I had been looking for a 100GbE switch for a long time, and I like that the switch has the exact number of ports for my home lab. Many 100GbE switches have more than 28 ports, but I don’t need as many. I need only three. The 100GbE QSFP28 is 2nd Generation and 4 x 25GbE-based.
100 Gigabit Ethernet (100 GbE) QSFP28
1st Generation: 10GbE-based- (Data rate: 100 Gbit/s – Line code: 64b/66b × NRZ – Line rate: 10x 10.3125 GBd = 103.125 GBd – Full-Duplex)
2nd Generation: 25GbE-based- (Data rate: 100 Gbit/s – Line code: 256b/257b × RS-FEC(528,514) × NRZ – Line rate: 4x 25.78125 GBd = 103.125 GBd – Full-Duplex)
3rd Generation: 50GbE-based – (Data rate: 100 Gbit/s – Line code: 256b/257b × RS-FEC(544,514) × PAM4 – Line rate: 4x 26.5625 GBd = 106.25 GBd – Full-Duplex)
4th Generation: 100GbE-based – (Data rate: 100 Gbit/s – Line code: 256b/257b × RS-FEC(544,514) × PAM4 – Line rate: 2x 53.1250 GBd = 106.25 GBd – Full-Duplex)
Based on Dell documents, the max power consumption is 200W, which is what other 100GbE switches take. Typical operating power based on Dell documents is 120W, but for me, at the moment, it takes 40W–55W all the time.
The switch has 2 PSUs that could be very useful later when setting up solar power.
The switch has two different airflow options. Mine is back to front. When I was buying the switch, I knew I would have to find a solution to making the switch quiet and that it would be an interesting challenge. The high noise was not surprising because it is a data center switch, and I assumed I would have to work on this and make it quiet.
Switch noise from start to full boot up. (If you like, you can add the noise to your smartphone ring tone.)
For me quick noise fix was this one.
Switch temperature. Room temperature around 26 °C.
I ordered new fans that arrived a few weeks ago, and for Phase 2, I will write more about how I re-designed the switch case for accommodating larger fans, not those you see in a previous photo.
I was hoping the switch Dell OS10 had a GUI, but it has only a CLI. The SmartFabric has a GUI and must be enabled before it is possible to access. I would like to test out the SmartFabric and those functionalities with spine-leaf architecture in the near future.
This switch is OpenSwitch, meaning I can install it on different OpenSwitch OSs, like Dell OS10, Cumulus Networks, Big Switch Networks, Pica8, FBOSS, and Sonic. I use Dell OS10 and was planning to test all other operating systems, but my time is limited. So, I will use Dell OS10.
Dell OS10 commands are like Cisco commands, only not as good. They are highly confusing even when I use the OS10 commands from the user guide—some work, and some don’t. So, the commands are specific to the switch and OS version. I haven’t found the correct one yet.
But I managed to configure this switch very quickly, without any issues.
Yes, this switch has an Intel Atom C2338 CPU that has a potential for failure. It could one day not work. Let’s hope this does not happen.
The S4112–ON Series (S4112F-ON and S4112T-ON) is a one-half rack unit (RU), full-featured fixed form-factor top-of-rack (ToR) 1/10/25/40/50/100GbE switch for 10G servers with small form-factor pluggable plus (SFP+) and quad small form-factor pluggable 28 (QSFP28) ports.
The S4112T-ON supports 1/10/25/40/50/100GbE with 12 RJ-45 ports to implement 1GbE and 10GbE and three QSFP28 port to implement 4×10, 4×25, 2×50, 40, and 100GbE.
- Twelve SFP+ ports
- Micro USB-B console port
- Stack ID
- Ethernet management port
- RS-232 console port
- AC PSUs
- RJ-45 management port
- Three QSFP28 ports
The S4112–ON Series fan-side of the switch has three integrated fans.
Features
The S4112–ON Series (S4112F-ON and S4112T-ON) offers the following features:
- S4112F-ON: 12 fixed 1/10GbE SFP+ ports and 3 fixed 100GbE QSFP28 ports
- S4112T-ON: 12 fixed 1/10GBASE-T RJ-45 ports and 3 fixed 100GbE QSFP28 ports
- One MicroUSB-B serial console port
- One RJ-45 serial console port
- One universal serial bus (USB) Type-A port for more file storage
- One ESD Jack
- One 2-Core Rangeley C2338 processing unit (CPU), 7.5Watts TDP 1.7 GHz, one memory channel with one 4GB 1600MTS DDR3 SO-DIMM module, and one 16GB mSATA/M.2 SSD module
- Seven-segment stacking indicator
- Two power supply units
- Integrated fan units
- 1/2RU chassis