Seeking Advice: Upgrading to 10G - should I replace or retain existing network?


meep

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Hi unRaiders

 

I'm resurrecting an office space in an outbuilding and am in the process adding 10G switches and some cable runs to link the building with my main house.

 

A happy side effect of this upgrade is that I will be adding a 10G NIC to my unRaid server. In the system, I  currently have a pair of 1Gb MB sockets that are aggregated to a Unifi US-8 switch.

 

My question is, should I simply replace the current 1Gbs with the 10G connection, or is there any merit in maintaining the teamed 1Gbs as well?

 

I use my server for data storage, Dockers and a slew of VMs. Would it be a good idea to dedicate the existing network to, say docker and / or VMs and have the 10G for data only, or will a single 10G connection be more than adequate for my needs. (I'm thinking the later, but want to ensure this is the right approach)

 

Networking has always been a bit of a black box to me, so all hints and advice appreciated.

 

 

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3 hours ago, meep said:

some cable runs to link the building with my main house.

How is the power linked between the two buildings? They must be served by a single common ground to safely run conductive (CAT5e,6,7) cables between the two.

 

If they are served by the same electrical meter, then carry on, as long as the electrician did it right you should be ok.

 

The safest method to run network between buildings is fiber, that way there isn't a conductor between the two. Otherwise you run the risk of differential grounding or EMP from nearby electrical storms frying the equipment at one or both ends of the cable. The longer the run, the higher the risk.

  • Thanks 1
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1 hour ago, jonathanm said:

How is the power linked between the two buildings? They must be served by a single common ground to safely run conductive (CAT5e,6,7) cables between the two.

 

If they are served by the same electrical meter, then carry on, as long as the electrician did it right you should be ok.

 

The safest method to run network between buildings is fiber, that way there isn't a conductor between the two. Otherwise you run the risk of differential grounding or EMP from nearby electrical storms frying the equipment at one or both ends of the cable. The longer the run, the higher the risk.

Thanks. The buildings are only about 2M apart, and are served by the same electrical meter.

 

I already have cat5e runs between them - just need to add some Cat6A fo 10G.

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44 minutes ago, Michael_P said:

You can try the 5e before you pull 6A - you'd be surprised how much it can carry

This...

 

High quality 5e cable with perfect termination can compete quite well with 6. The biggest changes in the cable types seem to be enforced tolerances, where the wire to wire crosstalk has physical restraints to keep the distance more tightly controlled, and the termination pieces are similarly toleranced.

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20 minutes ago, jonathanm said:

This...

 

High quality 5e cable with perfect termination can compete quite well with 6. The biggest changes in the cable types seem to be enforced tolerances, where the wire to wire crosstalk has physical restraints to keep the distance more tightly controlled, and the termination pieces are similarly toleranced.

i thought about it, but I need to run some new cables anyway....

 

I run a number of VMs on my UnRAID, several of which are routed around the house using HDBaseT Tx/Rx devices from Av Access. My main workstation will be re-routed to the garage in this way over 2x Cat6a cables. As the only link I have between the buildings is a 20 year old Cat5e, it won't cut the mustard for this AND networking use. While I'm pulling those, I may as well add some extras, one of which can be used for the 10G link. I'll retain the Cat5e as an independed link for security camera traffic.

 

This setup works incredibly well for us - workstations comprise only screens and mouse/keyboard - no noise, no big box and reduced overall power draw as everything is consolidated. I thought about moving the unRaid server physically to my garage, but if I did that, I'd still need the HDBaseT cable runs to get the house based systems connected up.

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