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  • Features choice meeting with it

Features choice meeting with it

Last edited by Maciej Lipinski Jul 31, 2019
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Here are highlights from my meeting on 2019-07-31 with CERN IT experts in Ethernet L2 switches:

  • there is no standard for power supplies/fans/management interfaces,
  • power supplies
    • 10 years ago hot-swappable (Field Removable Units) power supplies were not very common, now they are common in data centers
    • the power supplies are bought for a given vendor and for a give model (no compatibility between models of the same vendor and between vendors)
    • It is possible that the situation is better in servers - we should look into power supplies for servers
    • typically, power supplies are installed from the back, but airflow can be different (part number)
    • power supplies have fans, airflow of power supplies needs to agree with airflow in the switch.
    • Power supplies are bought either with front-back or back-front airflow (two different part numbers), there is only one vendor for which the airflow direction is controlled with jumpers
  • fans:
    • no standard
    • for most of the removable FANs, one can choose the direction of airflow, i.e. one can buy two types of the same FAN
    • for non-removable fans, typically the airflow is front-to site or site-to-site
    • most common: front to back
    • for cooling PHYs/SFPs in front panel, the best airflow is front-to-back
    • most common in data centers: front to back,
    • it does happen (top-of-the-rack switches, i.e. in racks with other equipment, not data centers) that switches are installed with front panel to the back, in such case, the airflow needs to be reverted...
  • management ports
    • serial communication: miniUSB or RJ45, RS232 connector is not used in new switches (only old)
    • Ethernet port: RJ45 is a must, some switches (not common) have also SFP for fiber connection (1Gbps)
    • USB: in many switches, there is a USB connector which can be used to update firmware (upgrade or recovery)
  • status:
    • LEDs for port status: very often only one that indicates: status (link up), speed, and activity
    • General status: most of the time LEDs, display is not so common, yet it happens
    • localisation feature (LED or info on display): seems a useful feature, not really available in switches
  • power/reset button
    • many switches have no power button, only reset
    • most of switches have reset button that is small one, i.e. the one that can be pushed only with needle
    • if exists, it is in front
  • if we want to support 10Gbps copper SFPs - be careful about the heat - they heat up a lot
  • a useful thing that is rarely available in switches (only one vendor): rails for mounting
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