On 5/23/26 12:44 AM, David Christensen wrote:
If you have a USB 3.x A or C port, various manufacturers make 2.5, 5, and 10 GbE (copper RJ-45) Ethernet adapters. If you have a Thunderbolt 3, 4, or 5 port, a few make 10 and 25 Gbps SFPx fiber single and dual Ethernet adapters. Be sure to verify Debian and Linux driver support with the manufacturer before purchasing:I've looked at those, been thinking of trying it some time. The only time I really wish for faster than 1g networking straight to my workstation is when I'm cloning a complete hard drive to a backup image file in the pool.https://www.amazon.com/s?k=thunderbolt+sfp+ethernet https://www.sonnettech.com/product/twin25g/overview.html
I've been buying cheap 10G dual SFP PCIe cards on ebay. I configure the two ports as a bridge then just run fiber from one machine to the next. The server is in the middle of the string, so if I shut that down, my whole network is as good as down. Nearly all my network services depend on the server anyway.
The only glitch I've run into so far is I've got to match the correct optics to the cards, speaking of vendor-lock-in. Intel cards want intel optics. Most other brands seem to accept most other brands optics. No experience yet with Cisco brand. Dell can come as intel or other.
Cheap managed network switches from aliexpress two 10g SFP+ ports plus four 1g RJ45, I guess I got what I paid for. They seem to mostly work, I had a few random failures along the way. I've read scare stories about these potentially dialing home etc. I have not confirmed such. I suspect these can't as I have them configured on an isolated vlan.
One wonderful network switch deal I find common on ebay: OS6450-P48 it is cheap, 48 poe 1gig ports plus two 10g SFP ports that don't seem real picky what brand optics I use. It is a bit technical to configure.
I have been using Intel SSD 520 Series 2.5" SATA III drives for many years.Same here, just discovered them cheap on ebay a few years ago. Some show up with SMART reports indicating wear that would trigger me replacing a consumer grade ssd. I've been using those nearly daily over 2 years with no failures yet.
How do you back up a 36 TB pool?
(blush) I know my current backup scheme could someday bite:1. I have a full rsync backup on a spare R710 server in another building. That server probably hasn't been powered up in 18 months. All I need to do is go plug it into an outlet then spend a couple minutes at a ssh session from the comfort of my office chair.
2. The most critical files get regularly backed up (manually) to a remote storage vps.
I compress the files into an encrypted archive then upload using scp. 3. Some random memory sticks and hard drives... So I've got some coverage in case of disaster but it could use improvement. I know automatic backups could be nice but I just don't trust such. I also have a clone of the server's boot drive. nwe
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