[AusNOG] 10GbE Switching Options (Results)

[Alex Huntington]

Hi Everyone,

Thanks heaps for your off-list replies!

General consensus is 3rd party SFPs are the way to go, lots of people reporting using then in Cisco and Brocade switches without issue. Vendors SFPs at $1,500 as someone so eloquently put it you are simply paying for someone's beach house.

No feedback on the Dell Force10 platform, aside from that aren't in the same league as the Brocade/Cisco which I tend to agree with however the spec sheets are very similar.

Recommended SFPs

-          AFL +1

-          Curvature +1

-          SmartOptics +2

-          FS.com +3

-          FlexOptics +3

-          Fibrestore.com +1


Recommended Switches

-          Brocade VDX +3

-          Cisco +2

-          Huawei +1

-          Melanox +1

-          Dell +0

Thanks

-          Daniel

-          Brett

-          Chris

-          Sam

-          Nishal

-          Meat Bag

-          Robert

-          Anthony

-          Patrick

-          Jorge

-          James

Sorry if I missed anyone, and again thanks AusNog. Have a great weekend!

Cheers,

Alex

From: Alex Huntington
Sent: Friday, 1 July 2016 10:12 AM
To: 'ausnog at lists.ausnog.net' <ausnog at lists.ausnog.net>
Subject: 10GbE Switching Options

Hi Guys!

Thought I'd throw out a few questions and a request for some feedback around some datacenter switching we are looking at. Currently each server has 6 10GbE NICs of which two are dedicated iSCSI that will run through this fabric.

The current requirement is to replace our 1000BaseT switching with 10GbE but the cost of SFP+ modules is an issue and currently twinax has been rules out due do cable management issues (don't ask :/).
It would be nice to also standardise for our core also so routing is a "nice to have" but not a requirement.

If we could get some decent or support 3rd party SFP+ modules for a good price it would make the Cisco/Brocade options much more attractive but never used the Startech or Netgear SFPs before & I'd like to avoid the vendor finger pointing games.

We are looking at the following

Dell S4048-ON
Pros:

-          Cheap $60 SFP+

-          Cheapest switch cost by 20-30%

-          All in one (no port or IP/routing licences required)
Cons:

-          Different CLI in FTOS, another thing to learn/manage

Brocade VDX 6490
Pros:

-          ISCLI

-          Vendor reputation
Cons

-          SFP+ price $300+

-          Cost of additional port licences  e.g. 24-48 port on demand

Cisco Nexus 3000/9000
Pros:

-          Community support & KB/documentation

-          Vendor reputation

-          Standardise vendor with all other network gear
Cons:

-          SFP+ $1500+

-          IP Lite licence costs

I'd love to hear your thoughts or experience, as I'm sure I've missed a few things!

Cheeeeeers,

Alex
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