Stupid question regarding SFP+

[urobe]

Hey there,

I'm currently gathering my hardware for my first FreeNAS device.

As our new switch (Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch ES-48-500W https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgeswitch/ ) has two SFP+ ports, I'd like to use one for FreeNAS (if possible).

I found this reasonably priced card on ebay:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/152549193675 from what I read, the T3 should work fine?

My second question is, what would I need to connect the switch and the drive? I never connected a SFP+ device before.
I guess I need two transceivers and a cable? But I have no idea which ones.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

 

[Dice]

hello,
These will probably be useful to read:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/jumbo-frames-notes.44/

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/10-gig-networking-primer.42/

 

[Spearfoot]

Hey there,

I'm currently gathering my hardware for my first FreeNAS device.

As our new switch (Ubiquiti EdgeSwitch ES-48-500W https://www.ubnt.com/edgemax/edgeswitch/ ) has two SFP+ ports, I'd like to use one for FreeNAS (if possible).

I found this reasonably priced card on ebay:

http://www.ebay.de/itm/152549193675 from what I read, the T3 should work fine?

My second question is, what would I need to connect the switch and the drive? I never connected a SFP+ device before.
I guess I need two transceivers and a cable? But I have no idea which ones.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

If your FreeNAS server and 10G switch are located within 10m of each other, you can use a TwinAx 'Direct Attach Copper' cable, like these:

http://www.fs.com/c/generic-10g-sfp-dac-1115

fs.com is a great company to work with: they built me custom cables -- with transceivers matched to my equipment -- at no additional charge.

In my experience, their 'Generic' TwinAx DA cable (I bought one as a spare) worked just fine between my Dell 5524P switch and my FreeNAS servers w/ Intel X520-DA1 NICs. (See my "Will this gear do 10 gigabits?" thread for details.)

My Dell 5524P switch is PoE-enabled and this hasn't caused any problems whatsoever. I did, however, change the fans in the power supply to quiet the beast: PoE switches have larger power supplies with proportionally louder fans.

Good luck!

 

[urobe]

hello,
These will probably be useful to read:
https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/jumbo-frames-notes.44/

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?resources/10-gig-networking-primer.42/

Thanks for the links. I have actaully seen them before. I read thorugh them, but I couldn't really find my questions being answered. Did I miss something?
I'm not planing to trying to get jumbo frames to work. I was under the impression, that I wouldn't need that. Am I wrong?

If your FreeNAS server and 10G switch are located within 10m of each other, you can use a TwinAx 'Direct Attach Copper' cable, like these:

http://www.fs.com/c/generic-10g-sfp-dac-1115

fs.com is a great company to work with: they built me custom cables -- with transceivers matched to my equipment -- at no additional charge.

In my experience, their 'Generic' TwinAx DA cable (I bought one as a spare) worked just fine between my Dell 5524P switch and my FreeNAS servers w/ Intel X520-DA1 NICs. (See my "Will this gear do 10 gigabits?" thread for details.)

My Dell 5524P switch is PoE-enabled and this hasn't caused any problems whatsoever. I did, however, change the fans in the power supply to quiet the beast: PoE switches have larger power supplies with proportionally louder fans.

Good luck!

Switch and NAS will be in the same rack.

Thank you very much for the link! I'm actually in the US soon, so I might have the cable beeing shipped to a friend.

Is the card okay? All I found was a recomendation of T3, T4, T5 cards. I guess the T320 is a T3 card?

 

[Spearfoot]

Switch and NAS will be in the same rack.

Thank you very much for the link! I'm actually in the US soon, so I might have the cable beeing shipped to a friend.

Is the card okay? All I found was a recomendation of T3, T4, T5 cards. I guess the T320 is a T3 card?

You're welcome!

You don't have to come to the US to purchase from fs.com; I'm pretty sure they operate in the EU.

Sorry, I don't have any advice RE: the Chelsio cards as I don't have any experience with them.

 

[Stryf]

I would read through the 10G primer for opinions as they are mixed on the T3 (aka 320 models) . I know the T4 and T5 models are good but the T3 may have PCI express limitations like being on revision 1 instead of 2 for some of its lineup. Need a fact checker on that. I have the Intel x520 single and dual port cards.

The fs.com is a really good site to go to for hardware parts. The DAC cables are good if you're just getting into 10gb networking and are also cheaper. DAC(s) can only be used for really short runs though. The fiber modules and cable have lower latency and power requirements.

If you decide to do fiber rather than a DAC then try the below.

Fiber cable: Look for the OM3 LC-LC Multimode fiber cables. They should have two prongs on the end for bidirectional transfers.
http://www.fs.com/c/om3-10gb-50-125...rmationToken=731eea57f8da458647902b5ee41e599f

Modules: Maybe try the Ubiquiti $16 SR (short range) modules. http://www.fs.com/c/10g-sfp-plus-63...rmationToken=731eea57f8da458647902b5ee41e599f

 

[Spearfoot]

@urobe : I know that the Chelsio cards are recommended by iXsystems; also I realize that you live in Germany and may not have access to good used 10G NICs on eBay... but nevertheless it might serve you well to investigate the Intel x520 series cards. I've had good luck with the X520-DA1 model in two of my FreeNAS All-In-One systems. I purchased them at a reasonable price from this seller:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Intel-X520-...660312?hash=item1ec88c5a98:g:vBoAAOSwjXRXasaN

Perhaps you could arrange to have them shipped to your friend in the USA? Just a thought...

 

[danb35]

I used a Chelsio S310E for a while, and it worked fine. It's my understanding that bandwidth is limited to around 6 Gbps due to PCI Express issues, though. It's also my understanding that the T4 cards use less power and perform better; I'm using one of them now.