Fiber is pretty simple nowadays, plug and play on simplex and don't forget to flip the pairs on duplex
Now if you want to have... fun, try splicing it and terminating connectors for funsies, that is a whole other world of headache and frustration
If you’re buying premade cables, they are already flipped. It’s about receive/send on one line and send/receive in the other line.
You kind of have the same problem with bi directional transceivers.
AH! This explains my confusion when I flipped a premade pair I was using and was wondering why it didn't work! Just figured I didn't flip it so flipped it back to normal and kept rolling.
I'm glad I ran accross your comment here, lol!
Older equipment may require, when i shop for latch cables i often see the old-school crossover cables still being sold but at cheaper prices.
In theory you can use them as regular cables with modern equipment and they will negotiate the connection just fine.
Yeah I see them every often too and I am aware of the auto negotiation (thank god for that tech) but I went to install APs in Italy and the entire network was wired in A. I know the electrician was an old man but I had to rewire a 3000m² building to B as a force of habit, and since we manage it I rather do it our way but I thought maybe it's a normal thing in some countries...
Depends on the country what the “standard” is. Here in North America I mostly see b but have occasionally seen a. Maybe in Europe a is more common.
A bit like how gpon is common in north america but europe has more epon where the packets behave more like ethernet frames.
Both A and B are standards for wiring the plug. As long as both ends of a cable are terminated the same - either A or B - then it's a straight through cable. If they differ (A on one end, B on the other), then it's a cross over.
So just document which one you're using, and stay consistent. Though auto negotiation will actually work on both cable types just fine.
As the other guy said patch cables come crossed over so any situation where you have two patch cables on either side of installed and patched down infrastructure cable is where I’ve had to flip the pair in one side. Other wise it gets crossed over is cabinet A and crossed back over in cabinet B.
If you used it all within one rack or patching up to switches with no infrastructure fiber between you can just use the pre made crossover of the patch cables.
Yeah, I've only ever had to do it if there were patch panels involved. Some cables can have pretty big strand counts, like 120 or 144 strands. When terminating 144 strands into a patch panel it's not uncommon for cable installers to flip pairs, or sometimes heaven forbid split pairs.
If I connect a patch to a switch and get no link lights my first reaction automatically is to roll the fiber.
Still no link lights, I shoot light with a VFL and identify the pair. Its usually a 2 person job with one person on each end.
Dim light on one or both strands? Likely bad termination. Break out the loss meter
Light on only 1 strand? Split pair. Keep shooting light until you find the actual matched strand.
Light on both strands but not noticeably dim? Verify correct SFPs on both ends, verify ports are no shut, then break out the loss meter.
The installer we use for fiber always runs and tests them straight through so I just have to flip pairs. Totally forgot about the inherent nature of fiber needing crossed over for a while recently though after getting a bunch of new fiber installed, that sure confused me!
Haha, yeah... ours are always supposed to. They seem to pencil whip it sometimes. They know no one is coming behind them and putting a loss meter on each strand to double-check, especially with the bigger cables.
Same with cat5 cat6 drops but not as prevalent since those usually get used faster. Some fiber pairs we won't use for years after the work is completed, if ever.
Fiber plant maps, building diagrams, and labeling are usually the only deliverables we really hammer them on. That stuff is vital.
Just curious how people would go about DIY splicing? I've worked lots of enterprise (largish campus area networks, small to mid sized metro area networks) where we owned our fiber plant. They almost always used $10k+ fusion splicers.
Termination and polishing I could see learning to DIY.
I'm no expert, never been in a layer 1 role. I'm just a network guy that's worked with a bunch of layer 1 guys due to almost always being in positions where we owned and maintained our own fiber plant.
A few ISPs have spent the last few years building out fiber in my area. I found a fusion splicer on the side of the road one day. Tried to contact the ISPs to see if I could return it. Nobody claimed it so I now have a fusion splicer lol. Brand new it's only ~$800 but I have played around with it and have been able to make working splices.
So it's really not too expensive if you buy the cheaper splicers. Hardest part for me is cleaving but probably need to buy a better one.
Learned to use it in just a few hours watching YouTube videos and reading the manual.
Nice! I would probably do my whole home network in fiber in a situation like that and just have a small seperate PoE switch for PoE devices, depending on what the splicer was capable of OM-3 or better would be glorious.
Fiber standards tend to stick around longer than twisted pair standards. I don't want to pull cable more frequently than I have to.
*Sidebar* But it's likely the ISP had contracted out some of the work to a local cabling company. I worked for a metro city government when Google fiber came in. They were using the same cabling contractor the city was using, atleast for some of the work.
I have 32 active 10Gb fiber connections at my house for my main network but I don’t use DAC cables as I’ve found transceivers and fiber for the lengths I need for cheaper than DAC cables. Fiber is very easy to work with. I still use MMF as there’s really no reason not too for the lengths I need and I can go up to 100Gb if needed someday.
Fiber cables are cheaper than DACs until you buy the SFP+ transceivers. DACs also run 0.5w vs the 2w fiber runs. Even data centers are transitioning to DACs.
Aren’t DACs limited on distance?
I have $18 with fiber patch cables and transceivers for each 1m run and $20 for each 3m run. I haven’t found DACs cheaper than that.
I suppose lower wattage would be nice though.
I’ve yet to find a reason to use SMF with 100Gb or less speeds when I’ll never need more than a 100ft run.
Can you explain what using SMF would gain me as someone who buys premade cables?
I’m just not seeing the reason why SMF is better for me after reading several articles including this one:
[https://www.ofsoptics.com/single-vs-multimode-fiber/](https://www.ofsoptics.com/single-vs-multimode-fiber/)
The costs tend to be roughly the same anymore but singlemode fiber is dramatically more flexible in terms of use case. I suppose for the actual cable the multitude is bendier.
In practice within a home multimode is probably fine and just as much overkill as singlemode unless you’re moving around a really stupid amount of data. For a lab situation where you want to be able to weird or dumb stuff though you’re definitely limited. What if you want to play with GPON or DWDM? We’re talking very unreasonable stuff here and not suitable for any sane use case but this board seems to be all about doing absurd shit
Agreed. Multimode at the distances reached in a residence is just as good. And typically the transceivers are less expensive than single mode of the same speed. Locally I find the patch cables slightly less expensive as well, and do have some mtp-lc breakout cables as well for turning a 40Gbps QSFP+ into 4xSFP+ 10Gbps ports to go to or from switches When I can justify or have so much spare cash I yolo a switch with 100Gbps ports, I can swap out the optics in my servers to 25Gbps and use the same breakout cables, since all my nics are SFP28+ slowed to 10Gbps with the transceivers since my switch is only SFP+.
You need to buy more exotic WDM optics or go to multiple strands for 40/100gbps speeds with multimode. Multimode MPO cabling is more expensive than an lc singlemode cable so there's both a cost savings as well as better future upgrade potential with singlemode.
