this post was submitted on 30 Nov 2023
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Greetings from the Space Coast of Florida. I have been building my lab slowly over the past 5 years as budget allows. Its time to replace the 2 small switches currently in the stack with one larger unit that will better suit my uses. , I have 2 Proliant 360s, both are gen9. Both systems have 4 gigabit ports, a 100Mb ilo port, and a 2 port 10Mb card. I use an 8 port tp-link that connects them to the WAN through the ISP’s router. The ilos connect through a 10/100 Cisco Catalyst box. My primary PC connects to each HP with a DAC cable from a dual port card. I would like to find a switch that offers both gigabit and 10Gb connections that aren’t just uplink ports. 24 ports or more on the giga side is necessary. Ideally it would be wonderful to find a model on ebay under $150. I have spent many hours looking through listings and researching specs that it has become overwhelming. I feel more lost than when I began the hunt in the first place. I thought the Brocade ICX 6610 was the solution until finding the incredibly pricey licensing requirement necessary to unlock the 10Gb capability. I follow Jeff on his Craft Computing YT channel. He has a video where he got bit by that Brocade gotcha on the 6610. That was the final straw for me to take the action of asking for help in my search. It would have to have a minimum of 24 gigabit ports, three or more sfp+ ports, POE would be nice, but isn’t necessary, all of which would be available in a unit that I could find for a decent price on the used market. I really appreciate any help or advice.

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[–] citizen@sh.itjust.works 1 points 11 months ago

You can get license for free. Read licensing guide. All info still relevant in 2023.

https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/brocade-icx-series-cheap-powerful-10gbe-40gbe-switching.21107/

[–] LeftBoobFreckle@lemmings.world 1 points 11 months ago

Reading your post I was initially going to suggest Brocade from eBay until I got to the end. I'm not familiar with the YouTube video you referenced but I have been very happy with my ICX6610's however I will note they are fairly loud.

Licensing is also not a problem, https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/brocade-icx-series-cheap-powerful-10gbe-40gbe-switching.21107/

https://fohdeesha.com/docs/6610.html

[–] AnAge_OldProb@alien.top 1 points 11 months ago

You don’t need to pay to unlock the brocades. They 7xxx series use honor based licensing and the 6xxx series can just be updated to a known key. So long as you don’t call ruckus support you don’t need to worry about it. Check out https://fohdeesha.com/docs/brocade-overview.html