Hi Aaron Just to be controversial and also inject a small note of caution, almost all of the units recommended so far should work reasonably well as switches, as will units from Netgear and Edimax and D-Link and Zyxel and many others, however [controversial bit] that doesn't mean that all makes and models of NIC will play nice with your choice of switch, especially if you are planning on teaming any of those NICs.
This is a 'feature' of some NICs and of some switches; it isn't a matter of the OS/driver for the NICs, it's a function of their sometimes not very good design and implementation, whilst with switches the causes can be many and various, including some sometimes idiotic design decisions. Poor switch/NIC interaction isn't all that much discussed online, but Steve Cassidy of PC Pro is one of those who has mentioned it, more than once, in his "Real World Computing" columns. Some real world examples; some models of Realtek NICs may have difficulties talking reliably to any model of Linksys or D-Link Gb switches; HP Gb NICs may [often] not talk well to Cisco or Nortel managed switches; Intel Gb multiport Server adapters may not always team well with HP or Dell switches, whether managed or not. The list of combinations that don't always work as expected is quite large and diagnosing the effects can be quite complex because these effects can be quite subtle - it's not usually as instantly obvious as "it doesn't connect". In some cases it's a matter of relatively high packet loss, in others of failing to sync speeds correctly or to support duplex reliably; the list of possible issues is quite lengthy, but the best 'test' is usually a direct swap-out of the switch for a different make/model, preferably a managed switch with deep diagnostics and the ability to support a packet sniffer. Before picking a switch you need to know which "real" NICs you're playing with, and then assure yourself that they will work reaonably well with the switch of your choice. If you have a variety of different real NICs across your setup then you /may/ have a problem. For information; it's my experience that broadcom and intel single port Gb chipsets generally work quite well with Netgear and Dell and Edimax unmanaged Gb switches, but it's not always an infallible mix - it can depend on firmware revisions at both ends of the link and, where the NICs are actually motherboard implementations such as the nVidia/broadcom implementation used on some Tyan server motherboards, then things can sometimes get messy. Currently I'm fighting to get a client's new Dell 2900 server running about 6 VMs through its dual on-board Broadcom Gb nics to talk reliably to either 3Com or Netgear Gb switches - which is a surprise to me because in the past I've been able to make this combination work perfectly. I /may/ have to replace those Broadcoms with an Intel multiport. It's a problem that can bite any of us, no matter how much we think we know :-) Note well a] that budget isn't the constraint here; the problems can arise just as often with expensive managed switches as with cheap unmanaged units and b] that by and large most combinations of NIC and switch /do/ work reasonably well - so don't let my comments put you off trying whichever unit you feel like purchasing. Robert Neuschul Imagineering _______________________________________________ Openfiler-users mailing list [email protected] https://lists.openfiler.com/mailman/listinfo/openfiler-users
