IBM Switches

[8uhbbhu8]

I am Considering getting a Fiber switch for my personal network... Main Pc, Server and my other Pc on the other side of the house as a start. Anyone know anything about the IBM 2109-F16 TotalStorage 16 port 4B Fiber switch, or the IBM Totalstorage 2005-16B in terms of how friendly the ios is and if either have a need for proprietary IBM 4GB fiber nics to connect properly to said PCs or other switches with a fiber interface? I come from using cisco equipment and a little bit of HPs Procurve switch ios if that helps.

[Gaub]

2 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

I am Considering getting a Fiber switch for my personal network... Main Pc, Server and my other Pc on the other side of the house as a start. Anyone know anything about the IBM 2109-F16 TotalStorage 16 port 4B Fiber switch, or the IBM Totalstorage 2005-16B in terms of how friendly the ios is and if either have a need for proprietary IBM 4GB fiber nics to connect properly to said PCs or other switches with a fiber interface? I come from using cisco equipment and a little bit of HPs Procurve switch ios if that helps.

This is a SAN switch meant to be used with fibre channel adapters and provide NFS/iSCSI like storage to servers through a dedicated storage network. it's not meant to form a LAN like an Ethernet switch (which could also use fiber connections). Are you certain that's what you really want?

[8uhbbhu8]

12 hours ago, Gaub said:

This is a SAN switch meant to be used with fibre channel adapters and provide NFS/iSCSI like storage to servers through a dedicated storage network. it's not meant to form a LAN like an Ethernet switch (which could also use fiber connections). Are you certain that's what you really want?

I already saturate my 1GB ports on my current switch very often and upgrading to 4 or 8GB fiber will be a huge boost to transfer speeds between my equipment. As long as I can add ip addresses to the nics, and drivers for said nics that work in windows 7 and server 2012 R2. As 10GB is currently very expensive, infiniband is just plain janky and unreliable to get working with anything but proprietary equipment and networks, and 1GB isn't enough for me, 4GB or 8GB fiber is the best and seemingly only option right now. I don't necessarily need so many ports on the switches but at the current prices i'm finding them its a pretty good deal compared to new hardware.

[Gaub]

46 minutes ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

 already saturate my 1GB ports on my current switch very often and upgrading to 4 or 8GB fiber will be a huge boost to transfer speeds between my equipment. As long as I can add ip addresses to the nics, and drivers for said nics that work in windows 7 and server 2012 R2. As 10GB is currently very expensive, infiniband is just plain janky and unreliable to get working with anything but proprietary equipment and networks, and 1GB isn't enough for me, 4GB or 8GB fiber is the best and seemingly only option right now. I don't necessarily need so many ports on the switches but at the current prices i'm finding them its a pretty good deal compared to new hardware.

That's fine but you just have to understand that this hardware is not meant to connect things together in a LAN. It is for storage only. That means only for connecting PC's to a "NAS" in a dedicated network that runs parallel to a LAN

[Lurick]

@Gaub is correct and to add onto that FC switches communicated over the Fibre Channel protocol which is not the same as IP.

[Guest]

Have you looked into the total costs of doing this?

 

• Switch
• SFP modules
• Fibre cable
• FC cards
  • Driver support for said cards

[8uhbbhu8]

On 2/22/2017 at 3:31 PM, Lurick said:

@Gaub is correct and to add onto that FC switches communicated over the Fibre Channel protocol which is not the same as IP.

That is one issue I have. I'm not sure if these (or similar switches like ones from Qlogic) support FC/IP or iFCP in a way I could relatively easily learn and implement it ( I currently know very little about how to implement it properly)

 

On 2/22/2017 at 10:24 PM, Windspeed36 said:

Have you looked into the total costs of doing this?

 

• Switch
• SFP modules
• Fibre cable
• FC cards
  • Driver support for said cards

So far I can get the switch for anywhere between $20 and $90CAD, FC cards with SPF modules for between $20 and $40CAD each depending on how many ports I want, and the cables i currently need for about $60CAD total.

