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Affordable rack switch for shared network (by dedicated servers)
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Affordable rack switch for shared network (by dedicated servers)

erhwegesrgsrerhwegesrgsr Member
edited January 2013 in General

Hi,

My friend asked me to do research on the best yet affordable switch for dedicated servers that are going to be rented out. QoS and fair share with 48 ports is what we are looking for.

I already saw this, the web interface can come in handy as this will be managed hardware:
http://www.misco.co.uk/Product/127607/ZyXEL-ES-1552-48-Port-Web-Managed-Ethernet-Switch

vLANs would be very nice, but QoS (give torrents etc no chance to eat all the bandwidth) is a must, fair use over ports would be really nice. Not looking for Cisco fanboys to suggest the most expensive with way too many features, nothing wrong with cisco though, just not willing to pay their huge prices for a simple <Gigabit switch.

  • web interface
  • qos
  • fair share over ports
  • vlans

is our ultimate feature list

Thanks in advance.

Comments

  • 3COM for Budget <£200, I think @francisco will have a couple switches for sale after the vegas move.

  • What is your budget?

  • Pick up a cheap F10 on ebay.

    This one should be OK? It has damaged SFPs, but if your only do gig you should be OK

    http://www.ebay.com/itm/Force10-S50-SA-01-GE-48T-48-Ports-Gigabit-L3-Switch-w-Routing-DAMAGED-SFP-Ports-/271133855917?pt=US_Network_Switches&hash=item3f20d650ad

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    @ShardHost said: This one should be OK? It has damaged SFPs, but if your only do gig you should be OK

    The same seller has other units that are just fine for like $20 more.

    The force10's work well and the only issue we've had with them was related to broadcast floods.

    Francisco

  • Oh and they don't do v6 in L3

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    @ShardHost said: Oh and they don't do v6 in L3

    True, you're not going to find one that does V6 in L3 for a cheap price, you're looking at over $500 - $600.

    If it's just a top-of-rack switch then you don't need anything crazy. Hell, you could just give each user a VLAN and pull the vlans back to your router/etc and do your gateway there.

    Francisco

  • @Francisco said: True, you're not going to find one that does V6 in L3 for a cheap price, you're looking at over $500 - $600.

    If it's just a top-of-rack switch then you don't need anything crazy. Hell, you could just give each user a VLAN and pull the vlans back to your router/etc and do your gateway there.

    I wasn't criticizing it. Just wouldn't want someone to make a wrong purchase. We originally purchased these on your recommendation for back end switches. We've now moved them to ToR they work so well.

  • We'll have a Catalyst 2650 24-port you can have for the cost of shipping in the next few days. It's not gigabit, and I don't know if it does QoS, but like I said, it's free 'cept for shipping.

  • @Franciso said: The force10's work well and the only issue we've had with them was related to broadcast floods.

    Probably garbage buffers, cheap switches tend to skimp on buffers

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    @Microlinux said: Probably garbage buffers, cheap switches tend to skimp on buffers

    Buffers won't do much with 200 - 300mbit of broadcast traffic :)

    The issue was related to some users breaking their DHCP and it was spamming 255.255.255.255 looking for our DHCP servers.

    'Big boy' switches (FESX's for instance) will help by rate limiting the traffic. I'm pretty sure the S50's do as well but you'd be in the $500 - $600 range for those. At that price point you might as well just get the brocades.

    Francisco

  • MicrolinuxMicrolinux Member
    edited January 2013

    Ah, you meant the broadcasts were affecting what was plugged into the switch. I thought you meant the switch itself.

  • FranciscoFrancisco Top Host, Host Rep, Veteran

    @Microlinux said: Ah, you meant the broadcasts were affecting what was plugged into the switch. I thought you meant the switch itself.

    Nope, the switches were responsive :) I was able to access them just fine.

    The broadcast flood was causing a lot of heartache for our KVM clients though.

    Francisco

  • I imagine.

    Anyhow, OP, I don't know what your budget is, but something like an FESX-448 is going to cost a little more, but offer you far more functionality and reliability -- as Franciso highlighted.

    In an SP environment, its usually well worth the cost. I have yet to find anything that can match the performance and reliability of an FESX for the (eBay) price.

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