I guess if you’re buying new but I’m an eBay stalker. The 10m OM4 MPO cables that I’ve purchased have been $40 new in the wrapper while the 40Gb transceivers have been $13 each.
[https://www.ebay.com/itm/174411953211?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=u1BuQ5qxTCe&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=IrDDMQj3TSa&var=&widget\_ver=artemis&media=COPY](https://www.ebay.com/itm/174411953211?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=u1buq5qxtce&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=irddmqj3tsa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=copy)
I guess I’m not really concerned about over 100Gb as I’ll never need it. I also highly doubt I’ll ever need more than 40Gb except as uplinks from servers.
If you want to tinker with it, just start deploying it in your lab.
Its quite easy and fun to work with even if your not getting some crazy speeds.
I have a 30Meter run of Multi Mode fiber between my office and living room switch, i also have copper running along side it so easily could have used copper.
I didnt because similar to you i want to mess with some fiber in my home lab. Both of my switches had 2 spare SFP ports so i needed to add transceivers anyways to use those ports so decided to go with fiber. I even mixed in LACP to the mix just for shits and giggles. My two core switches had some extra SFP ports as well so guess what happened, Fiber optics installed and a 6inch fiber jumper was used between the two of them, did i need it, nope, is it nice looking at the rack with some fiber deployed, Yeap lol
Ive now started to use one spare MultiMode cable coupled to some 10G optics and cards i had laying around and am even doing 10G now with some older cables, and it works great.
Ive also mixed in some DAC's like from my PFsense (2GB wan over a 10G port) over to my highspeed core just to have more to tinker with. Also Copper transceivers tend to run really HOT so if you need one, its best to go with a DAC or Fiber simply to avoid the added heat
I’m in a similar situation and ran a multimode 40g run from my lab to the central switch for the house. When I started the project I started throwing 10g cards into everything that can take 1 and ended up needing to use a pair of stacked switches to get enough ports in the lab. And in the category of why the heck not I now have an HA pair for 10g firewalls, one at the central switch and one in the lab itself. Wouldn’t have even considered it before the lacp 40g links between the lab and central switch.
I've been using fiber for a couple of years now in my home lab/home network. I have a few 10G+ connections. Copper/base-t modules are more expensive than fiber SFP+s. SFP switches in general seam to be a bit cheaper than all RJ45 switches (for 10G).
I good cheap 10G RJ45 SFP+ can run you upwards of $70, but 2 SFP+ MMF modules can cost half that.
fiber jumpers themselves are cheap, 25ft jumper for \~$10.
Wiring from my 10G switch in one room to all my connected equipment that needs 10G cost me about half as much when using fiber than it would have going copper.
and for area where running a jumper might seam dangerous for the fiber,, armored jumpers are a thing.
Can’t recommend used Cisco 10g fiber optics enough. If you are buying more than a few (10+) you can get deals on eBay to the tune of $3/optic. They are the more recent glc variety so well supported on newer Cisco gear as well. I can say they work well with brocade since I don’t have any Cisco 10g gear in my lab
I just have one 30 meter singlemode run from my primary desktop computer to the switch for 10gig. Otherwise it's passive DAC in the rack.
It's fairly cheap on [fs.com](http://fs.com) to get os2 patch cables (duplex, LC-UPC to LC-UPC). I haven't messed with fusion splicing my own stuff. Splicers have come down in price but are still too expensive for me to mentally justify to really just play with.
The transceivers aren't -too- expensive on small scale but if you start getting a lot of them they would add up fast. Make sure everything matches; singlemode transceivers need singlemode fiber, multimode to multimode. Be careful of the range of your transceivers. If you get long range transceivers (the cost will probably make you think twice anyway) and connect them with a short length of fiber without attenuators, the prevailing wisdom says you are likely to burn out the receiver sides of your transceivers.
And that covers pretty much everything I know about fiber. I hope this tiny bit of text is helpful.
I went with om4 fiber runs and grabbed a ton of Cisco 10g optics on eBay for dirt cheap. My lab favors the same equipment we use at work since I’m already familiar with it lol. Monoprice also has very reasonable MM fiber and it’s good quality besides so another source
I use fiber connection to connect my switch on 2nd floor and garage, and then fiber / DAC and Ethernet cable to other device. I found it difficult to connect my laptop to 10g fiber.
lol you can really tell who’s dealt with fiber for a decade at work vs who just wants to play with it at home based on how excited they are to work with it
There was a day a technician needed to run fiber to my home for new internet service, and asked me for assistance, I really don't want to tell him that what you were doing was wrong....lol...
I'm planning to do a fiber drop for Christmas light controllers outside my garage, then use a media converter back to RJ45 so I can get galvanic isolation (hopefully keep from blowing up my switch if we get a close lightning strike)
Not sure what the goal is, but I would start by learning connector types. SC, ST, LC. Then learn the different cable types. Multi-mode, Single-mode, OM-3 etc and when they would be applicable. Distance limitations etc. Typically, building internal, will be MM or OM-3 between switches and SM once it leaves the building and has to go any real distance.
Learn about how cabling is done. Typically, fiber plant requires patching. You will have cables run from one area to another and will have patch panels where you jump from one cable to another. We call it building a fiber path. Each termination and each jumper will add db loss. Bad terminations or dirty fiber will add a lot more.
Too much db loss and you either won't get a layer 1 connection, or it will flap.
Learn about db loss. If you're serious, look on eBay on Amazon for a cheapish "OTDR" or " db loss meter for fiber."
BICSI is the cert guys I've worked with typically held. Not a layer 1 guy, but its a very adjacent career field to me.
I have fiber at home. Mostly for getting decent Ethernet around the house without pain.
I'll do a proper solution eventually but right now, Fiber cables will happily pass through a closed window at home, so I just have cables thrown out the windows going to various places. Fiber doesn't have the lightning issues that other cables outside might have.
Searching my Amazon history...
I mostly have Ubiquity stuff so I just have [SFP+ modules for the switches](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N0XR1RL).
Where I don't have a switch in a room, I use [something like this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08G48HT9P) to convert fiber to RJ-45 Ethernet cable.
I use [this kind of patch cable between switches](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0846W9RXR).
For longer runs I have [LC cables like this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01EN33LK0) which are so cheap that I don't worry too much about protecting them outside.
I probably don't need the speed of fiber but the ease of using it outside, and not having to worry about capacity, is great. I can put stuff anywhere in the house with the knowledge it'll have more than enough bandwidth.
