Quality 10Gb OM3 Fiber Cables

[jgreco]

Nevertheless you point is very important. I don't know why is not pointed more clear on the products itself. Considering how important is to use the right one for reliable connection and what a nightmare would be to replace a tons of connectors one already made.

As with many things, the things that are obvious and intuitive to those of us who have been doing this for decades may not be obvious or intuitive to home users, hobbyists, or other techno-dilettantes. They probably also fail to tell you that sometimes there are different crimpers for different types of crimps, though fortunately a lot of that malarkey is better these days.

 

[Black Ninja]

As with many things, the things that are obvious and intuitive to those of us who have been doing this for decades may not be obvious or intuitive to home users, hobbyists, or other techno-dilettantes. They probably also fail to tell you that sometimes there are different crimpers for different types of crimps, though fortunately a lot of that malarkey is better these days.

You have little bit of a prospective on that. This particular thing is not so obvious. Considering the common sense the people have, manufacturers are putting warning signs on bucket of paint: "please don't drink, it may cause dead..." So obvious is a very relative term.

For the home users and hobbyists... I would give them much more credit than you would. Many of them are much more capable and knowledgeable compared to the people who are considered professionals and do this for a living. Experience is important thing but, can't make it up for lack of knowledge and talent. A bad chiropractor could be left to practice for many years , and that will only result in many handicapped customers over the years.

Don't forget that the most wonders made over the human history came from people who were not doing this for money. Hobbyists are willing to learn to improve their knowledge and skills indefinitely , because is their passion. On the other hand people who were doing it just for the money (their job), are are willing to do and learn as less as possible just to get paid. I kind of drift away from the subject but you got me thinking and I have to say it : Most valuable things in life are the ones you can't actually buy.

 

[Black Ninja]

TBH, I would prefer to have cables that are long enough to go from the far left port of my patch panel to the far right port of my switch. There was a cable management I once saw that was deep enough and had fingers so the loops you would put in the cable could easily be hidden within. As well it had an easy snap on cover to make it very presentable.

These were made by "Neat Patch"; but are kind of expensive. One day I may get them if I can find them cheaper...

Here is a YouTube Video of it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ytWwgkTo1VI

Good video. These are indeed nice, but that is to some point. I am afraid the level of efficiency I am looking for are putting this point way behind where I am looking to be. Two main drawbacks I want to mention: take 2U space for the "neat patch" itself, extra wire is wasted that could be avoided and when you fill that with wires all the way it will become hard to remove individual cables.

But I saw on the video great representation what my idea would looks like and I want to share that image with you and rest of the guys what I had in mind. I circle it on the picture. Imagine one is 1U patch panel other was a 1U switch and you have connections like that on all ports of the patch panel.

 

[Black Ninja]

Like 6" ones?
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=cat6+6+inch&rh=i:aps,k:cat6+6+inch

This could work , if not perhaps little shorter will. The idea is to match what I show in reply to your video.

 

[Mirfster]

Imagine one is patch panel other was a switch and you have connections full from end to end like that.

I agree that would look good, but only at first though. What happens when you want/need to switch port connections? Eventually, it will need longer cables and when you have all those nice and neat little ones with a few longer ones it will all start to look messy.

 

[Black Ninja]

I agree that would look good, but only at first though. What happens when you want/need to switch port connections? Eventually, it will need longer cables and when you have all those nice and neat little ones with a few longer ones it will all start to look messy.

Why not use only the short one on all ports from end to end, and if you need to separate with vlans or something you'll do that from the switch ? You saw how I did it in my rack , right ?

 

[Mirfster]

True, but what happens if say a port goes bad, are you willing to replace the entire unit in order to keep the neatness?

 

[Black Ninja]

True, but what happens if say a port goes bad, are you willing to replace the entire unit in order to keep the neatness?

That's not something that I would expect to happen, but is not impossible. Then you get a slightly longer jumper and use the closest available port, keep the neatness as much as possible. You saw how I skip 4 ports on my switch, not cause there were broken but just to show it still looks good.

P.S. Speaking of neatness, I am hoping the computer you use for your avatar, is not your actual computer ?
Because if it is , it will be very hard to convince you about my neat ideas.

 

[Mirfster]

P.S. Speaking of neatness, I am hoping the computer you use for your avatar, is not your actual computer ?:)
Because if it is , it will be very hard to convince you about my neat ideas.

Nah, that is the one I only bring out on special occasions when I am really trying to make a good impression...

 

[Black Ninja]

Nah, that is the one I only bring out on special occasions when I am really trying to make a good impression...

I see

 

[Black Ninja]

I thought that was the goal of prosumers/server enthusiasts... I mean half of ebay is datacenter/server farm blow-outs. :D

I can't help noticing you got more memory in your signature configuration - now 96G from 64G. Did it help ? Did you get the same Samsung to match the original ones ?

