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For a rack containing a smaller nubmer of servers (5 at the moment, going to stay in this area), I am looking to replace the currently aging 100Mbit switch with a 1Gb switch.

This is for the backend between the servers. I expect some iSCSI traffic there, so a 10gbit option would be nice (preferably for two ports, as extension modules). I dont need management, this is a pure backend of an internal cluster. I do VLAN, but there is no sensible management the switch can do there.

I would like:

  • 1RU only, obviously
  • preferable limited moving parts.
  • Low price ;)
  • Enough power to run at least half the ports in full speed at the same time.

Any recommendations?

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5 Answers 5

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A few dirt-cheap suggestions would be:

  • D-Link DGS-1224T
  • Netgear GS724TS
  • HP ProCurve 1800-24G
  • Linksys SLM2024

None of them is likely to disappoint (or surprise) you a lot. They are cheap, simple, switches. We have several of the D-Link DGS-1224T.

If you want XFP ports you will probably have to pay at-least 10x what these switches cost.

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  • Thanks. looks like the Netgear -ave some netgear already, like it. XFP then not worth the effort, at that point I rather repalce everything then ;) Plus prices may come down.
    – TomTom
    Mar 15, 2010 at 13:13
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I'm running 4 Cisco 2960 48TC-L all crossed over together to connect a number of gigabit web,db and file servers and have had a flawless experience for a couple of years. They expose stats over SNMP like bandwidth per port / cpu and memory usage too which you can graph with munin to make sure it's not overloaded. So I can recommend them. Depends what your budget is though!

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I highly recommend getting a managed switch if you're running iSCSI over it. We just upgraded our rack on the cheap and got a pair of ProCurve 2510G-24 switches ($800 each). They allow us to limit vlan traffic on certain ports. So ports 1-8 are for iSCSI, no other traffic gets to those ports; similarly iSCSI traffic doesn't leave those ports and doesn't interfere with other traffic.

I know switches very much limit domain broadcasts, but it still happens, and having a managed switch where you can set hard barriers helps ensure performance.

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The HP ProCurve 3500yl-24G-PoE+ (J9310A) is more than decent and I believe suits your needs, though it isn't exactly cheap.

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I'm building a small virtual datacentre right now, and I've found Dell PowerConnect switches to be 30%-40% of the price for Cisco switches, with the same characteristics.

Definitely worth a look.

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