QNAP 25G switch ?

[Bob Zelin]

https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qxg-25g2sf-cx6

It can also be used with a 25GbE Switch to build a budget-friendly high-speed network environment.

see the drawing of the QSW 25GbE switch ? Did I miss something ?

Bob Zelin

[dolbyman]

maybe coming soon?

https://www.qnap.com/en/product/qxg-100g2sf-e810

100GbE to 4 x 25GbE (available soon)

Use a QNAP 25GbE switch (coming soon) and a QSFP28 to (4) SFP28 cables to connect the 100GbE port on the QXG-100G2SF-E810 to four 25GbE ports on the switch.

[MMike]

Just in case if anyone is still interested in the Qnap 25Gbe solution... the M5216-1T is coming soon..... some photos from Qnap Taiwan online store.

https://store.qnap.com.tw/qsw-m5216-1t.html

[Bob Zelin]

wow - this is a 16 port 25G switch with 1 10G management port.
$1 NT is $00.036 in US, so a NT $38500 switch is $1386. That is an amazing price for a 16 port SFP+ 28 switch.
The 25G cards from QNAP are under $300 US.
Unfortunately, the only Apple compatible 25G card that I am aware of is from ATTO Technology, and it's expensive.

Bob Zelin

[MMike]

I am not using Mac, but I am using an Owc thunderbolt enclosure together with mellanox cx4121a-cat under Win11…. Not sure this can achieve similar throughput as the Atto… I think there is no driver support from Apple to support mellanox NIC.

Just read on other Reddit post that Chelsio 25Gbe NIC with external enclosure is supported under mac

https://www.reddit.com/r/Thunderbolt/co ... connectx5/

[Moogle Stiltzkin]

youtube for this new 25gbe switch soon

QSW-M5216-1T L2 25GbE/10GbE: Managed Switch Affordable high-speed network for SMB
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVNmzqx_llQ

[Bob Zelin]

the latest driver for a Chelsio 25G card and a Mac is with Catalina 10.15. We have already moved on to Big Sur, and now Monterey.
So I doubt (based on Apple's typical history) that this card will not work with a modern Apple Mac system running a modern Apple operating system.
Apple doesn't like third party products, and makes life difficult for countless third party hardware vendors.

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qsw-m5216-1t

now on the QNAP website. My stupid opinion - they should have had "some" 25G ports and some Copper 10Gbase-T ports, not just one management port with 10Gbase-T.
Most people won't run fiber today - not in my world. Even though all 16 25 SFP28 ports are backwards compatible to SFP+ 10G. People won't buy the transceivers and deal with the fragile LC-LC fiber cables
in most environments.

Bob

[dolbyman]

That would have probably made it more expensive.

25Gbase-T is possible with CAT8, but it would still require most of your clients to rewire to that (still easier to terminate than Fiber)
https://community.fs.com/blog/what-is-25gbase-t.html

[dnavas]

https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qsw-m5216-1t
now on the QNAP website. My stupid opinion - they should have had "some" 25G ports and some Copper 10Gbase-T ports, not just one management port with 10Gbase-T. [...]

And I would have preferred a couple 100Gb ports, but that would have made it another class entirely! I definitely understand the desire to straddle two network needs, that said, if the 5216 is really 35W max, I doubt they'll even accept 10Gbase-T transceivers. If you want a mix of sfp+ and sfp28 ports, I guess it's Microtik or Unifi -- not sure about fiber and 10Gbase-T; maybe it's just me, but I prefer this setup, even though it's likely to be almost twice the price of Unifi's Agg Switch Pro.

What I find most odd about these switches (5216-1t, 2116P-2T2S, 1208-8C, etc) is their size -- my ignorance makes me wonder what makes 285mm a thing? It's not a half rack, so it amounts to a bunch of wasted space, no? Is there some custom rack mount I should be looking at?

[Bob Zelin]

they will come with rack ears. The QNAP QSW-M1208-8C comes with rack ears. A lot of these decisions are based on price.
Lets face it - people (like me) install QNAP, Synology, Netgear, Ubiquiti - because it's CHEAP. My clients WILL NOT pay $15,000 for a switch - period. Never going to happen.
My clients will not pay $60,000 for a server. Never going to happen.