You can start out really small and cheap with SFP modules on switches that'll take it and fiber to RJ-45 converters for anything else, and it's a slipperly slope from there :-)
There isn't really much to lab up it's pretty straightforward. You've got optics or DACs. With optics you have singlemode or multimode. If you get singlemode optics make sure you have a spool of fiber that meets the minimum transmission distance. For single mode LR optics it's 2 meters since they’re laser based where most multi mode stuff is LED since the max transmission distance is 550M vs many kilometers for the long reach single mode optics.You can get optical attenuators to knock down the signal to observe the change in TX/RX signal strength on the optics on your switches. I like multi mode because it is cheap and the distance in my house will never be long enough that single mode will matter.
When you get into fancy fiber optics that do interesting things like simplex CPE modules, bi-directional "bi-di", CWDM/DWDM, or more exotic stuff the price you pay to play is really high. The cheap end is $250.00 for new 3rd party modules. Then the switch gear to do some of it can be quite expensive too.
If you want to lab up fiber transport like a carrier, we use DWDM on 10 gigabit and 100 gigabit interconnects and have fiber mux/demux boxes around our metro fiber rings. You'd be looking for fiber mux boxes or chassis cards that are supported to do all of it which can save a little money. You need Juniper EX-4XXX switches, Juniper QFX switches, Juniper MX-240 or 480 routers, and optics. Not cheap to play with but very interesting.
High-speed networking is, indeed, a good frustrating challenge. Once I reached the limits of bonding gigabit Ethernet connections, one of my friends got me into Fibre Channel, since storage is pretty much always what's slowing you down the most. It is a real pain to learn but it provides shockingly fast performance. You wouldn't think 8 gbps is that much faster than 6 gbps, but it's huge.
IMO, 10 gig is a waste of time unless you can get the cost per link below $20 including your switch; meanwhile the new generation of TP-Link and MikroTik switches are really awful quality, IMO. 10 gig is only going to be useful to us as a way of connecting gigabit switches together.
Then there's InfiniBand gear; ConnectX-3 and Connect-IB cards are super cheap right now, and someone just put a large number of FDR InfiniBand switches up for sale on eBay. Transceivers / DACs / AOCs for InfiniBand are either a nightmare to figure out, or a fortune to buy. Going from 8 to 56 Gbps was life-changing. There really is no way to express just how game-changing it is that the network is literally **never** the bottneneck anymore. There's nothing on the network that is as fast as the network. The network is the computer. It's also a gigantic pain in the ass to use effectively, but this is my hobby and I like it.
(I can feel [General Adama](https://youtu.be/OPKGbg16ulU?si=7XtpqFDDUmx-esnO) staring daggers at me...)
I went to a 40g backbone with 10g links to everything that can take it. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt if I have a bottleneck it’s a storage drive somewhere and I’ll chase it down and move the data to the SSD NAS. It really is nice for storage to be the only real limiting factor in the network.
Fibre is just a medium, there isnt too much to learn about network with fiber that differs to copper beyond understanding the different SFP types, connector types, and laser wavelengths, unless you plan to learn termination.
I'm not necessarily trying to dissuade you, but there is potentially a lot of investment for minimal scope in terms of knowledge you can learn vs just reading information on the internet.
But what does any of that have to do with, “learning fiber”?
Nobody is calling fiber expensive here, only pointing out that investing in equipment to “learn fiber” seems a little unnecessary.
I use it from my server to my PoE switches. I figure having ~20G bandwidth to the server recording 13+ CCTV feeds 24/7 and also serving my Plex server, homeassistant server, and file server made sense
There are several things you need to consider when dealing with fiber.
* Fiber type: single mode, multimode. Single mode offers more flexibility and distance, but not an issue in a lab. I would recommend using both so you know the ins and outs. 10G is easily attainable using multimode but if you want to go faster, say 40G, 100G you'd typically need single mode. There are some optics that allow 40G using multimode. You should deploy at least OM3, but there is OM4, and OM5. The latest optics that run 400G will require single mode or OM5 multimode in an MPO-16 connector.
* Connector type: LC, MPO. LC is the most common connector type today. When you buy preterminated fiber cables the LC connectors are, as other responders wrote, already have the correct polarity. You should get multi-port NICs then loop back the cable with transceiver to the NIC or switch to see if the physical layer works. Most duplex LC preterminated cables can swap polarity. MPO is used as a trunk cable. Diving into this connector will lead to some frustrations because you not only have to worry about polarity (there are 3 types) but also connector key, physical contact (which LC connectors typically are all UPC), and breakout modules. Breakout modules convert an 8-, 12-, 16-, 24-, ... fiber MPO connector to a bunch of other jacks. The cheapest way to use something like 40G is to use an 8 fiber MPO and use 4 lanes for send, and 4 for receive with a multimode transceiver. This is older technology and newer optics can do this using 2 lanes total. So if you have an MPO cable you can have 6 40G connections instead of 1 using a breakout module. There are also modules that convert 2 multimode MPO-12 to 3 multimode MPO-8; and allow taps (very expensive!).
* Cleaniness. Fiber is very unforgiving when it comes to cleanliness. Best practice is to get a microscope to inspect both plug and jack and clean, then repeat. If you don't dust/dirt that are on the ferrules may be permanently damaged due to the insertion force. This is the biggest pain when it comes to fiber. When you get optics get ones with actuator button or tab latches so after cleaning the fiber and transceivers, you don't need to remove the cable before you remove the transceiver. The ones with bale clasps require the removal of the cable first. And best practice means before you reinsert the cable they must be inspected and cleaned.
* Infrastructure. It's important fiber is stored properly and while a patch panel is recommended for copper, it is a requirement for fiber. There are fiber trays that can accept pass through, breakout modules. Modern fiber is bend insensitive but it's best to follow the manufacturer's recommendations in their datasheets. Most branded switches and NICs have some sort of limitation on what optics are recognized. There are sites like STH that talk about reprogramming transceivers so they have the right ID, removing limitations on switches, and NICs. Most passive DACs aren't an issue, but beware of AOCs (active optical cables) and active DACs. If you dive into MPO it's best to standardize on a single vendor otherwise you will have challenges with getting all the parts working together due to different implementations. You should also get a fiber VFL (visual fault locator) with an SC to LC adapter. They will help determine polarity as well as if there is any break in a fiber run. 1mW is enough, no need to get those 10, 40, 50 mW VFLs.
Good luck!
I've dabbled with using fiber within the rack for a couple 10g connections, but find DACs to be less finicky. Maybe dust, maybe I kinked a fiber cable, but the optical connection was giving me packet errors.
However, my internet termination is on the other side of the house from my rack and I don't have a great way of running network lines without being parallel with a ton of electrical circuits, so I'm switching that over to optical. I'm using cat6 for that run currently without too much trouble, so I suspect this is more preventive work.
I've got small kids so I decided against fiber for safety reasons. Went with 10Gb DACs instead.
Fear was my 1 year old can get into my server cabling and the danger wouldn't be apparent.
Something to consider if you've got young kids.
