Feeling Lost with Fiber

[RageSto]

Hey Everyone,

 

We are getting ready to purchase 6 new HP DL380 Gen9 servers to act as ESXi hosts. On the quote, our vendor has included an HPE FlexFabric 534FLR. This does not include any transceiver modules, and so I was given the task of figuring out exactly everything that we need. And here is where I am lost.

 

In our environment, we have a Brocade VDX 6720 for our network and a Brocade 5100 for our SAN. In terms of cards, our other hosts have a QLogic BR-1020 CNA for 10 GE and a QLogic 2462.

My questions are thus:

1.) Are transceiver brands largely interchangeable? I'm inclined to go with the HPE 534FLR, will this accept a Brocade 10GE SFP+ SR module?

2.) A new QLogic 2462 w/ 2 modules costs $1478.29, whereas HP's recommended H2412 costs $322.18 w/o the modules,but is a 12 Gbps card. If I put a 4 Gbps module, will it sufficiently downgrade? Could I put a 12 Gbps module on the card, and an 8 Gbps module on the 5100?

3.) Could I just throw in 2 BR-1020 cards, use one for network and the other for SAN? Can I split the ports on a single card and have one port for network and the other for the SAN fabric?

 

If anyone could help me out, that would be awesome. I'm trying to get familiar with the terms and specs, but I'm completely lost when it comes to determining what can connect with what.

Edited June 23, 2016 by RageSto

[Oaktech]

Having recently done something similar

 

1) No. The transceiver you plug in has to have the vendors name on it - be it a genuine or a compatible. As long as they are all the same spec they should talk

2) You need to read the detailed spec of the item to determine whether it will downgrade or not. Without looking, I suspect it won't accept mixed speed modules. It will probably accept slower ones but normally they would have to match.

3) You can throw 2 cards in and use them as you suggest, You can also split the ports on a card, but if you do that are you not limiting yourself to a single point/single path of failure and IO?

 

The QLogic cards are less fussy about transcievers than the switches/fabrics are.

 

Have a look at this website and see if it helps with the price of transceivers: https://www.gbics.com/

[fiberoptics]

As for the fist question, just remember that the transceiver you use must be compatible wth your switch. HP brand won't accept the Brocade brand but the HPE 534FLR compatible transceiver, or you can try the generic transceivers with all brands: http://www.fs.com/c/generic-10g-sfp-plus-1413 Edited July 12, 2016 by fiberoptics

[ITGURU]

I put HP 1GB modules into our D-Link switches and they work absolutely fine.. This was after an upgrade to 10 gig but still have an odd external mobile connected at 1gb from the switch,.

[njc235]

I might be a little late to the party. Are the physical units close enough together to use DACs? Might save you even more money than compatible modules.