 

[Mlovelace]

I can't help noticing you got more memory in your signature configuration - now 96G from 64G. Did you get the same Samsung to match the original ones ?

I had some spare modules so I threw them in, same DIMMs as before, .

Did it help ?

Additional memory never hurts with ZFS. My ARC hits went up slightly but the NAS has mostly writes as it's main function is a backup target for Veeam.

 

[Black Ninja]

I had some spare modules so I threw them in, same DIMMs as before, .

Did you reinstall software or just add ram and reboot ?

Additional memory never hurts with ZFS. My ARC hits went up slightly but the NAS has mostly writes as it's main function is a backup target for Veeam.

Are you using Veeam for life VM backups or you backup your VM's while powered off ?

 

[Mlovelace]

Did you reinstall software or just add ram and reboot ?



Are you using Veeam for life VM backups or you backup your VM's while powered off ?

There is no need to reinstall anything. Just power down, add RAM, power on.

We use Enterprise Plus edition of Veeam Backup and Replication for our VMWare cluster. https://www.veeam.com/vm-backup-recovery-replication-software.html

 

[Black Ninja]

There is no need to reinstall anything. Just power down, add RAM, power on.

I don't have a lot of experience with freebsd prior to freenas. I know you don't need to reinstall with Windows too, but is better if you do. So I was just wondering how YOU did, I can't tell on freenas if it's right or wrong.

I am not familiar with different Veeam editions, but I know is 3th party tool for VM backups. The reason why I ask you if you do live VM backups is because I know Veeam support that and I was considering to trying Veeam. I backup my VM's offline pretty vigorously with simple "Export to single OVA file", and I was wondering if Veeam has anything "can't live without" feature to offer over my method ?

 

[Black Ninja]

Like 6" ones?
https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias=aps&field-keywords=cat6+6+inch&rh=i:aps,k:cat6+6+inch

After some investigation, it seems the only way to certaint is to get a pack of these 6" and see test how they will fits. And now that hard part:

Which vendor is the one who makes high quality cables to buy from ?That is the question ?



P.S.
It's proven fact that most Cat6 cables on the market are so bad in quality they can't even cover cat5 specs in reality. Vendors are hoping to get away with the fact most people who are getting cat6 will not use it for 10Gb(55m) so they sell you this cable with the hope you are buying to better stream Netflix with it not what you paid for. Here I wish there was a company like Monster but for Cat6 so you know what you are buying instead of swapping one junk for another till you get something that barely works.

 

[Black Ninja]

But your problem is that if you've got a door on that rack, then you don't really have a lot of room for wire management doodads. Plus, with servers below, I'm assuming you're doing some sort of front-to-rear jiggery to get your cabling from your switches to your servers? Switches rarely do all that well in the front of a rack, especially doored. Hm. I'll probably think of some more things to say.

What do you think of this idea then: To install patch panel in the empty slot underneath the Fujitsu switch. It will only have a fiber keystones jacks all the way. And then with very short fiber cables from patch panel to the ports of the Fujitsu switch sitting above it ? Then I can remove the fibers coming from the top so it will no fibers going in front of other devices ?

 

[jgreco]

You could do that, I suppose. Or you could move all the networking to the back side, leaving some room for wire management, and not have to worry about "very short fiber cables" ... I think you're spending entirely too much time worrying about bend radius etc.

 

[Black Ninja]

You could do that, I suppose. Or you could move all the networking to the back side, leaving some room for wire management, and not have to worry about "very short fiber cables" ... I think you're spending entirely too much time worrying about bend radius etc.

The reason why I spend too much time worrying about the bending radius is because I am bending cables close to their limit in order to have the nice front placed switches along with servers and the same time close the rack front door without pushing the cables with it.

I'll make a little test with this when I get more time to spare: I'll put my spare patch panel in the empty space under the Fujitsu and put just one keystone with fiber cable connected to the switch to see how much will bend and how much will stick to the front. I'll post pics when got it done.

P.S. Moving networking to the back will eliminate the bending radius problem and will be very easy initially, but I worked hard to make this model(front switches and servers) work and I think at the end it was worth it. I don't have the experience you have and I am putting great deal of thinking how to plan ahead, so I make it scalable, organized and flexible for future changes. It is hard, but that don't make it any less enjoyable for me.

 

[Bidule0hm]

What happens when you bend a fiber is that the losses are greater the lower the bend radius. After a limit you break the fiber but if you manage to break a fiber then you're doing something really wrong. So even with a tight bend radius it should work because even if you have some losses the fiber is so short that you don't have additional losses because of the length.