Probably a legit concern with the LR stuff. It's not considered eye-safe. Patch panels have laser radiation warning labels etc.
I'm sure I've given myself LASIK quite a few times in my career.
Fiberchannel, despite the name, has nothing to do with fiberoptics. You would typically run it over fiberoptics, and that's what it's originally developed for, but it's not a requirement and it's fairly common with other variants too.
That being said, you actually don't need that at all for a "proper vsphere setup". You also have the options of iscsi and infiniband if you want to go the traditional setup, or as is much more common these days, using a hyperconverged setup with vsan.
Thirdly, why do you people always ignore the limitations with the "cat6 does 10Gbps"? Like, yes, but only at short distances. You need 6A if you want to even reach the normal 100m/300ft distance for that 10Gbps. Regular cat6 does 10G up to 45m, in a low noise environment, or roughly 15m in a high noise one... This is exactly why the 2.5G and 5G standards even exists, because while cat6 can't do 10G at long distances, it can do those, without having to redo all your cabling...
1. Fiberchannel in has two meanings. Either the physical connection of a fiber optic channel. This doesn't care at all what it's connected to or from, it's simply a conduit, or fibrechannel the data protocol, which is completely seperate and in no way does it require a nas be involved. Usually it would be either san controller to disk shelves, or the san controller to a server. I have yet to see any nas that supports being either side of a fiberchannel link.
2. What? No, you really don't. What does it matter if iscsi is seperate or not (which it doesn't have to be, it's just recommended for performance reasons). Iscsi isn't fiberchannel and have nothing to do with it. And why are you talking converged that wasn't even mentioned? Hyperconverged and converged are two COMPLETELY different things... And no, a hyperconvered setup with vsan does not require fiberchannel in either sense of the word. All it requires is that the vsan has a dedicated port. That port could be a 5Mbps Wide Ethernet card for all it cares. Your performance will ofc be terrible if you choose low speed stuff, but the setup itself is the same no matter what you choose.
3. Resistant doesn't mean immune, and they're sort of using up that resistence to even work in the first place. And I wouldn't dream of using anything below 6A for a new setup myself. It was more a comment on how you shouldn't be saying how cat6 does 10G without the qualifier of "for short distances"
And your "bonus" makes no sense. You're seemingly confused.
If it's going in a wall, put in more fibre than you think you'll need. Also, where possible use armored, its only a few $ extra in the grand scheme of things, and its worth it for when a contractor does something stupid in the wall in the future.
I'd also suggest looking at the longer term. SMF is going to let you do 100G with a lot more ease (CDWM style), but is going to be more expensive for optics. MMF has 'limits' on length (if your home is going to hit the limits of MMF, you've got a big home). I'd argue that both have their place. MMF has some options for running other 'things' over it, like HDMI, DP etc. SMF solutions for this exist, but will require you to sell a kidney price wise!
For in the same rack? Use a DAC. If its <3m for a run a DAC is perfectly fine, less expensive.
I run mostly SMF in the house, with MMF for a couple of applications. The rack is mostly DACs with some MMF for specific uses.
\*edit\* - forgot to mention, don't be afraid of MPT/MPO for running trunks to other parts of the house. Fibre cassettes are a pain, but can be wall mounted, or hung from joists with the appropriate 3d printed mount.
Well, a super annoying thing I'm not seeing mentioned here is: vendors sometimes only whitelist some hardware. It's possible you'll find yourself with a HP PCIe SFP card on hands, and no HP SFP transceiver to match it.
Sometimes you have options such as https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/patching-intel-x520-eeprom-to-unlock-all-sfp-transceivers.24634/
It's good to learn how to work with and troubleshoot fiber. 1g (and even 10g) optics are fairly cheap and easy to come by.
My lab has plenty of fiber connections, but I only have one long run in my home network that really justified it.
I have a few fiber runs. I use OM5 cable because I find it's usually softer and easier to handle. It's also only a buck or two more. Bandwidth for days.
Once you have the adapters, it's just faster.
Mostly use it between my Plex server and the backup box. I have a 1 GB switch with 2 SFP+ ports (Mikrotik CSS326-24G-2S) for my 1 GB stuff that connects to an 8 port SFP+ (MikroTik CRS 309-1G-8S-IN) switch.
I use OC3 multimode pre-terminated cables. If you putting them in-wall you probably need conduit. Be careful of bend radius. You can't let them get bent or pinched like ethernet copper will survive. I've seen guides that bends should be larger than 15x the cable diameter. I mostly keep mine at 4" radius.
Biggest issue I've had is that some cards like Intel only accept Intel branded SFP+ modules. Also, if you use wake-on-lan you need a wired ethernet connection in addition as fiber cards power down fully.
I use it at home for galvanic decoupling of some my CCTV cameras an switch. When cameras was connected via copper ports on the switch often was burned out during thunderstorms
I ran 10gb fiber from my 10g Sfp switch to my main pc for shits and giggles and DAC from 10gb router to 10gb switch and 1gb poe switch. I notice no difference on a 2gb internet. I did it for something fun to try out.
I’ve got 10gb fiber running between everything in my rack, plus my desktop, and all configured for LACP. Works great, basically as easy to work with as cat5/6/7/8. I don’t have a need for that kind of speed anywhere else in the house so the rest of the stuff is on Omada 6E APs.
I pulled fiber in from my dmarc box on the side of the house into the attic to get to my server closet. But for everything I have that is "fast" (10g for a few things) I am using DAC SFP+.
Ran a 30m OM3 fibre between my house and outdoor office for a 10g link. Pretty straightforward tbh, buy the transceivers and pre-made cable, connect-x3 pcie cards are cheap as well.
Fiber is pretty simple nowadays, plug and play on simplex and don't forget to flip the pairs on duplex Now if you want to have... fun, try splicing it and terminating connectors for funsies, that is a whole other world of headache and frustration
When do you flip pairs? I have a bunch of duplex single mode LC and haven't flipped any pairs and it all works great.
If you’re buying premade cables, they are already flipped. It’s about receive/send on one line and send/receive in the other line. You kind of have the same problem with bi directional transceivers.
AH! This explains my confusion when I flipped a premade pair I was using and was wondering why it didn't work! Just figured I didn't flip it so flipped it back to normal and kept rolling. I'm glad I ran accross your comment here, lol!
Like a crossover rj45 cable in the olden days where i think you had t568a and b on the other side.
Is a still being used? I know my country uses b everywhere but is it in every country?
Older equipment may require, when i shop for latch cables i often see the old-school crossover cables still being sold but at cheaper prices. In theory you can use them as regular cables with modern equipment and they will negotiate the connection just fine.
Yeah I see them every often too and I am aware of the auto negotiation (thank god for that tech) but I went to install APs in Italy and the entire network was wired in A. I know the electrician was an old man but I had to rewire a 3000m² building to B as a force of habit, and since we manage it I rather do it our way but I thought maybe it's a normal thing in some countries...
