Mixture of Copper and Fiber cables in an Infiniband switch

Question

Hi,

Does anybody know whether or not we can use fiber and copper cables for an Infiniband switch such as Intel/Qlogic 12300 series to form an Isilon cluster?

I found CABLE, SWITCHES, and COMPATIBLE NODES table (P.53-54 of ISILON SUPPORTABILITY & COMPATIBILITY GUIDE). I knew some IB switch supported both copper and fiber cable but I am not sure whether or not we can use both types of cable at the same time for an IB switch.

For example, can we use 30 copper cables and 6 fiber cables for an IB switch and form an Isilon cluster? Or do we have to decide which, copper or fiber, type of cable to use for forming an Isilon cluster?

Thank you,

keithng1 · Accepted Answer

Yes. We have a customer that swap out their old IB switches with two new one, AND expand the cluster. At the end, we used a mixture of copper (nodes closer to the switch) and fiber (nodes six cabinet away) to the same switches. Keith

sluetze · Answer

Don't know if it is possible, but I would not do that. I would invest the 300$ in some additional coppercables and be happy. If you have any problem at any time because of mixture of the cables you will spend a lot more Money on investing the cause of that.

The few hundred bucks should not make a difference when you already bought some nodes...

Rgds

-- sluetze

Uehara Y. · Answer

sluetzes-san,

Thank you for your information. I see. We'd better not mix copper and fiber cable in an IB switch.

However, I'd like to know whether it works or not... Is there anybody who is using copper and fiber cables in an IB switch?

Thank you,

Uehara Y. · Answer

keithng-san,Thank you! Your info is what we were looking for.

Isilon

Mixture of Copper and Fiber cables in an Infiniband switch

Was this post helpful?