Suggestion for cheap ToR switch 25GbE with some 100GbE ports

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sovking

Member
Jun 2, 2011
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Hi guys,
until now I considered DELL S5212F and S224F, as ToR switch 25 GbE with some 100 GbE.
I could like also to consider different alternatives: have you any suggestion ?
 

Rand__

Well-Known Member
Mar 6, 2014
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Mellanox SN2410's?

Or go full 100G and run breakout cables as needed...
 

Scott Laird

Active Member
Aug 30, 2014
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I have an Edge-Core AS7326-56X running SONiC. The hardware is quite nice, but SONiC is such a moving target that it's hard to really recommend it at the moment. It's probably fine if you're doing "traditional" datacenter things like a BGP-based spine-and-leaf setup, but weird stuff like VLANS with STP doesn't actually work (although it should soonish).

Also, I can't get it to talk to CX4 or CX5 cards at 100 Gbps right now. I mostly blame Mellanox's weird VPI autodetect thing. I'm waiting for fs.com to send me more DAC cables before I really try debugging.
 

AndreiL

New Member
Jun 30, 2019
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It's hard to call anything in 25/100GbE cheap as this is the current generation hardware in many data centers, 200/400GbE being state of art.

Mellanox SN2700 is 25/100GbE (all ports) and seems to be "cheaper" than SN2410 on flea-bay, but still 3-5K.
 
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Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Cant remember exactly but the 51xx series had some serious negative to it, I think when I was looking I skipped those in favour of the aforementioned 52xx series
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Maybe compare them, negative to me must not be applicable to you after all :)
 

Scott Laird

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Aug 30, 2014
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Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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What cable are you using? I think some of mine didnt work either (but worked fine on the S6100), some I got were broken and some were fine (both MLX IB and ETH cables iirc)
 

Scott Laird

Active Member
Aug 30, 2014
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I have a couple generic fs.com 100G 2m DAC cables as well as a couple I picked up elsewhere. I haven't done a whole lot of testing or experimentation yet; last night was the first time I actually tried to get 100G working. I'm able to get a link between pairs of ports on the switch with one of the cables, but I haven't tested the others. So there's still a lot of room for random errors and bad hardware.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Ah alright, then good luck.
Hope you don't have to go down my rabbit hole :p Finding the FEC issue was a very long and quite expensive process;)
 

Scott Laird

Active Member
Aug 30, 2014
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Heh. I *almost* ordered a set of 100G-SR optics and a short MTP trunk fiber yesterday, but sanity prevailed. Even if those worked, it wouldn't really be useful long-term. It's not like I'm going to pay an extra $250/link above the cost of 100G NICs and switches.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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lol
yeah, been there done that. although paid significantly less for mine thankfully. but all in all... better not think about it.
 

Scott Laird

Active Member
Aug 30, 2014
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How did you configure FEC? Is the command above right? Do you need to re-plug cables or anything?

I'm still not getting anything connected, with 2 different cables on 2 ports and an assortment of settings on both ends.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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I never noted the command so it must have been simple.
I'll try to seach old debug files in the morning