10 gigabit ethernet

[Daniel Feenberg]

On Tue, 25 Jan 2011, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:

>> From: discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org [mailto:discuss-bounces-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org] On Behalf
>> Of Daniel Feenberg
>>
>> We would like to speed up NFS traffic between a file server (FreeBSD with
>> ZFS) and a compute server (Linux) and wondered if 10 gigabit ethernet was
>> a reasonable approach. Can anyone report experience? Currently it appears
>> that NFS traffic saturates a 1 gigabit/second link, whereas local access
>> to files is several times as fast.
>>
>> We understand that "ganging" several 1 gig ethernet ports won't speed up a
>> single connection, only allow multiple 1 gig connections. That won't help
>> us, since we typically would only have one (large) file open on the
>> server. Is that right?
>>
>> Where would I look for 10 gigabit NICs compatible with that hardware?
>> Vendor names?
>
> Correct on all counts.
> I think you're best off, if you go for either Intel or Mellanox.
>

Thanks.

The Intel switch is about $550, the Mellanox about $100 more and with 2 
ports. That is not to bad and the Intel at least appears to have been 
supported by Linux and FreeBSD for several years, which is a good sign.

I now need a small switch. Are there any 8 port dumb 10gBase-T switches? I 
can only find 24 port switches for >$15,000. I can find a few gigabit 
switches with 2 10 GB uplink ports - that isn't any better than a 
crossover cable. But nothing with 4 or 8 ports. Any ideas?

Thanks again.

Daniel Feenberg