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Xserve RAID SFP cabling
OK, since we got our new Xserve RAID, it has worked like a dream, a real champ, no wierdness, no loss of data, its been perfect.
But the unit is noisy as heck.
We want to move it across the hall into our rack room with all the other noisy, climate controled equipment. We figure 100 foot of cable will do nicely, We might be able to do it with 75, i dunno.
So, I am finding out you can’t get a 100′ of this cable, and I thought fibre channel was good for 500 meters.
And upon further research, there seems like there might be some throughput data rate issues the longer you go.
Anyone here can offer any insight into this? We could put the Xserve in a doghouse, but we really want to centrally locate it so we can hang other workstations on it too and share media files.
Our unit and fibre card in the G5 has SFP connectors on it.
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3 Replies
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[Scott] “So, I am finding out you can’t get a 100′ of this cable, and I thought fibre channel was good for 500 meters.”
Maybe you can’t walk into a Radio Shack and find 100′ of fibre, but it is readily available. We have an installation with many, many runs over 100′. No problems with data loss. Do an google search for fibre optic cable. There are many suppliers that can provide you with what you need.
mark
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You are probably using copper, if you are using the X-RAID straight out of the box. Copper fibre channel cable has a much shorter run length; copper it is also insanely expensive.
We also moved our X-RAID out of the edit suite and into the server room. The longest copper cable I could find was 15 meters and that was upwards of 300 dollars. Fortunately, due to the topology of our offices, with a central server room, that was enough.
If you want a 100 meter run, you are going to have to use optical fibre. In addition to this pretty standard cabling, you will need a media converter at either end of your cable which plugs into the X-RAID and into your fibre channel card and converts the electrical signals into opticals.
Something like this: https://www.selectronix.co.uk/series.asp?did=30&sid=13
Or this: https://www.cs-electronics.com/gbic-mia.htm
Apple sell media converters right out of the Apple store, but they are a little more expensive than third party units. (Actually, I just checked this and perhaps they’re not. Shop around.) Apple also sell optical fibre, but again it’s at a price premium. In fact, I just checked and Apple simply resells cable from CS Electronics.
Check out that second link, CS Electronics. They will be able to supply everything you need. You don’t mention if you have a first or second generation X-RAID – but if you have a first gen unit that comes with the older HSSDC2 connectors rather than SFP. The newer machines are SFP which match your fibre channel card, making things cheaper and easier.
The media converters you are looking for are Optical SFP Transceiver Module – 850nm/Multi-Mode – LC, 2GB/s which are 99 dollars off the Apple store. You will need four of them, one for each end of both cables of your fibre run.
The optical cable you want matches the above. LC, 2GB cable at 850nm/Multimode. Apple do 25 meters for 200 dollars. CS Electronics claim they can make up custom lengths for you.
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Oops. Just noticed you were talking feet, not meters, but the info remains the same. Above 10 – 15 meters or 30 to 45 feet, copper fibre channel is extremely expensive.
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