After completing my last episode HomeLab Stage LXXII: Cloud Foundation it is time to write news about my network changes…..
I am using a combination of Ubiquiti networks and Nvidia Networking (Mellanox) for a long time in my environment. So what changed?
The Nvidia SN2100 is an awesome switch for 100GbE and with cable adapters, also very useful for 25GbE or 10GbE DAC connections. I cannot recommend using the switch with optics, because the rpm from the fans doubles….. 9.000rpm vs 18.000rpm
I replaced my existing 48 Port PoE Switch with the new model from Ubiquiti, the 48 Port PoE Max with 2.5GbE ports. Why?
Because of the new U7 Pro Wifi Access Points….. 🙂
I bought 5 of those access points and placed them around the different sweet spots inside my house. Two older Long Range Models are still working for the garden and the garage (WLAN on the lawn mover and for working on my BMW cars)
The new access points supports 2.4GHz, 5GHz and the new 6GHz frequency band. They require 2.5GbE uplinks to fully support the performance, what I need, of course….
Some oder 16 port 1GbE switches got also replaced with the newer 16 Port PoE Max version. Those switches support 10GbE SFP+ uplinks…. Time to recable 10GbE LWL around the house…. (thanks to my children for helping on that topic) Fibre cables everywhere (nearly everywhere)
My existing Ubiquit Aggregation Switch supports 10GbE and 25GbE (only on the uplinks) and that is enough for the moment….
My Synology RS1221+ NAS is connected with 2 x 25GbE LACP and my BCDR (Cohesity) solution is also connected with 2 x 25GbE. The SN2100 is connected via 4 x 10GbE LACP to the aggregation switch.
I also got some of the 5 port PoE powered Ubiquiti Flex-Mini switches for Dell iDRAC and other IPMI connections. Those are pretty small and they fit everywhere.
Most of my ESXi servers are connected with 10GbE for normal operations and 40GbE or 100GbE for vMotion, FT (yes, I am still using it) and vSAN Data traffic. Witness traffic is done via 10GbE Mgmt uplink. Especially GPU enabled VMs love the 100GbE vMotion network to minimize STUN time.
What is planned next? You know me…. I am already thinking about 200GbE and 400GbE for my AI powered systems……
Stay tuned for the next episodes of my “never ending” HomeLab journey. I am doing it since several years and I still love what I do
Here is the next episode: HomeLab Stage LXXIV: More Dell Servers