10gbe switch?

katie279

katie279

katie279

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Hi all,

Ok, I've got several PCs with 10gbe network ports and then I've just set up my new QNAP TVS-h874, which as well as being an absolute monster, has 4 x 10GBe connections on it (with expansion card).

So my question is what's the best way to network PCs onto this? I could just run dedicated CAT6 cables from each PC and then the PCs also have secondary network cables to connect to broader network, but I suspect it's time to drop in an intermediary switch that can deal with 10gbe?

If so, any recommendations on best models/brands for this at the moment? I'll certainly be giving it an absolute battering as I tend to transfer large files/photos/videos/AI models etc constantly between the NAS and PCs....!
 
If you want to go cheap but decent performance there is always the OEM switches from YuanLey/Nicgiga etc. But since i guess you're using this for work you may want a more reputable brand.
 
Besides what @ChrisD. has asked about, I think it'll also depend on how many 10g network connections you have on hand from the computers that want to connect to the NAS, as that'll determine what the minimum amount of ports on the switch you want as well.

If the network is using RJ45 ethernet, and fan noise is a considertaion, you might want to look at something like the TP-Link SX105, or the Trendnet TEG-S750 for a five port 10g switch, both of which are fanless (but get hot as of such) and have 5 ports for RJ45 10gbe. With the TP-Link SX-105 being slightly favored as it can negotiate downwards for 5gbe and 2.5gbe as well on the same ports, but it does have weird mounting holes if it's not going to be wall mounted and not rack mounted.

If you have more than 4 systems that might access the 10g NAS, then you might need to look at the 8 port switches, but they are all equipped with fans I believe. But you can go with the YuanLey/Nicgiga varieties then that @DIABLO has suggested.
 
Meddling-Monk said:
Besides what @ChrisD. has asked about, I think it'll also depend on how many 10g network connections you have on hand from the computers that want to connect to the NAS, as that'll determine what the minimum amount of ports on the switch you want as well.

If the network is using RJ45 ethernet, and fan noise is a considertaion, you might want to look at something like the TP-Link SX105, or the Trendnet TEG-S750 for a five port 10g switch, both of which are fanless (but get hot as of such) and have 5 ports for RJ45 10gbe. With the TP-Link SX-105 being slightly favored as it can negotiate downwards for 5gbe and 2.5gbe as well on the same ports, but it does have weird mounting holes if it's not going to be wall mounted and not rack mounted.

If you have more than 4 systems that might access the 10g NAS, then you might need to look at the 8 port switches, but they are all equipped with fans I believe. But you can go with the YuanLey/Nicgiga varieties then that @DIABLO has suggested.
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Really helpful guys - at the moment there's only two immediate PCs that will need 10gbe, but that said, the number of times I've had to replace a switch that I thought had 'more than I'd ever need'..... :cry:

I tend to work out what I need and multiply by four to provide overkill!
 
katie279 said:
Hey Chris - yes I do! And yes, it's SFP+ based I believe!

I can never quite tell if people think Unifi switches are worth it or not, I hear mixed things on price Vs performance!
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Personally, I think they're excellent. All managed by the same UI and any new VLANs are pushed automatically. Unlike Mikrotik as an example, there's no requirement to have to properly learn the kit. If you just want a basic unmanaged Layer 2 switch, I'd probably look elsewhere though.
 
Iv got some 10g network cards on order and planning to link my main pc with the Nas. Iv got one of those horaco china type switches that have 4x 2.5g ports and 2 x sfp ports.
Don't think I thought this all through before hand since I think 10g cards may have high power consumption even when idle so will have to investigate this further when they arrive.

Is it possible to get switches that just have 6 or 8 SPF ports and use modules that are 1, 2.5 , 5 and 10g in them?
 
Annoying how there doesn't seem to be much in the way of decent consumer grade offerings in the 2.5Gbe and 10Gbe range - was talking to one of the IT guys at work who was installing IIRC L3 managed 16x 10Gbe NBASE-T and 8x SFP+ switch and it was a hair under 10 grand and the 24 port is apparently over 15 grand.
 
Armageus said:
Something like the Pro Max 24 PoE would be ideal
techspecs.ui.com

UniFi Pro Max 24 PoE - Tech Specs

A 24-port, Layer 3 Etherlighting™ switch capable of high-power PoE++ output.
techspecs.ui.com techspecs.ui.com
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Just seems way over the top to me and power hungry. I would try a unmanaged 10Gb china switch over that, especially since the OP just needs basic switch functionality, albeit at a high speed.
 
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platypus said:
Yeah but etherlighting!!!!

I know its a gimmick. But man do I want it.
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After a few minutes of thinking that's cool the appeal goes for me and the various identification modes don't help much in practice.

I would be more impressed when Ubiquiti release a firmware for my Pro Max switch that will actually use a LAGG on startup and also use the static IP set in its local config which it ignores. Currently whenever it reboots it takes out a chunk of my network until I do some unplugging/reconnecting. It looks like one of the latest betas may fix the LAGG issue but I'll wait until its released and I actually need to reboot it.
 
