Fiber Optic Switch recommendations

[drmike]

Looking at monkeying with fiber here.  Have a spool of fiber and tools for it.  We splice / run fiber in the field, but never have worked with fiber locally like I want to.


Want to convert at least partially from gigabit ethernet on LAN to faster fiber optic based switching.


Anyone out there there doing this in their environment?  Imagine it's common in video production shops these days - should be.


Interested in a switch recommendation.  Most switches are top of rack in nature with a bunch of copper ports then 1-4 uplink fiber ports.  Would like to find something with fiber mostly and no copper perhaps.  Say 8-48 fiber ports.


Most of the switches I find that fit the bill appear to be for storage devices and blah, exotic, expensive and complicated.


Anything come to mind?

 

[Jonathan]

Never used one myself, but you can get Dell S4810 switches for around $2k on eBay and they're loaded with SFP+ ports and even a few QSFP ports for 40GbE.

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Not too related to this, but I know my home router has two fiber ports, then eight Gbit ports.  

 

[drmike]

Not too related to this, but I know my home router has two fiber ports, then eight Gbit ports.  

Yeah the fiber ports on your switch are likely, as mine are, just Gbit.  They are intended for fiber to copper transceivers or such built in.


Issue with them is obviously throughput stinks.  Gbit copper vs. gbit fiber.  Meh, copper you have 8 Gbit, fiber 2, so a ratio of 4-to-1 and wrong direction in my opinion.  Exactly why those switches and my use are screwy and unsure how other big data pushers cope.  Cause plunking $2k+ down for a switch is damn hefty.  


I'd been fine with like a few Gbps on the fiber ports each, for now.  10Gbps would be great.  Can marry a PCI-X adapter on workstation to fiber and another workstation elsewhere on the same sort of connector and fiber.


Gig here is to move data now and lots when needed.  Tired of NAS and network stuff taking forever.  Sure I know need drive spindles to go with it. Reason why only needing few Gbps right now, but 10Gbps is super and future proofed for a while.  SSDs are what will be feeding things where I can place them.


Whole thing is just concept and meh, eventually I'll get it done... 

 

[Jonathan]

Yeah the fiber ports on your switch are likely, as mine are, just Gbit.  They are intended for fiber to copper transceivers or such built in.


Issue with them is obviously throughput stinks.  Gbit copper vs. gbit fiber.  Meh, copper you have 8 Gbit, fiber 2, so a ratio of 4-to-1 and wrong direction in my opinion.  Exactly why those switches and my use are screwy and unsure how other big data pushers cope.  Cause plunking $2k+ down for a switch is damn hefty.  


I'd been fine with like a few Gbps on the fiber ports each, for now.  10Gbps would be great.  Can marry a PCI-X adapter on workstation to fiber and another workstation elsewhere on the same sort of connector and fiber.


Gig here is to move data now and lots when needed.  Tired of NAS and network stuff taking forever.  Sure I know need drive spindles to go with it. Reason why only needing few Gbps right now, but 10Gbps is super and future proofed for a while.  SSDs are what will be feeding things where I can place them.


Whole thing is just concept and meh, eventually I'll get it done... 

$2k for a 48x SFP+ and 6x QSFP switch is cheap...

 

[drmike]

$2k for a 48x SFP+ and 6x QSFP switch is cheap...

Oh I agree it is... all relativity..  Yes, much cheaper than historical.


Just a hefty chunk to experiment with front side.  


Seeing the power consumption on these fiber switches is rather high.  Better chunk of a KW per hour...


Definitely need / niche for 8 ports with something like this...

 

[HalfEatenPie]

Yeah the fiber ports on your switch are likely, as mine are, just Gbit.  They are intended for fiber to copper transceivers or such built in.


Issue with them is obviously throughput stinks.  Gbit copper vs. gbit fiber.  Meh, copper you have 8 Gbit, fiber 2, so a ratio of 4-to-1 and wrong direction in my opinion.  Exactly why those switches and my use are screwy and unsure how other big data pushers cope.  Cause plunking $2k+ down for a switch is damn hefty.  


I'd been fine with like a few Gbps on the fiber ports each, for now.  10Gbps would be great.  Can marry a PCI-X adapter on workstation to fiber and another workstation elsewhere on the same sort of connector and fiber.


Gig here is to move data now and lots when needed.  Tired of NAS and network stuff taking forever.  Sure I know need drive spindles to go with it. Reason why only needing few Gbps right now, but 10Gbps is super and future proofed for a while.  SSDs are what will be feeding things where I can place them.


Whole thing is just concept and meh, eventually I'll get it done... 

as if I'd actually ever use a full gbit at home.


Unless I did some mad work, I don't see that ever happening. 

 

[GIANT_CRAB]

take a look at Cloud Router Switch, quite affordable:

• 10 SPF and 1SPF+ - http://routerboard.com/CRS212-1G-10S-1SplusIN
  
• 2 SPF+ and tons of gigabit http://routerboard.com/CRS226-24G-2SplusRM
  

Other than that, you might also wanna take a look at Cloud Core Routers, which are slightly more ex.  Play around with their search filters and see what fits your budget.

 

[drmike]

take a look at Cloud Router Switch, quite affordable:

• 10 SPF and 1SPF+ - http://routerboard.com/CRS212-1G-10S-1SplusIN
  
• 2 SPF+ and tons of gigabit http://routerboard.com/CRS226-24G-2SplusRM
  

Other than that, you might also wanna take a look at Cloud Core Routers, which are slightly more ex.  Play around with their search filters and see what fits your budget.

Those are neat.  I somehow missed the multiple SPF models.. 10 of them Tee hee... shame it's just 10 Gbit speed.


I already use Mikrotik (leisure user of their gear - need to get edumacated on the finer points of their gear ability).  Control stuff for their OS still feels other side of the brain to me'ish.  But I do like.


Off to look at Cloud Core Routers.

 

[DamienSB]

Look at cisco nexus 5k

 

[Jonathan]

Oh I agree it is... all relativity..  Yes, much cheaper than historical.


Just a hefty chunk to experiment with front side.  


Seeing the power consumption on these fiber switches is rather high.  Better chunk of a KW per hour...


Definitely need / niche for 8 ports with something like this...

If you think power for 10GbE Fiber (SFP+) is high, look at a 48-port RJ-45 10GbE switch and then you'll realize how little power SFP+ uses

 

[mitgib]

$2k for a 48x SFP+ and 6x QSFP switch is cheap...

Look at cisco nexus 5k

I did just this, found a 40 port used unit on fleabay for $800, it runs my storage network for Ceph, then you can usually find HP Dual (Melenox) 10GbE PCIe cards for ~$50-75 and transceivers for ~$20-30 (service unsupported-transceiver to use non-cisco branded) and patch cables for $2-3

 

[drmike]

I did just this, found a 40 port used unit on fleabay for $800, it runs my storage network for Ceph, then you can usually find HP Dual (Melenox) 10GbE PCIe cards for ~$50-75 and transceivers for ~$20-30 (service unsupported-transceiver to use non-cisco branded) and patch cables for $2-3

You are the man!  That's the type of prices that make things doable

 

[DamienSB]

I also strongly recommend that you use fiberstore for any fiber /  SFP purchase. They have a great sales team, specifically i talk and deal with "coco". 


http://www.fs.com/