Fibre from Server to Switch

ace2109

ace2109

ace2109

Associate
Joined
28 Dec 2002
Posts
2,400
Location
Northern Ireland
Hi Guys,
We are upgrading or server to a MacPro and putting a fibre card into it so we can improve the data connection between the server and the network. Our Gigabyte switch has 2 fibre ports. What we want to do is connect the MacPro to the switch and then each client will be connected via gigabyte cat5.

Am i right in saying the fibre connection doesnt need much configuration or if it does what are we talking and does anyone know of any sites that would be good to read?
 
Why are you choosing to connect the server to the switch via fibre rather than ethernet? Is the server a long distance from the gigabit switch or are you expecting to see a performance increase with gigabit fibre over gigabit ethernet?

To answer your question though there shouldn't really be any issues, just plug it in and go as long as the port is enabled on the switch.
 
Now, I could be talking out my arse but aren't those ports supposed to be used to connect to other switches to increase the bandwidth between switches. It may not offer what you need depending on model.

A fairly free solution (depending again on your hardware) would be to team a few Nics together in aggregation (802.11ad) to allow for improved through put (ie 4x1Gbps)
 
If you got a fibre card that can do IP and the switch ports can handle being connected to a client (not another switch), then it could work.

That said, those uplink ports are normally for switch-switch communication, and fibre doesn't really buy you anything, unless you're running >100m.

If you've got the 1gbps copper ports on the switch, get a 4-port intel and lacp/etherchannel it up. Much cheaper and easier.
 
Some good info here guys so thanks. How would i go about finding out if I can connect the switch to the client via fibre?

The main reason we are doing this is because we have an editing suite with 4 editors. These guys work with files directly from the server and the connection bottlenecks if all 4 are editing at the same.

If i put some extra network cards in the server and them team them via the switch will this increase the speed of the overall network and file access? I understand that it is the speed of the drives as well but the speed of the connection between the server and the switch has to be improved in my eyes.

What would be the maximum network cards we could put in and use?
 
What Gigabit switch (make and model) do you have?

Most switches will have a limit on the number ports that can be trunked into a single link using 802.11ad / LACP.
 
ace2109 said:
Some good info here guys so thanks. How would i go about finding out if I can connect the switch to the client via fibre?

The main reason we are doing this is because we have an editing suite with 4 editors. These guys work with files directly from the server and the connection bottlenecks if all 4 are editing at the same.

If i put some extra network cards in the server and them team them via the switch will this increase the speed of the overall network and file access? I understand that it is the speed of the drives as well but the speed of the connection between the server and the switch has to be improved in my eyes.

What would be the maximum network cards we could put in and use?
Click to expand...

What codec are they working in? Prores 422 is about 28MB/s (iirc) so trunking 4 gig links to the switch on lacp would be a good first step. Then I'd look at the speed of your storage and see if that's not holding you up as well.
 
This info is brilliant guys so thanks a lot, i know we are using an HP Procurve switch I think it's part of the 1800 range family but I will check for sure.

We are going to be replacing all hard drives on the server with 2TB 7200rpm drives, we will also be placing 8 drives I groups of 2 on a raid array to speed data transfer up.

Any other recommendations would be brilliant guys.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom