Looking for small 10Gb switch for iSCSI

[Davide Depaoli_3]

Hello,

I have to propose a new storage infrastructure to a customer. Actually he has 4 nodes Lefthand multisite storage array. HPE told me the Storevirtual hardware appliances are going to EOL and will not be replaced (only VSA will be available). In a new environment the iSCSI network (today it is 1Gb) will be replaced with 10Gb, and I'm looking for a small switch.

I've found HPE Officeconnect 1850 6xgt but I'm n ot sure is is suitable for iSCSI connections.

Thank you

Best regards,

Davide

[parnassus]

Hi Davide, what do you mean with "small switch"? small as cheap or small as physically small (so with a very limited number of 10Gbps physical ports)?

WRT HPE OfficeConnect 1850 6XGT + 2XGT/SFP+ (JL169A) a thing to understand is that its Packet Buffer size (which I suppose is shared - pooled - with all of its 8 ports <- latest two 2XGT/SFP+ ports are Dual Personality so they work in a or/or way) looks quite limited [*], just 2MB...doesn't Best Practices about SAN implementation with 10G iSCSI advise to use Switches with a larger - deeper - Packet Buffer size (so a reasonable per-Port value should be no less than 256kB or, better, much more...especially considering that seven years ago - I'm referring to an old "Building an IP SAN with HP" presentation - the ideal value was not less than 512kB per port...now an iSCSI optimized Switch has ultra deep packet buffering)?

Davide.

Edit: references here and here.

[*] and considering the HPE OfficeConnect 1950 12XGT 4SFP+ Switch (JH295A) as another similar candidate it's not better (same 2MB shared with 12 ports...)...probably only 10Gb ports latency will be better if compared to the HPE OfficeConnect 1850 6XGT + 2XGT/SFP+ (JL169A)

[Davide Depaoli_3]

Hello,

thanks for your answer. I'm  looking for a switch with limited number of 10Gb ports, because it's only used to connect two VSA nodes and two VMware hosts (for a total of 4 or 8 ports per switch). There is also a budget constrain to buy these switches (24 port switch purchase is not permissible when using only 4).

The 5406zl2 with one module 8 port 10Gb-T will be a good solution:

v2 10G module   ARM11 @ 550 MHz; Packet buffer size: 18 MB internal

v3 10G module   Dual ARM Coretex A9 @ 1 GHz; Packet buffer size: 13.5 MB internal

Anyway HPE is not mandatory as networking vendor.

Thank you

Davide

[parnassus]

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Davide Depaoli_3 wrote: Anyway HPE is not mandatory as networking vendor.

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Well...aren't we still on a HPE Community forum :-) ?

Jokes apart, an Aruba 5400R zl2 chassis (one MM, one PS and the empty chassis) equipped with just a single HP 8p 1/2.5/5/10GBASE-T PoE+ MACSec v3 zl2 Module (a J9995A, not the J9546A which is an older v2 zl Module) will let the modular Switch to run fully in "v3 only mode": such configuration will cost new you a lot more in comparison of any HPE OfficeConnect Switch with the same amount of fixed 10GbE ports...simply it's not comparable and out-of-budget if your initial one was/is valid only for purchasing just an entry level general purposes access Switch.

Edit: Since you asked...what's about Netgear ProSafe XS712Tv2 or XS708T? the 2MB (shared) Packet Buffer size limit hits again...the only noticeable remark is that that Packet Buffer was declared by Netgear as "Dynamically shared across only used ports" (maybe that's the same that happens on low end HPE OfficeConnect switches, so no news here)...another similar 10GBASE-T Switch would be the ZyXEL XS1920-12 (but, again, the 2MB Packet Buffer size limit is here to knock us down).