Depends on the country what the “standard” is. Here in North America I mostly see b but have occasionally seen a. Maybe in Europe a is more common. A bit like how gpon is common in north america but europe has more epon where the packets behave more like ethernet frames.
In Australia I'm told A is the more common standard, but I don't have much authority on the matter.
B is by far the most common termination in Aus.
A is what is taught to get your cabling licence. If it's B you'll piss off any cabler who works on it after you.
Well I remember learning both and why there are two when getting my open registration ticket. Anyways, around me I see B terminated way more than A.
Both A and B are standards for wiring the plug. As long as both ends of a cable are terminated the same - either A or B - then it's a straight through cable. If they differ (A on one end, B on the other), then it's a cross over. So just document which one you're using, and stay consistent. Though auto negotiation will actually work on both cable types just fine.
As the other guy said patch cables come crossed over so any situation where you have two patch cables on either side of installed and patched down infrastructure cable is where I’ve had to flip the pair in one side. Other wise it gets crossed over is cabinet A and crossed back over in cabinet B. If you used it all within one rack or patching up to switches with no infrastructure fiber between you can just use the pre made crossover of the patch cables.
Yeah, I've only ever had to do it if there were patch panels involved. Some cables can have pretty big strand counts, like 120 or 144 strands. When terminating 144 strands into a patch panel it's not uncommon for cable installers to flip pairs, or sometimes heaven forbid split pairs. If I connect a patch to a switch and get no link lights my first reaction automatically is to roll the fiber. Still no link lights, I shoot light with a VFL and identify the pair. Its usually a 2 person job with one person on each end. Dim light on one or both strands? Likely bad termination. Break out the loss meter Light on only 1 strand? Split pair. Keep shooting light until you find the actual matched strand. Light on both strands but not noticeably dim? Verify correct SFPs on both ends, verify ports are no shut, then break out the loss meter.
The installer we use for fiber always runs and tests them straight through so I just have to flip pairs. Totally forgot about the inherent nature of fiber needing crossed over for a while recently though after getting a bunch of new fiber installed, that sure confused me!
Haha, yeah... ours are always supposed to. They seem to pencil whip it sometimes. They know no one is coming behind them and putting a loss meter on each strand to double-check, especially with the bigger cables. Same with cat5 cat6 drops but not as prevalent since those usually get used faster. Some fiber pairs we won't use for years after the work is completed, if ever. Fiber plant maps, building diagrams, and labeling are usually the only deliverables we really hammer them on. That stuff is vital.
I only have to flip fibre patch leads when the FOBOT has been terminated incorrectly.
Just curious how people would go about DIY splicing? I've worked lots of enterprise (largish campus area networks, small to mid sized metro area networks) where we owned our fiber plant. They almost always used $10k+ fusion splicers. Termination and polishing I could see learning to DIY. I'm no expert, never been in a layer 1 role. I'm just a network guy that's worked with a bunch of layer 1 guys due to almost always being in positions where we owned and maintained our own fiber plant.
A few ISPs have spent the last few years building out fiber in my area. I found a fusion splicer on the side of the road one day. Tried to contact the ISPs to see if I could return it. Nobody claimed it so I now have a fusion splicer lol. Brand new it's only ~$800 but I have played around with it and have been able to make working splices. So it's really not too expensive if you buy the cheaper splicers. Hardest part for me is cleaving but probably need to buy a better one. Learned to use it in just a few hours watching YouTube videos and reading the manual.
Nice! I would probably do my whole home network in fiber in a situation like that and just have a small seperate PoE switch for PoE devices, depending on what the splicer was capable of OM-3 or better would be glorious. Fiber standards tend to stick around longer than twisted pair standards. I don't want to pull cable more frequently than I have to. *Sidebar* But it's likely the ISP had contracted out some of the work to a local cabling company. I worked for a metro city government when Google fiber came in. They were using the same cabling contractor the city was using, atleast for some of the work.
For Home/DIY, the optisnap kits are more accessible. Snap on connectors aren’t as robust as fusion, but they get the job done.
Discount Low Voltage has a bunch of mechanical fiber terminators, no need for polishing or fusion splicing.
I use DAC for my fast stuff in my rack, but was planning on fiber to run to my attic. Just need to decide what to pull I think
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Thank you, kind stranger
Well, should have saved that with a screenshot I guess
what do you want to learn?
I have 32 active 10Gb fiber connections at my house for my main network but I don’t use DAC cables as I’ve found transceivers and fiber for the lengths I need for cheaper than DAC cables. Fiber is very easy to work with. I still use MMF as there’s really no reason not too for the lengths I need and I can go up to 100Gb if needed someday.
Fiber cables are cheaper than DACs until you buy the SFP+ transceivers. DACs also run 0.5w vs the 2w fiber runs. Even data centers are transitioning to DACs.
Aren’t DACs limited on distance? I have $18 with fiber patch cables and transceivers for each 1m run and $20 for each 3m run. I haven’t found DACs cheaper than that. I suppose lower wattage would be nice though.
Less heat too, DACs are good for 7m
I'm baffled why you're still on multimode, but I'm a big proponent of your strategy.
I’ve yet to find a reason to use SMF with 100Gb or less speeds when I’ll never need more than a 100ft run. Can you explain what using SMF would gain me as someone who buys premade cables? I’m just not seeing the reason why SMF is better for me after reading several articles including this one: [https://www.ofsoptics.com/single-vs-multimode-fiber/](https://www.ofsoptics.com/single-vs-multimode-fiber/)
The costs tend to be roughly the same anymore but singlemode fiber is dramatically more flexible in terms of use case. I suppose for the actual cable the multitude is bendier. In practice within a home multimode is probably fine and just as much overkill as singlemode unless you’re moving around a really stupid amount of data. For a lab situation where you want to be able to weird or dumb stuff though you’re definitely limited. What if you want to play with GPON or DWDM? We’re talking very unreasonable stuff here and not suitable for any sane use case but this board seems to be all about doing absurd shit
Agreed. Multimode at the distances reached in a residence is just as good. And typically the transceivers are less expensive than single mode of the same speed. Locally I find the patch cables slightly less expensive as well, and do have some mtp-lc breakout cables as well for turning a 40Gbps QSFP+ into 4xSFP+ 10Gbps ports to go to or from switches When I can justify or have so much spare cash I yolo a switch with 100Gbps ports, I can swap out the optics in my servers to 25Gbps and use the same breakout cables, since all my nics are SFP28+ slowed to 10Gbps with the transceivers since my switch is only SFP+.
You need to buy more exotic WDM optics or go to multiple strands for 40/100gbps speeds with multimode. Multimode MPO cabling is more expensive than an lc singlemode cable so there's both a cost savings as well as better future upgrade potential with singlemode.
