Jason Chue wrote:
I'm actually planning on building a fast trunking home network between my
existing desktop and my existing NAS / file server and would appreciate
suggestions on how best to build it cheaply.
Nice, that's what we all want :)
I have a few options. One would be to team 2x Gigabit connections. That
would require dual port network cards for the server and one for the
desktop. I was thinking HP NC360T. I would need a managed switch too.
Something like an 8 port Procurve 1810-8G to handle the link aggregation
connections.
If you want to team NIC's, I have positive experience teaming Intel Pro NICs.
They just work.
You'll get around 70-90 MB/sec from the Gbit NICs, depending on your platform. If both sides support Jumbo Frames, you'll get around 100 MB/sec or more, again depending
on your platform.
Your choise of the HP switch is nice, but why get the expensive, corporate
model, when the performance is equal in the HP unmanaged models?
Unless, of course, you want to use/manage the swithch as a gateway, go for the cheapest HP Gbit, they all perform very well. If you want to use a persistent connection
between your nodes, while being connected to the internet at the same time, you should definately go for a managed switch, IMHO.
The other option that I have been looking is Infiniband, 10GBe or fibre
channel connections. But from what I have seen on ebay, their switches get
pretty unaffordable or am I incorrect?
Waaaay too expensive for home use, but that's only my opinion.
How much raw (sustained) disk performance do you have on your NAS?
50 MB/s? 120 MB/s?
If (significantly, like 20-30 pct.) more than 100 MB/s, teaming a pair of 10Gbit NICs makes sense. If close to, or less than 100 MB/s, I'd either team a pair of Gbit
NICs, or use a single 10Gbit NIC on each node (thinking upgrade). You'll have to consider O/S support on this matter, too.
Has anybody done something like this? Perhaps networking gurus here can give
more insight on the hardware.
I'm no guru, but I can say this from experience: To some degree, coughing up more dough will always get you more performance. Just make sure your NIC's has a dedicated
processor (intel or alike), so that the cpu doesn't choke when loading the network. And make sure your NAS or whatever performance is not above apprx. 60-70 pct. of your
NIC's claimed performance. That is if using NICs with a dedicated processor (else, the O/S wil take over the primary load, and you'll have a completely different
scenario). I use this rule of thumb about networking myself: Allow 10 pct overhead for framing overhead, then allow another 20-30 pct for manufacturer overhead.
HTH
/soren
Jason
