confused between choosing a switch with 10Gb ports vs 1Gb layer3 switch which has optional 10Gb uplink port. are they same?
that means I want to have a 10Gb pipe between storage server and the two hosts (each having 10GbE HBA) – which switch do I go for?
please advise ASAP. thanks
switch models in consideration.
Dell Powerconnect 6224 – native 1Gb ports + two 10Gb uplink modules
Dell powerconnect 8024 – native 10Gb ports
Best Answer
No, they're not the same. The "uplink port" on a switch is where it connects "up" towards the rest of the network. There is generally only one (though some models have two for redundancy purposes). The uplink bandwidth is shared by all the devices trying to communicate with the rest of the network at the same time. By putting a 10Gb uplink on a 1Gb switch, it would let (for example) 10 devices on the switch communicate at 1Gb each at the same time with the rest of the network. Otherwise if the uplink was only 1Gb, those 10 devices would only be able to get about 100Mb each.
It's probably physically possible to connect your 10Gb HBA to the 1GB "Layer 3 switch" (back in my day, we called this a router!), depending on the make and model and physical connections (fiber or copper?) but your HBA would then be communicating at 1Gb.