10 gig managed switch review

havoc

Bought one of those ultra cheap aliexpress 8x SFP+ managed switches and some people seemed interested so couple of notes

Horaco - ZX-SWTGW2C8F - likely being sold under other brands too

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006765378093.html

Good

• Inexpensive - paid 95 USD / 72 GBP
• Switching it to English is idiot proof
• Doesn't feel cheap - normal metal consumer level switch case, decent looking power plug with UK pins (no janky adapter)
• Fanless
• Wide compatibility. Thus far tried 2.5G RJ45 transceiver, 10g DAC and SFP+ 10g fiber
• Reports temps/watt on adapters where available
• Web interface feels functional, though somewhat spartan. Haven't seen anything broken yet
• Has SNMP - new to me but looks interesting

Bad

• Mine shipped in 1G/10g mode so thought its broken cause my 2.5G RJ45 transceivers couldn't reach web interface, meaning you need 10G to enable 2.5G
• Saw forum mentions of there being a hidden factory account - no idea if true. Doesn't seem to have any online features so I just skipped setting gateway and blocked it at FW for good measure.

Ambivalent

• No dedicated management port
• No rack ears/holes
• UI is pretty spartan - not much explanations / guidance
• Manual included seems to be for 2.5G/10G model
• Struggled to change management IP - likely user error
• Mixed messaging on what exactly 1G mode it supports - some places refer to 1000M others to 1.25G

yoursunny

We use Edgecore AS5835-54X running SONiC operating system.
This allows us to standardize and automate network management through NETCONF protocol and YANG models.
We don’t deal with proprietary webpages and vender-specific command lines.

terrorgen

@yoursunny said:
We use Edgecore AS5835-54X running SONiC operating system.
This allows us to standardize and automate network management through NETCONF protocol and YANG models.
We don’t deal with proprietary webpages and vender-specific command lines.

Rich

havoc

Alas I am but a peasant that definitely doesn't have 5 grand for home network tinkering so stuck with proprietary webpages :P

yoursunny

@havoc said:
Alas I am but a peasant that definitely doesn't have 5 grand for home network tinkering so stuck with proprietary webpages :P

It’s closer to $3000 if you contact sales.
You get 48 SFP+ 10G ports for a full rack of servers and 6 QSFP 100G ports for uplink.
Ideal for starting a basement host like @Calin and @beanman109 .

terrorgen

@yoursunny said:

@havoc said:
Alas I am but a peasant that definitely doesn't have 5 grand for home network tinkering so stuck with proprietary webpages :P

It’s closer to $3000 if you contact sales.
You get 48 SFP+ 10G ports for a full rack of servers and 6 QSFP 100G ports for uplink.
Ideal for starting a basement host like @Calin and @beanman109 .

not for peasants. We need to eat.

mjturner

Apologies bumping this old thread, but this may be of interest to those with similar switches: RTL Playground. It's open source firmware for a wide selection of Chinese switches.