things work and how they work together. There should be some manual for fiber networks and how it relates to SAN and eth. From zero to hero in 30 minutes. Maybe I'll make a video on that someday. This info isn't available anywhere in a super-compressed form. And stuff like FC isn't even properly explained anywhere in video material. SAN, for example is a huge mistery for all newcomers, and seems to be hugely paywalled, while it shouldn't really be. It's just another protocol(s). Someone has to fix that.
Personally it took me a long time at first to figure out that FC is just another protocol, not one and only fiber-specific protocol out there(in fact, an old proto that is rapidly being phased out in new and old deployments to dramatically cut down on costs, no FC switches, modules and HBAs needed). How the heck would I know that if I just wanted to experiment with fiber networking? It just seemed like fun so I went for it.
I wish I just had a mentour back then, to just dive into all this and learn very quickly. But that's time. Most mentours like that won't have it. I don't have it too. That explains a lot. This forum is also a mentour, in many faces, helping everyone to learn little by little. There was a big push in the fiber area with recent Patrick's office move and transition to fiber. With all the MPO magic. A lot of new articles appeared. It's a great thing.
Networking is a huge, huge topic. And in that, I'm still in the very beginning of my path. But I have a vision.
Thank you again, stay awesome!
While I didn't spend much time here a lot of info you post here was proven to be very useful.
It's a pleasure to be here. I learned a lot. Like, a whole lot. Rewind 2 years ago and I didn't know what a rack unit means. I didn't know how switches hang in there. Not only I have a homelab now, I'm rapidly expanding that, and have a whole damn zoo of all sorts of things that I use and learn now. I knew nothing about fiber networks 2 years ago, now I feel like I can fill in some gaps in this field for a newcomer like I was back then.
Because both of these things are NOT obvious for someone who never saw or dealt with racks and fibers. It's NOT that obvious that fiber is just a physical thing, layer 1, and what the heck FC is and what's IB and that they're different from Ethernet. In fact, I didn't entirely realize what Ethernet is, and was generally referring to twisted pair as eth. I didn't know a lot of things and it takes some time to RAPIDLY take off from that place I was 2 years ago and land where I am today, knowing if not everything but a lot of things about how things work and how they work together. There should be some manual for fiber networks and how it relates to SAN and eth. From zero to hero in 30 minutes. Maybe I'll make a video on that someday. This info isn't available anywhere in a super-compressed form. And stuff like FC isn't even properly explained anywhere in video material. SAN, for example is a huge mistery for all newcomers, and seems to be hugely paywalled, while it shouldn't really be. It's just another protocol(s). Someone has to fix that.
Personally it took me a long time at first to figure out that FC is just another protocol, not one and only fiber-specific protocol out there(in fact, an old proto that is rapidly being phased out in new and old deployments to dramatically cut down on costs, no FC switches, modules and HBAs needed). How the heck would I know that if I just wanted to experiment with fiber networking? It just seemed like fun so I went for it.
I wish I just had a mentour back then, to just dive into all this and learn very quickly. But that's time. Most mentours like that won't have it. I don't have it too. That explains a lot. This forum is also a mentour, in many faces, helping everyone to learn little by little. There was a big push in the fiber area with recent Patrick's office move and transition to fiber. With all the MPO magic. A lot of new articles appeared. It's a great thing.
Networking is a huge, huge topic. And in that, I'm still in the very beginning of my path. But I have a vision.
Thank you again, stay awesome!