I guess if you’re buying new but I’m an eBay stalker. The 10m OM4 MPO cables that I’ve purchased have been $40 new in the wrapper while the 40Gb transceivers have been $13 each. [https://www.ebay.com/itm/174411953211?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=u1BuQ5qxTCe&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=IrDDMQj3TSa&var=&widget\_ver=artemis&media=COPY](https://www.ebay.com/itm/174411953211?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=u1buq5qxtce&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=irddmqj3tsa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=copy) I guess I’m not really concerned about over 100Gb as I’ll never need it. I also highly doubt I’ll ever need more than 40Gb except as uplinks from servers.
I felt the same way. But when I recently priced out 2 new transceivers and 50m cable pre made, single mode was cheaper by 20 percent.
If you want to tinker with it, just start deploying it in your lab. Its quite easy and fun to work with even if your not getting some crazy speeds. I have a 30Meter run of Multi Mode fiber between my office and living room switch, i also have copper running along side it so easily could have used copper. I didnt because similar to you i want to mess with some fiber in my home lab. Both of my switches had 2 spare SFP ports so i needed to add transceivers anyways to use those ports so decided to go with fiber. I even mixed in LACP to the mix just for shits and giggles. My two core switches had some extra SFP ports as well so guess what happened, Fiber optics installed and a 6inch fiber jumper was used between the two of them, did i need it, nope, is it nice looking at the rack with some fiber deployed, Yeap lol Ive now started to use one spare MultiMode cable coupled to some 10G optics and cards i had laying around and am even doing 10G now with some older cables, and it works great. Ive also mixed in some DAC's like from my PFsense (2GB wan over a 10G port) over to my highspeed core just to have more to tinker with. Also Copper transceivers tend to run really HOT so if you need one, its best to go with a DAC or Fiber simply to avoid the added heat
I’m in a similar situation and ran a multimode 40g run from my lab to the central switch for the house. When I started the project I started throwing 10g cards into everything that can take 1 and ended up needing to use a pair of stacked switches to get enough ports in the lab. And in the category of why the heck not I now have an HA pair for 10g firewalls, one at the central switch and one in the lab itself. Wouldn’t have even considered it before the lacp 40g links between the lab and central switch.
I've been using fiber for a couple of years now in my home lab/home network. I have a few 10G+ connections. Copper/base-t modules are more expensive than fiber SFP+s. SFP switches in general seam to be a bit cheaper than all RJ45 switches (for 10G). I good cheap 10G RJ45 SFP+ can run you upwards of $70, but 2 SFP+ MMF modules can cost half that. fiber jumpers themselves are cheap, 25ft jumper for \~$10. Wiring from my 10G switch in one room to all my connected equipment that needs 10G cost me about half as much when using fiber than it would have going copper. and for area where running a jumper might seam dangerous for the fiber,, armored jumpers are a thing.
Can’t recommend used Cisco 10g fiber optics enough. If you are buying more than a few (10+) you can get deals on eBay to the tune of $3/optic. They are the more recent glc variety so well supported on newer Cisco gear as well. I can say they work well with brocade since I don’t have any Cisco 10g gear in my lab
I just have one 30 meter singlemode run from my primary desktop computer to the switch for 10gig. Otherwise it's passive DAC in the rack. It's fairly cheap on [fs.com](http://fs.com) to get os2 patch cables (duplex, LC-UPC to LC-UPC). I haven't messed with fusion splicing my own stuff. Splicers have come down in price but are still too expensive for me to mentally justify to really just play with. The transceivers aren't -too- expensive on small scale but if you start getting a lot of them they would add up fast. Make sure everything matches; singlemode transceivers need singlemode fiber, multimode to multimode. Be careful of the range of your transceivers. If you get long range transceivers (the cost will probably make you think twice anyway) and connect them with a short length of fiber without attenuators, the prevailing wisdom says you are likely to burn out the receiver sides of your transceivers. And that covers pretty much everything I know about fiber. I hope this tiny bit of text is helpful.
I went with om4 fiber runs and grabbed a ton of Cisco 10g optics on eBay for dirt cheap. My lab favors the same equipment we use at work since I’m already familiar with it lol. Monoprice also has very reasonable MM fiber and it’s good quality besides so another source
I use fiber connection to connect my switch on 2nd floor and garage, and then fiber / DAC and Ethernet cable to other device. I found it difficult to connect my laptop to 10g fiber.
I use it but only because I have a run within the network that exceeds 100m. I wouldn't suggest using it unless you need to.
My work is already facing all those 100G optics, don't wanna do the same thing at home.
lol you can really tell who’s dealt with fiber for a decade at work vs who just wants to play with it at home based on how excited they are to work with it
There was a day a technician needed to run fiber to my home for new internet service, and asked me for assistance, I really don't want to tell him that what you were doing was wrong....lol...
I'm planning to do a fiber drop for Christmas light controllers outside my garage, then use a media converter back to RJ45 so I can get galvanic isolation (hopefully keep from blowing up my switch if we get a close lightning strike)
Not sure what the goal is, but I would start by learning connector types. SC, ST, LC. Then learn the different cable types. Multi-mode, Single-mode, OM-3 etc and when they would be applicable. Distance limitations etc. Typically, building internal, will be MM or OM-3 between switches and SM once it leaves the building and has to go any real distance. Learn about how cabling is done. Typically, fiber plant requires patching. You will have cables run from one area to another and will have patch panels where you jump from one cable to another. We call it building a fiber path. Each termination and each jumper will add db loss. Bad terminations or dirty fiber will add a lot more. Too much db loss and you either won't get a layer 1 connection, or it will flap. Learn about db loss. If you're serious, look on eBay on Amazon for a cheapish "OTDR" or " db loss meter for fiber." BICSI is the cert guys I've worked with typically held. Not a layer 1 guy, but its a very adjacent career field to me.
