Looking for a recommendation 10G and QSFP+ Uplink

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Jeff Hodges

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May 4, 2015
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So I'm speccing out an IT upgrade for the company I work at. We're a film production and we're thinking about making the move to 10G and part of that is figuring out kind of switch will actually work.

One of the things I've been hammering home is that the connection from the Storage system to the client network actually has to be a wide enough to support the speeds you want to deliver to the clients.

If we were to get an 8-port 10G switch and plug in 4x clients but only one uplink, then we'd only be feeding in 10g of storage bandwidth that's then divided between the 4x clients. So in order to provide 4x 10G connections to my clients I would have to run 4x 10G LACP/LAG into to the switch from the storage system.

The better solution here is running QSFP+/40GbE from the storage to switch serving clients as uplink.

I'm having trouble finding a switch that does that other than Gnodal or Quantum. Is there something at a semi-reasonable price that would have say 2x QSFP+ uplink ports and 16x 10GbE ports?

Thanks!
 
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Blinky 42

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Aug 6, 2015
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How many downstream ports do you have to support, and what sort of budget do you have to play with?
Do you already have 10G ports in the client nodes or looking to buy that as well?
Do you need to stick with new hardware that has support/warranty or game to go for used and save significant $

And if you are starting from scratch, is 10G enough, or do you want to start with 40G or 25G?
 

NSKA

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Nov 17, 2015
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If your loking for a few 10 a few 40 and alot of 1 I've got an EX4300 I am trying to sell on the cheap
 

i386

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Mar 18, 2016
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There are a bunch of options, the question is what's "semi-reasonable price" to you? Can it be used hardware or does it have to be new?
 

MiniKnight

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Mar 30, 2012
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There are a bunch of options, the question is what's "semi-reasonable price" to you? Can it be used hardware or does it have to be new?
This.

I'd think about cabling and optics requirements too. There's switch price, then there's getting everything connected to a switch. Neither are the same switch to switch.
 

Jeff Hodges

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May 4, 2015
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How many downstream ports do you have to support, and what sort of budget do you have to play with?
Do you already have 10G ports in the client nodes or looking to buy that as well?
Do you need to stick with new hardware that has support/warranty or game to go for used and save significant $

And if you are starting from scratch, is 10G enough, or do you want to start with 40G or 25G?
I have to support probably 8 clients at 10G speeds. If I can connect my storage system with 2x QSFP+ to the "top of rack switch" and then provide each of my clients 10G speeds then I'll be in good shape.

I'm open to used, we'll have to see if my company is too.
 

Jeff Hodges

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May 4, 2015
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This.

I'd think about cabling and optics requirements too. There's switch price, then there's getting everything connected to a switch. Neither are the same switch to switch.
At the moment all of our clients have to be connected on 10GbE over RJ-45 rather than SFP+... This is something that's obviously pretty dumb but it was before I started working here and all the cabling is already done.
 

Matt Lund

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Oct 20, 2016
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Thread necro. I'd like to be able to interconnect several servers at 10 gig rates (I don't need 40 but it wouldn't hurt I guess) with SFP+ but I've got one that can only do copper 10 gig (a Xeon D). Any recommendations on a switch with 4 or more SFP+ and 1 or more RJ45 10 gig ports for under $1k? Reasonable noise and power are also considerations.
 

Jerry Renwick

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Aug 7, 2014
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Semi reasonable price? How much exactly? Cisco 3850 and Dell S5000 series are the nice choice for you, but might beyond your budget. Or you can use the FS S9000-48S6Q with 48*10GbE+6*40GbE ports.
And if you have to connect on 10Gb over RJ45, then you can use QSFP+ to SFP+ DAC cables for TOR switching, or you can buy the mellanox qsa adapter modules for 10G to 40G connection.
 
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Evan

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Jan 6, 2016
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Thread necro. I'd like to be able to interconnect several servers at 10 gig rates (I don't need 40 but it wouldn't hurt I guess) with SFP+ but I've got one that can only do copper 10 gig (a Xeon D). Any recommendations on a switch with 4 or more SFP+ and 1 or more RJ45 10 gig ports for under $1k? Reasonable noise and power are also considerations.
Logical option would be the UBNT 16xg if it did not have so many issues with the ports and comparability, outside of that there is little with 4X sfp+, a few that meet your needs have exactly 4 x sfp+
Ubiquiti Networks - EdgeSwitch™ 16 XG

Actually I the best options would be small nexus switche or other Cisco/HP etc if you want enterprise class but noise, cost, power considerations...
 
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