10Gb ethernet options
Gary Heston
and server attachment (there are concerns that we are saturating the
existing 1Gb network with large data transfers). So, I've been trying to
locate reasonably priced 10Gb hardware...except there doesn't seem to be
any.
The best I've been able to locate is a 24-port (all 10Gb copper) for
about $7700. There don't seem to be many simple 10Gb server adapters,
but plenty of "converged" adapters which combine FCoE with normal
ethernet traffic (and higher cost).
I may need to connect some (perhaps 10) workstations, probably with the
same expensive adapters, although most I've found require SFP+ modules
instead of having native copper ports (thereby raising the price even
more). As all runs are well under 50m, fiber should not be necessary, so
I can reuse the existing Cat5e.
Anyone have any recommendations for reasonably priced hardware?
My searches for 10Gb infrastructure information haven't been real
successful, either; anyone know where I can find a primer on this
(apparently) finicky hardware?
Thanks,
Gary
Chris Adams
Once upon a time, Gary Heston <ghe...@hiwaay.net> said:
>I may need to connect some (perhaps 10) workstations, probably with the
>same expensive adapters, although most I've found require SFP+ modules
>instead of having native copper ports (thereby raising the price even
>more). As all runs are well under 50m, fiber should not be necessary, so
>I can reuse the existing Cat5e.
Cat5E is not sufficient for 10GBase-T. You have to go to at least Cat6
(for up to 55m in isolated condistions, or only 37m when in cable
bundles) or Cat6A. If latency is an issue, 10GBase-T also has slightly
higher latency than the various fiber standards. If you really need
10gig to the desktop, you'll need to run new cabling (and pre-made fiber
cables are probably going to be the most cost-effective; crimping and
punching Cat6A is much more complicated than Cat5E).
As for NICs, I know there are Intel 10gig NICs (not targeted for fiber
channel, just plain ethernet). For example:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16833106043
That one has an RJ-45 port, which should work for a server next to the
switch (with a pre-made Cat6/Cat6A patch cable). You might want to get
SFP+ cards for a more "future proof" setup though.
A cheaper upgrade path if you just have a few devices filling your
current 1gig network would be link aggregation. Most managed switches
support it (although you'll need to check how they share the traffic
across links; some cheaper switches will always switch traffic between a
given pair of nodes across the same link, giving you only 1gig between
nodes). I know Linux supports link aggregation (called bonding there),
but I haven't used it much.
That could also give you an interim solution that would help you better
figure out which nodes really need 10gig. If you have a traffic
monitoring system (collecting SNMP counter data), make sure you are not
just monitoring traffic in/out; you should also monitor drops (which
unfortunately isn't standard across vendors). You could be passing
999Mbps and getting 0 drops, which would be fine, but you could also
only be showing 500Mbps on a 5 minute average and be getting lots of
short-term bursts, leading to lots of drops.
--
Chris Adams <cma...@hiwaay.net>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.
nik Simpson
The pricing is probably a reflection of where the 10 GbE market is at
the moment. I wouldn't expect it come anywhere close to parity with 1
GbE until 10 GbE interfaces are integrated on server motherboards (as
opposed to installing a separate NIC), which is just starting to happen
and will be pretty much universal (at least as an option on most
servers) by 2012. Once that happens I would expect to see a lot
reasonably priced solutions.
--
Nik Simpson