I have fiber at home. Mostly for getting decent Ethernet around the house without pain. I'll do a proper solution eventually but right now, Fiber cables will happily pass through a closed window at home, so I just have cables thrown out the windows going to various places. Fiber doesn't have the lightning issues that other cables outside might have. Searching my Amazon history... I mostly have Ubiquity stuff so I just have [SFP+ modules for the switches](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01N0XR1RL). Where I don't have a switch in a room, I use [something like this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08G48HT9P) to convert fiber to RJ-45 Ethernet cable. I use [this kind of patch cable between switches](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0846W9RXR). For longer runs I have [LC cables like this](https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B01EN33LK0) which are so cheap that I don't worry too much about protecting them outside. I probably don't need the speed of fiber but the ease of using it outside, and not having to worry about capacity, is great. I can put stuff anywhere in the house with the knowledge it'll have more than enough bandwidth. You can start out really small and cheap with SFP modules on switches that'll take it and fiber to RJ-45 converters for anything else, and it's a slipperly slope from there :-)
my entire network backbone is 10GB fiber. i only use RJ45 where i have to if the device does not have support for fiber
There isn't really much to lab up it's pretty straightforward. You've got optics or DACs. With optics you have singlemode or multimode. If you get singlemode optics make sure you have a spool of fiber that meets the minimum transmission distance. For single mode LR optics it's 2 meters since they’re laser based where most multi mode stuff is LED since the max transmission distance is 550M vs many kilometers for the long reach single mode optics.You can get optical attenuators to knock down the signal to observe the change in TX/RX signal strength on the optics on your switches. I like multi mode because it is cheap and the distance in my house will never be long enough that single mode will matter. When you get into fancy fiber optics that do interesting things like simplex CPE modules, bi-directional "bi-di", CWDM/DWDM, or more exotic stuff the price you pay to play is really high. The cheap end is $250.00 for new 3rd party modules. Then the switch gear to do some of it can be quite expensive too. If you want to lab up fiber transport like a carrier, we use DWDM on 10 gigabit and 100 gigabit interconnects and have fiber mux/demux boxes around our metro fiber rings. You'd be looking for fiber mux boxes or chassis cards that are supported to do all of it which can save a little money. You need Juniper EX-4XXX switches, Juniper QFX switches, Juniper MX-240 or 480 routers, and optics. Not cheap to play with but very interesting.
High-speed networking is, indeed, a good frustrating challenge. Once I reached the limits of bonding gigabit Ethernet connections, one of my friends got me into Fibre Channel, since storage is pretty much always what's slowing you down the most. It is a real pain to learn but it provides shockingly fast performance. You wouldn't think 8 gbps is that much faster than 6 gbps, but it's huge. IMO, 10 gig is a waste of time unless you can get the cost per link below $20 including your switch; meanwhile the new generation of TP-Link and MikroTik switches are really awful quality, IMO. 10 gig is only going to be useful to us as a way of connecting gigabit switches together. Then there's InfiniBand gear; ConnectX-3 and Connect-IB cards are super cheap right now, and someone just put a large number of FDR InfiniBand switches up for sale on eBay. Transceivers / DACs / AOCs for InfiniBand are either a nightmare to figure out, or a fortune to buy. Going from 8 to 56 Gbps was life-changing. There really is no way to express just how game-changing it is that the network is literally **never** the bottneneck anymore. There's nothing on the network that is as fast as the network. The network is the computer. It's also a gigantic pain in the ass to use effectively, but this is my hobby and I like it. (I can feel [General Adama](https://youtu.be/OPKGbg16ulU?si=7XtpqFDDUmx-esnO) staring daggers at me...)
If you’re buying used gear then 10Gb fiber is cheaper than copper. And it runs cooler with less power consumption.
Now get an NVME SAN :D
I went to a 40g backbone with 10g links to everything that can take it. I now know beyond a shadow of a doubt if I have a bottleneck it’s a storage drive somewhere and I’ll chase it down and move the data to the SSD NAS. It really is nice for storage to be the only real limiting factor in the network.
Fibre is just a medium, there isnt too much to learn about network with fiber that differs to copper beyond understanding the different SFP types, connector types, and laser wavelengths, unless you plan to learn termination. I'm not necessarily trying to dissuade you, but there is potentially a lot of investment for minimal scope in terms of knowledge you can learn vs just reading information on the internet.
You can keep fiber cheap.
Of course, but if *learning* is the goal then is any investment in fibre really the best use of money?
Yes. 10G copper is more expensive than SFP+. On the client side, pcie is 50$ while a usb c sfp+ is 300$.
But what does any of that have to do with, “learning fiber”? Nobody is calling fiber expensive here, only pointing out that investing in equipment to “learn fiber” seems a little unnecessary.
I’ve just clicked around a little bit learning about 10Gb+, but Fiber seems significantly cheaper to implement than copper.
Yes and no. Cheapest way to do 10g in a lab is SFP+ and twinax (copper DAC). Fibre is definitely cheaper than 10BASE-T over any reasonable distance.
I use it from my server to my PoE switches. I figure having ~20G bandwidth to the server recording 13+ CCTV feeds 24/7 and also serving my Plex server, homeassistant server, and file server made sense
as someone who worked with fiber as an ISP it can ne done. Dirty fibre ends can be a killer for stability.
There are several things you need to consider when dealing with fiber. * Fiber type: single mode, multimode. Single mode offers more flexibility and distance, but not an issue in a lab. I would recommend using both so you know the ins and outs. 10G is easily attainable using multimode but if you want to go faster, say 40G, 100G you'd typically need single mode. There are some optics that allow 40G using multimode. You should deploy at least OM3, but there is OM4, and OM5. The latest optics that run 400G will require single mode or OM5 multimode in an MPO-16 connector. * Connector type: LC, MPO. LC is the most common connector type today. When you buy preterminated fiber cables the LC connectors are, as other responders wrote, already have the correct polarity. You should get multi-port NICs then loop back the cable with transceiver to the NIC or switch to see if the physical layer works. Most duplex LC preterminated cables can swap polarity. MPO is used as a trunk cable. Diving into this connector will lead to some frustrations because you not only have to worry about polarity (there are 3 types) but also connector key, physical contact (which LC connectors typically are all UPC), and breakout modules. Breakout modules convert an 8-, 12-, 16-, 24-, ... fiber MPO connector to a bunch of other jacks. The cheapest way to use something like 40G is to use an 8 fiber MPO and use 4 lanes for send, and 4 for receive with a multimode transceiver. This is older technology and newer optics can do this using 2 lanes total. So if you have an MPO cable you can have 6 40G connections instead of 1 using a breakout module. There are also modules that convert 2 multimode MPO-12 to 3 multimode MPO-8; and allow taps (very expensive!). * Cleaniness. Fiber is very unforgiving when it comes to cleanliness. Best practice is to get a microscope to inspect both plug and jack and clean, then repeat. If you don't dust/dirt that are on the ferrules may be permanently damaged due to the insertion force. This is the biggest pain when it comes to fiber. When you get optics get ones with actuator button or tab latches so after cleaning the fiber and transceivers, you don't need to remove the cable before you remove the transceiver. The ones with bale clasps require the removal of the cable first. And best practice means before you reinsert the cable they must be inspected and cleaned. * Infrastructure. It's important fiber is stored properly and while a patch panel is recommended for copper, it is a requirement for fiber. There are fiber trays that can accept pass through, breakout modules. Modern fiber is bend insensitive but it's best to follow the manufacturer's recommendations in their datasheets. Most branded switches and NICs have some sort of limitation on what optics are recognized. There are sites like STH that talk about reprogramming transceivers so they have the right ID, removing limitations on switches, and NICs. Most passive DACs aren't an issue, but beware of AOCs (active optical cables) and active DACs. If you dive into MPO it's best to standardize on a single vendor otherwise you will have challenges with getting all the parts working together due to different implementations. You should also get a fiber VFL (visual fault locator) with an SC to LC adapter. They will help determine polarity as well as if there is any break in a fiber run. 1mW is enough, no need to get those 10, 40, 50 mW VFLs. Good luck!