Simon42 said:
After a few minutes of thinking that's cool the appeal goes for me and the various identification modes don't help much in practice.

I would be more impressed when Ubiquiti release a firmware for my Pro Max switch that will actually use a LAGG on startup and also use the static IP set in its local config which it ignores. Currently whenever it reboots it takes out a chunk of my network until I do some unplugging/reconnecting. It looks like one of the latest betas may fix the LAGG issue but I'll wait until its released and I actually need to reboot it.
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Oh yeah, after about 5 minutes I'd turn it all off because its too bright anyway :p.
 
Simon42 said:
After a few minutes of thinking that's cool the appeal goes for me and the various identification modes don't help much in practice.

I would be more impressed when Ubiquiti release a firmware for my Pro Max switch that will actually use a LAGG on startup and also use the static IP set in its local config which it ignores. Currently whenever it reboots it takes out a chunk of my network until I do some unplugging/reconnecting. It looks like one of the latest betas may fix the LAGG issue but I'll wait until its released and I actually need to reboot it.
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What devices are you aggregating between out of interest?
 
ChrisD. said:
What devices are you aggregating between out of interest?
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Between the Pro Max 24 and a 6 port Protectli for pfSense (includes VLANs with inter vlan routing hence the LAGG as it doesn't have enough ports to split them all up given I have 3 WANs). Both a gen 1 US-24-250W and gen 1 US-48 work fine in the same role.
 
See this is what you make me do guys!!

The TP-Link SX105 seems a great recommendation for ~£250, but then the Pro Max 24 is only a couple of hundred more and it'd give me 24 vs 4!!!! Any persuasions either way?!!? Is the Pro Max 24 noisy at all? (I mean it'll be in a NAS cabinet I'm building, so it doesn't really matter either way I guess!)
 
katie279 said:
See this is what you make me do guys!!

The TP-Link SX105 seems a great recommendation for ~£250, but then the Pro Max 24 is only a couple of hundred more and it'd give me 24 vs 4!!!! Any persuasions either way?!!? Is the Pro Max 24 noisy at all? (I mean it'll be in a NAS cabinet I'm building, so it doesn't really matter either way I guess!)
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How many devices are you connecting to the NAS? The Pro Max 24 only has 2x SFP+ uplinks and whilst they can be connected to client devices, they're more designed to connect to upstream/aggregation switches. You're better off with something with more 10 GbE ports. If you want a switch with more 10 GbE ports and PoE, you're going to have to spend more money. I can't remember if you mentioned, but if your NAS and PC use RJ45 connections, you'd also need SFP+ modules which will get hot and is additional expense.

Otherwise there are better (and cheaper) UniFi 10 GbE switches. As an example, in my office I have the Flex XG.

If it's *just* to connect your PC to your NAS at 10 GbE, depending on what NIC(s) you have in your PC you might not even need a switch, you could just connect them to each other at 10 Gbps, and connect the other ports to the rest of the network at 1 Gbps. Then create a dedicated subnet for the PC to NAS interfaces and use a static host entry for the NAS.

For example:
Home network: 192.168.1.0/24
NAS 1 GbE interface: 192.168.1.50/24 (set as gateway)
PC 1 GbE interface: 192.168.1.51/24 (set as gateway)
NAS 10 GbE interface 192.168.10.1/30
PC 10 GbE interface 192.168.10.2/30

On the PC, in the hosts file put:
Code: 
192.168.10.1 mynas.dns.name
That way it should ignore DNS and connect directly to the 10 GbE interface on the NAS.

I haven't done this in years but it's entirely possible.

Also don't fall into the trap of thinking that aggregating 2x 10 GbE interfaces on NAS to 2x ports on a switch will create a 20 Gbps link despite what the QNAP OS tells you. That only really works if there are multiple clients connecting to the NAS at the same time. A single client to NAS connection will only ever be 10 Gbps (there are exceptions, let's not go down the multi channel SMB road).
 
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The other question I suppose, is what drives have you got in your NAS? If it's any form of actual hard drives in RAID, do you even realistically need 10GB?

And/Or do your client machines actually need 10GB? Is 2.5GB enough for them?

Quite easy for the NAS or Server to become a bottleneck if you are allowing clients the same full line rate access to the NAS/Server
 
Armageus said:
The other question I suppose, is what drives have you got in your NAS? If it's any form of actual hard drives in RAID, do you even realistically need 10GB?

And/Or do your client machines actually need 10GB? Is 2.5GB enough for them?

Quite easy for the NAS or Server to become a bottleneck if you are allowing clients the same full line rate access to the NAS/Server
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That's a very good point, I have 25 GbE and it's not often I go over 10 GbE even with SATA SSDs. If the NAS were full of NVMe it would be a different story! :D
 
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