I have an unraid server with a X10SRL-F supermicro motherboard, and I'm trying to find a compatible 10gb network card. 

 

Does anyone know any compatible network card I should buy? 

 

Doing some research, I found mentions that Mellanox ConnectX-2 should be a good choice. Is this true? I have also the Mellanox ConnectX-3 really cheap online, would this one work with unraid.

 

I am using the Intel X520-DA2 10Gb 10Gbe Adapter E10G42BTDA with 2x DAC's to connect to another server and a switch.

 

I have had no problem so far. I transferred my Plex Library (6TB) from my old server to my new unraid server overnight.

 

Got it off Ebay for about $100.

 

Edit: Our M/B's are close....

Edited November 16, 20205 yr by Herbiewalker

Running Mellanox ConnectX-3 (dual sfp+ ethernet) on my Unraid server (not specifically that motherboard though), with the same on my win10 workstation, direct connection.

Never had any issues, good performance, easy to setup etc.

Edited November 15, 20205 yr by tjb_altf4

Using 2x Asus XG-C100C

Direct link between my server and the workstation - no problems.

Beware: The Cards dont have WOL

Edited November 16, 20205 yr by Zonediver

@Zonediver @tjb_altf4 @Herbiewalker Thank you guys, I'm looking into the info to get card. 

 

Are you guys using pfsense or MicroTik switch for 10GB switching? Or else?

Edited November 19, 20205 yr by mhweb

My setup has a direct connection between server and workstation, no switch.

I'd probably look at the Unifi US‑16‑XG if I needed to connect more devices, as I'm already invested in that network ecosystem.

 

 

Miktrotik recently released a very interesting switch for this use case. The CSS610-8G-2S+IN has 8 regular 1GB ports and 2 SFP+ ports for 10GB. It's really cheap, under a 100 EUR!

 

https://mikrotik.com/product/css610_8g_2s_in

 

 

On 11/18/2020 at 7:00 PM, mhweb said:

@Zonediver @tjb_altf4 @Herbiewalker Thank you guys, I'm looking into the info to get card. 

 

Are you guys using pfsense or MicroTik switch for 10GB switching? Or else?

I am using pfSense in my stack. My pfSense has its own hardware though, a Dell R210II. So I have 10GB NICs (Intel X520-DA2) in both servers for communication.  

On 11/21/2020 at 10:46 PM, lowlands said:

Miktrotik recently released a very interesting switch for this use case. The CSS610-8G-2S+IN has 8 regular 1GB ports and 2 SFP+ ports for 10GB. It's really cheap, under a 100 EUR!

 

https://mikrotik.com/product/css610_8g_2s_in

 

 

Yes, MT in general has a lot of value for money when it comes to their switches and routerboards, especially with SFP+ ports.

Also MT is not picky when it comes to make/model/ID of the SFP+ tranceivers...in general generic and cisco work well, besides their own which aren*t too bad either.

I tend to belive, that the new CSS610 from above is just the old, now discontinued CRS210-8G-2S+IN without the routeros licence.

 

Will that CSS610 do VLANs and such?

 

Looking to upgrade my main 1Gbe switch and add 10Gbe in the near future.

 

I'm also using Pfsense for my router, but dumb switches elsewhere.

Yes it will, see: https://wiki.mikrotik.com/wiki/SwOS/CSS610

The SwitchOS Interface is very basic, compared to the routerOS (that is standard on CRS models) but it has all the features required for a good, managed switch.

However, some L3 functions are not available, especially routing&firewall stuff (in most cases it would max-out the CPU in any case to use it as a router and not as a switch). For many it is just a matter of convenience, when other RouterOS Equipment is deployed on the site.

Yes, I've read that using the Mikrotik controllers for L3 stuff is a bad idea.

 

I'm considering getting the CRS305 4/5 port and maybe getting a more substantial main 1Gbe L3 switch for VLAN work.

 

Would that be a better idea?

...the CRS305 ist definitly an excellent option for enhancing the 10GB capabilities.

But for what L3 features in a switch are you shopping, that you do not provision in your pfsense?

I'd not mix master and servant, so to speak.

28 minutes ago, Ford Prefect said:

...the CRS305 ist definitly an excellent option for enhancing the 10GB capabilities.

But for what L3 features in a switch are you shopping, that you do not provision in your pfsense?

I'd not mix master and servant, so to speak.

My main use is to extend my basic VLAN usage, but I'd like to get more into L3 packet and protocol filtering, but I don't do much of that at home right now.

 

Tbh, I'm not really sure on where I want to go with it, but I'd at least like to have a better VLAN implementation.

VLANs are not a problem at all with the CSS/SwitchOS based MT-Switches.

Once you have separated your network into VLANS, like in a normal LAN2LAN Szenario, Routing & Firewalls come into Play.

This you will need to do in your router/Pfsense Box.

 

Myself, I am using a RB4011 as Router and a CRS326-24-2S+-RM as main switch..with a 10GB-Uplink between them.

The concept of IP-Routing and firewalls of FreeBSD/pfsense never took hold to my brain.

With MT and RouterOS, which is Linux based, I feel much more comfortable.

The only thing with MT is, that enabling an IDS/IPS/NEM, like snort or suricata, is a bit of a hassle and I have not used it yet (not sure if I need it, as I am using zerotier (docker on unraid) for my site-2-site/remote access needs). 

I swapped out my unifi APs and cloud-key for a set of cAP-ac devices.

All works well with VLANs for dockers, VMs on unraid and for different SSIDs in my home (parents, kids, IoT/SmartHome, Guest, EV charging/PV-solar array, ...) now.

Edited November 24, 20205 yr by Ford Prefect

On 11/15/2020 at 7:33 PM, Zonediver said:

Using 2x Asus XG-C100C

Direct link between my server and the workstation - no problems.

Beware: The Cards dont have WOL

How did you get the c100c working?

1 hour ago, Vito said:

How did you get the c100c working?

 

The Asus NIC is automatically recognized by unraid.

But what you need to configure is a seperate ip-range - in my case 10.x.x.x (the other network is a 192.168.x.x)

On 11/15/2020 at 6:52 PM, Herbiewalker said:

I am using the Intel X520-DA2 10Gb 10Gbe Adapter E10G42BTDA with 2x DAC's to connect to another server and a switch.

 

I have had no problem so far. I transferred my Plex Library (6TB) from my old server to my new unraid server overnight.

 

Got it off Ebay for about $100.

 

Edit: Our M/B's are close....

Hello im looking to buy some 10gbe ethernet card and i would like to know if ur intel x520 still working on unraid in 2022 and if its working with win 10 ?
im gonna get this switch MikroTik Cloud Router Switch 309-1G-8S+IN

@LexBergif you're interested in doing a lot of reading around 10Gb cards, I'd recommend checking out the thread I started about this.

Lots of info in there, details, links and recommendations of what I did and eventually purchased.

 

I'm still happy with my 10Gb setup to this day.