Re: [gentoo-project] Call for agenda items - Council meeting on 2022-02-13

[Alec Warner]

On Wed, Feb 2, 2022 at 7:37 AM Andreas K. Huettel <dilfridge@g.o> wrote:
>
> > We are relatively sure about the Networking portion, so I'll present
> > that first. This is the most flexible option we put together, without
> > spending a lot more money for 100Gbit networking options (which are
> > probably overkill).
> >
> > Networking Total: $4159-$4559 USD plus taxes & shipping
> >
> > 1x FS.com S5860-20SQ (high-speed systems) - $1600 USD
> > 1x FS.com S3910-24TF (OOB/IPMI/embedded/non-10G systems) - $369 USD **
> > Nx DAC/optics/cables - up to $1690 USD
> > Nx optical cables - up to $500 USD
> >
> > We also discussed if we might end up with a lot of 1G systems connected
> > to the 2nd switch, and if it should have a 10Gbit uplink to the other
> > switch. I think this is a GOOD idea and we should go ahead with it.  In
> > which case there is a slightly fancier model:
> > 1x FS.com S3910-24TS (OOB/IPMI/embedded/non-10G systems), adds 10G uplink - $769 USD
> >
> > DAC/optics/cables: these are the direct-attach fancy cables or fiber
> > optic transceivers along with cables. We need at most 26x pieces
> > (probably much less), and the most expensive variants are $65/ea for
> > transceiver + cable.
> >
> > Links for the hardware:
> > S5860-20SQ https://www.fs.com/products/108710.html
> > S3910-24TF https://www.fs.com/products/115382.html
> > S3910-24TS https://www.fs.com/products/108712.html
>
> You're essentially writing what you want, but not why you need it. :)
>
> (And no, "we must spend money" is not a good reason.)
>
> Care to explain a bit please what the needs and criteria are? I mean,
> if this were a grant proposal it would be shot down immediately.

Briefly on needs,

Our existing switch is a loaner from OSUOSL.
Our existing switch does not support network technologies we would
likely need when purchasing new server hardware, specifically SFP
connections and 10-25gbps connectivity.
The connectivity is needed for IO that we use to provide virtualized
environments for the community (basically we replicate disks between
physical hosts to enable failover.)

The SFP technology is backwards compatible with converters (to convert
from SFP to ethernet / RJ45 tech), but the converters are a bit
expensive; so it's likely cheaper to buy two switches.
The expensive switch (supports SFP28, 25gpbs, newer tech stack) will
be available for modern hardware.
The cheaper switch (supports ethernet / RJ45) is for ethernet enabled
machines and management ports (OOB, IPMI)

For connectors we will likely need at least 5 SFP cables (2 to connect
the 2 VM hosts together to form a 50gbps bonded link, 2 to connect the
VM hosts to the switch, and 1 uplink from the switch to the OSL.)
We then need: an DAC, to connect the cheaper switch to the faster
switch. We will likely order some spares just to have on hand.
We can re-use the rest of our existing cabling; basically just moving
the ethernet hosts from the loaner switch to the cheap switch; it
should be all RJ45.

-A

>
> Cheers,
> Andreas
>
> --
> Andreas K. Hüttel
> dilfridge@g.o
> Gentoo Linux developer
> (council, toolchain, base-system, perl, libreoffice)