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In my homelab rack I've got a pair of DL360p's and a pair of DL380's (one P, one E). Network hardware wise I've got a 24 port Brocade 300 and a 48 port POE+ Avaya switch with a single SFP+ port. (3549GTS-PWR+).

Originally I had considered just using SFP+ LOMs (530FLR-SFP+, 560FLR-SFP+, 571FLR-SFP+), but having recently obtained the Brocade FC switch was thinking maybe using one of the FlexFabric LOMs (554FLR-SFP+, 556FLR-SFP+) is more suited? I haven't dealt with FC before, so not sure if this is the better choice. The DL380's both are full of LFF drives and are essentially the storage backbone.

Given this setup, what advantages are there to choosing FC over a pure SFP+ setup? Beyond what appears to be port availability.

LunarLaurus
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  • What's your question? – ewwhite Jul 17 '23 at 11:26
  • What's the most appropriate choice given the existing hardware? I have no experience using FC/FlexFabric and want to know if it's a better choice over just pure SFP+. – LunarLaurus Jul 17 '23 at 12:41
  • Just use ethernet. There's no good use for FC in this situation, unless you are curious and just want to play with it. – ewwhite Jul 17 '23 at 15:03

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Fibre Channel (FC) is rock-solid and super-reliable technology, but... Its time's up and I wouldn't roll out any brand new FC deployments in 2023. 8Gb FC is history by itself, so even 10Gb Ethernet is way better: Wider choice of the equipment, NICs and switches are commodity and dirt-cheap now, no need to license ports like FC insists, you can re-use the same Ethernet fabric chopping it into VLANs with QoS configured etc. Go Ethernet!

P.S. ...and 25 GbE would run circles around 8 and 16Gb FC for sure.

BaronSamedi1958
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  • I have all the ports licensed on the Brocade, so thought for the £20 it cost it was potentially useful. All my hardware is 2010-2015, but 10gb is doable and the aim. Just a tad pricey to get a switch with any decent amount of 10gb sfp+ ports. Should I just avoid FC altogether then? – LunarLaurus Jul 17 '23 at 12:57
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    I'd stick with 10 GbE. Even with FC ports licensed. – BaronSamedi1958 Jul 17 '23 at 20:33