I was just looking at the Reddit forums, and you see all the people complaining about QNAP, Synology, Ubiquiti, etc. Most are consumers, they have no technical knowledge, they have
the ability to purchase these types of products becuase they are CHEAP - but they still don't understand how they work, so they just complain and say how horrible these products are.
As if Cisco, Dell/EMC is going to give free tech support to a user at home ! Ha !

I love the Ubiquiti Enterprise XG24 - for $1299, you get a 24 port 10Gbase-T switch with two 25G uplink ports. But it's not a stand alone product (like their old Edge Series) - so you have to have
a UniFi controller (like the Dream Machine Pro) to configure it (LACP, VLAN's, Jumbo Frames, static IP's, etc.). And it's always out of stock.

I just have to be happy that a switch like this exists at this price. I should not complain. But with the products that require 25G (like U.2 NVMe NAS systems) - the "trick" is getting customers
to buy a $1500 7.68 TB U.2 NVMe - and now buy 12 - 24 of these ! QNAP just released (or announced) a 12 bay U.2 NVMe at CES. So it's not hard to buy the QNAP 25 G switch, and the 25 G 12 bay QNAP. What is hard is spending $19,500 for 12 + 1 spare 7.68 NVMe drives !!!!

Bob Zelin

[dnavas]

Yeah -- I was just curious about the wasted space/air on each side. I forgot about the side-mounted fans. Even if it was half-rack, you wouldn't want to mount them side-by-side :]

The XG24 appears to be out of EA now, so ... :yes: ;^/ The transceivers are a cost you wouldn't have to bear for the 10G, but I'm looking at how my hardware needs have basically skipped right past 10G and I'm thinking I'll just have to man up to prepare for the inevitable future. Still, 10G is likely to be the peak for wireless until 7, so, still some years for the 2116P to be of some use.

I've been planning on running the unifi controller software as a docker container on my qnap, actually, rather than buying hardware for it, have you looked into that possibility? There's a bit of a chicken and egg problem on initial deployment I guess, but for managing wireless APs it'd work ... I hadn't gotten farther than that as I'm still waiting on other hardware. I suppose you could try https://github.com/gozoinks/unifi-pfsense.git and run the whole thing on a pfsense box, or just run it on a Raspberry Pi or something? Of course, you then get to support that configuration -- I don't have that problem for the home setup.... I think there are some cloud management options, but I haven't looked at any of that.

And yes, U.2 is nice and pluggable, but SSD is not the cheapest option, even if you go the M.2 -> U.2 adapter route or straight SATA -- flash is just plain not cheap. That 12 bay monster could probably feed a 400G, never mind the two 25G connections it comes with. Far more than I'd know what to do with for now. I'm satisfied with the ~2.2GB I'm getting out of my nvme cache on my lowly 873 and will wait for SSD pricing to moderate, although that's likely to be a multi-year wait given present circumstances.

[edit] PS: I suppose I should point out that I'm still waiting for this switch to show up outside of Taiwan and one on-line shop in Poland :>

[Bob Zelin]

that switch has not shown up in North America yet either. But let's face it - for both QNAP and Ubiquiti - many of their products that have been released for a long time, are not even available any more because of the component shortage. So if the stuff that exists - we can't get now - why should I worry about "future" 25G stuff. It will probably be like the UniFi Enterprise XG24. They will ship 5000 units, they will sell out, and you won't see it again for another 8 months. I see on the US dealer sites (like B&H Photo) - simple items like QNAP QNA-TG310G1T thunderbolt 3 to 10G adapters - the expected delivery date is April 2022. And you are worried about a 25G switch ?

Bob Zelin

[Bob Zelin]

I just installed the QNAP QSW-M5216 25G SFP28 switch. It's about $1200. The user interface is almost identical to the QNAP QSW-M1208-8C.
It's hard to believe they can make a switch like this for this price.

Bob Zelin

[oversampling]

Bob, could you please provide us with a feedback about M5216 noise level? I can't find any DBA figure in the specs nor on Google...