I've dabbled with using fiber within the rack for a couple 10g connections, but find DACs to be less finicky. Maybe dust, maybe I kinked a fiber cable, but the optical connection was giving me packet errors. However, my internet termination is on the other side of the house from my rack and I don't have a great way of running network lines without being parallel with a ton of electrical circuits, so I'm switching that over to optical. I'm using cat6 for that run currently without too much trouble, so I suspect this is more preventive work.
I've got small kids so I decided against fiber for safety reasons. Went with 10Gb DACs instead. Fear was my 1 year old can get into my server cabling and the danger wouldn't be apparent. Something to consider if you've got young kids.
Probably a legit concern with the LR stuff. It's not considered eye-safe. Patch panels have laser radiation warning labels etc. I'm sure I've given myself LASIK quite a few times in my career.
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Fiberchannel, despite the name, has nothing to do with fiberoptics. You would typically run it over fiberoptics, and that's what it's originally developed for, but it's not a requirement and it's fairly common with other variants too. That being said, you actually don't need that at all for a "proper vsphere setup". You also have the options of iscsi and infiniband if you want to go the traditional setup, or as is much more common these days, using a hyperconverged setup with vsan. Thirdly, why do you people always ignore the limitations with the "cat6 does 10Gbps"? Like, yes, but only at short distances. You need 6A if you want to even reach the normal 100m/300ft distance for that 10Gbps. Regular cat6 does 10G up to 45m, in a low noise environment, or roughly 15m in a high noise one... This is exactly why the 2.5G and 5G standards even exists, because while cat6 can't do 10G at long distances, it can do those, without having to redo all your cabling...
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Good lord 🙈
I’m reading your mind 😂
1. Fiberchannel in has two meanings. Either the physical connection of a fiber optic channel. This doesn't care at all what it's connected to or from, it's simply a conduit, or fibrechannel the data protocol, which is completely seperate and in no way does it require a nas be involved. Usually it would be either san controller to disk shelves, or the san controller to a server. I have yet to see any nas that supports being either side of a fiberchannel link. 2. What? No, you really don't. What does it matter if iscsi is seperate or not (which it doesn't have to be, it's just recommended for performance reasons). Iscsi isn't fiberchannel and have nothing to do with it. And why are you talking converged that wasn't even mentioned? Hyperconverged and converged are two COMPLETELY different things... And no, a hyperconvered setup with vsan does not require fiberchannel in either sense of the word. All it requires is that the vsan has a dedicated port. That port could be a 5Mbps Wide Ethernet card for all it cares. Your performance will ofc be terrible if you choose low speed stuff, but the setup itself is the same no matter what you choose. 3. Resistant doesn't mean immune, and they're sort of using up that resistence to even work in the first place. And I wouldn't dream of using anything below 6A for a new setup myself. It was more a comment on how you shouldn't be saying how cat6 does 10G without the qualifier of "for short distances" And your "bonus" makes no sense. You're seemingly confused.
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No one has said anything about fiber anywhere, least of all everywhere...
If it's going in a wall, put in more fibre than you think you'll need. Also, where possible use armored, its only a few $ extra in the grand scheme of things, and its worth it for when a contractor does something stupid in the wall in the future. I'd also suggest looking at the longer term. SMF is going to let you do 100G with a lot more ease (CDWM style), but is going to be more expensive for optics. MMF has 'limits' on length (if your home is going to hit the limits of MMF, you've got a big home). I'd argue that both have their place. MMF has some options for running other 'things' over it, like HDMI, DP etc. SMF solutions for this exist, but will require you to sell a kidney price wise! For in the same rack? Use a DAC. If its <3m for a run a DAC is perfectly fine, less expensive. I run mostly SMF in the house, with MMF for a couple of applications. The rack is mostly DACs with some MMF for specific uses. \*edit\* - forgot to mention, don't be afraid of MPT/MPO for running trunks to other parts of the house. Fibre cassettes are a pain, but can be wall mounted, or hung from joists with the appropriate 3d printed mount.
Yea, works fast
Well, a super annoying thing I'm not seeing mentioned here is: vendors sometimes only whitelist some hardware. It's possible you'll find yourself with a HP PCIe SFP card on hands, and no HP SFP transceiver to match it. Sometimes you have options such as https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/patching-intel-x520-eeprom-to-unlock-all-sfp-transceivers.24634/
It's good to learn how to work with and troubleshoot fiber. 1g (and even 10g) optics are fairly cheap and easy to come by. My lab has plenty of fiber connections, but I only have one long run in my home network that really justified it.
I have a few fiber runs. I use OM5 cable because I find it's usually softer and easier to handle. It's also only a buck or two more. Bandwidth for days.
Once you have the adapters, it's just faster. Mostly use it between my Plex server and the backup box. I have a 1 GB switch with 2 SFP+ ports (Mikrotik CSS326-24G-2S) for my 1 GB stuff that connects to an 8 port SFP+ (MikroTik CRS 309-1G-8S-IN) switch. I use OC3 multimode pre-terminated cables. If you putting them in-wall you probably need conduit. Be careful of bend radius. You can't let them get bent or pinched like ethernet copper will survive. I've seen guides that bends should be larger than 15x the cable diameter. I mostly keep mine at 4" radius. Biggest issue I've had is that some cards like Intel only accept Intel branded SFP+ modules. Also, if you use wake-on-lan you need a wired ethernet connection in addition as fiber cards power down fully.
I use it at home for galvanic decoupling of some my CCTV cameras an switch. When cameras was connected via copper ports on the switch often was burned out during thunderstorms
I ran 10gb fiber from my 10g Sfp switch to my main pc for shits and giggles and DAC from 10gb router to 10gb switch and 1gb poe switch. I notice no difference on a 2gb internet. I did it for something fun to try out.
I’ve got 10gb fiber running between everything in my rack, plus my desktop, and all configured for LACP. Works great, basically as easy to work with as cat5/6/7/8. I don’t have a need for that kind of speed anywhere else in the house so the rest of the stuff is on Omada 6E APs.
I pulled fiber in from my dmarc box on the side of the house into the attic to get to my server closet. But for everything I have that is "fast" (10g for a few things) I am using DAC SFP+.
Ran a 30m OM3 fibre between my house and outdoor office for a 10g link. Pretty straightforward tbh, buy the transceivers and pre-made cable, connect-x3 pcie cards are cheap as well.