 

So right now total cost would estimated be about $250-$300 CAD depending on how our dollar is doing. Far less then a 10GB switch and the modules for it.

 

 

I did look into a 1GB switch with Link aggregation but with the large single file transfers I do It won't do much as it only really helps when transferring multiple large files at the same time.

 

                                                        ----------------------------------------------------------

 

Currently I easily max out the theoretical throughput of 116/123MB/s  of a 1GB interface so thats the whole reasonfor me to upgrade. I just don't want to spend hundreds or thousands (which I really can't afford) on a single piece of super expensive hardware mostly unnecessary (at this point) when I can get the whole used setup for way less.

[8uhbbhu8]

Alternatively If you can point me in the direction of some cheap 10GB cards and a 2-3 port 10GB ethernet switch...  Don't think there's such a thing but doesn't hurt to ask! 

[leadeater]

5 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Alternatively If you can point me in the direction of some cheap 10GB cards and a 2-3 port 10GB ethernet switch...  Don't think there's such a thing but doesn't hurt to ask! 

If all the equipment is close to each other, 15m, you could just full mesh them using something like Mellanox ConnectX-2/3 cards. That's as low cost as you'll get but scalability is terrible lol.

 

As everyone else has said Fibre Channel is Fibre Channel and Ethernet is Ethernet, they are totally different. FC isn't for transferring files between computers like Ethernet/IP is used for so if that is what you are looking for look elsewhere.

[SimssmiS]

There is a series about 10Gb/s Network over on youtube by iTechStorm. Hes building a custom 10Gb/s switch maybe that helps you or is just plain interesting.

(cant post the link here you will find it i´m sure)

[8uhbbhu8]

14 hours ago, SimssmiS said:

There is a series about 10Gb/s Network over on youtube by iTechStorm. Hes building a custom 10Gb/s switch maybe that helps you or is just plain interesting.

(cant post the link here you will find it i´m sure)

Just watched it! And I think i'm sold (also super cool!!)  Considering I don't need DHCP right now for my private network I think it would work perfect for my use case for the next while. Now if I could get my old lga 771 dual xeon to work.... I could use that as a base with its2 gb network ports, 2 pcie x4 and 2 x16 slots (also has 2 pci slots but i won't need those)  hmmmm...

[SimssmiS]

6 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Just watched it! And I think i'm sold (also super cool!!)  Considering I don't need DHCP right now for my private network I think it would work perfect for my use case for the next while. Now if I could get my old lga 771 dual xeon to work.... I could use that as a base with its2 gb network ports, 2 pcie x4 and 2 x16 slots (also has 2 pci slots but i won't need those)  hmmmm...

good to hear i helped  i´m going to try 10Gb/s my self but only peer to peer for now

[Erkel]

Ubiquiti has some 10Gb switches that are reasonably cheap,  Both SFP and RJ45 inputs.

Ok for a home network, but not really enterprise grade https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgeswitch-16-xg/  

Have one at work, but pulling it out tomorrow as swapping in a HP procurve 10Gb IRF cluster.

 

[8uhbbhu8]

9 hours ago, Erkel said:

Ubiquiti has some 10Gb switches that are reasonably cheap,  Both SFP and RJ45 inputs.

Ok for a home network, but not really enterprise grade https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgeswitch-16-xg/  

Have one at work, but pulling it out tomorrow as swapping in a HP procurve 10Gb IRF cluster.

 

My question though is what is affordable/cheap in this case

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

My question though is what is affordable/cheap in this case

About $600 excluding cables/SFP+ modules.

[8uhbbhu8]

17 minutes ago, leadeater said:

About $600 excluding cables/SFP+ modules.

OUCH!!!!!

[Erkel]

Linus did a review of a Asus switch with 2 x 10Gb ports on it .   around $250.