Sometimes I live vicariously through these videos. Today I hit pause, went into my office, hit play, and meticulously cable managed my rack while viewing 😂
I recently deployed about 50 of these CBS switches and the console port is great for mass deployment. I pre built all the configs as text that I can drop in one go, into the CLI of factory fresh units, covering initial setup including passwords etc. Makes mass deployment very quick.
I have said it before but the detail you get into a video is amazing I am 6 minutes in and I have learned things I didn't know I needed to know. Also with all the cool tech I envy your friends who get to buy the old stuff haha.
Looks very good, and for a home production home lab is great, however, for a home user is too much complicated and expensive. For some one that is not doing networking as a hobby, is too much complexity having to login in 3 different GUIs just to create a VLAN. Appreciate very much yours videos, thanks for sharing.
Yeah, this is completely excessive for the average home and is not something I'd recommend to someone who isn't already interested in networking. For that UniFi will remain my recommendation. However, I like to tinker so wanted something very powerful rather than being tied down to something more limited.
If you guys are wanting to go Gigabit and live in Northern Ireland the Fibrous might worth going with as you will get a great Eero Pro 6 Router that snuffs out any threats but scans still seem to happen or get your own Tower Router plus the SFP Optical module.
tbh, I kinda get your point about keystone couplers to bring cables from the back of the rack to the front, I'm a fan of doing it XD. partially because it makes it easier for situations where you're going to disconnect something and leave it disconnected for a while, you can use other types of connections (I have a couple of HDMI keystones and USB keystones in my rack), and there are some major aesthetic advantages for it, especially in a homelab setting where the layout is going to be changing non-stop As an aside, the numbering of the cables is a stellar tip, Thanks! I'll use that myself, I think!
Agreed, I use back to backs in my lab rack, that is constantly changing. Makes it easy to add and remove cables as kit changes. However, I wouldn’t do this in a permanent install.
That seems like a fair way of doing it - using it for temporary/regularly changing things that may need to be left disconnected for periods of time in a rack where it's not easy to access the rear of the equipment.
If you need more rack space in the future, then you could look at mounting the PDU on the rear rails. Might be able to spin the rack ears on the PDU 180deg to achieve this. Also, I would avoid the rack tray above the 24 port switch, since this switch is passively cooled and you’re blocking the vents on the top. Great vid and clean install though.
Cisco switches do let you flip the mounting ears, unfortunatley if you have a shallow cab you sometinmes can't get the door on. Had that exact issue with a switch upgrade last eeek.
Thanks for putting me onto this stuff , you forget that cisco do some small business stuff when you are messing about with catalysts all day ( we just replaced about 30-40 brodaes/rukus ICX with 9300s. For me the CBS350-24MGP-4X fits all my needs in a single switch. Once the 200 series APs come out with AX ( they are AC 4x4 MIMO at the moment) i think i may replace my microtik setup with this switch and 2 APs. May even replace my RB3011 with a OPNsense box.
Based on this and your previous video, I am looking at getting these Cisco switches for my new house. However, I wish the 8 port switch was more compact. I want to install it in an outdoor enclosure near my gates for the doorbell, intercom, CCTV and gate opener. The 8 port switch is big for not a lot of room! Thanks for the good content. Keep it up!
Have you seen the CBS250-8T-D? It's a fairly standard sized 8 port desktop switch as opposed to the others that are more of a 1U rackmount form factor. It can also be powered over PoE! They also do the CBS250-8PP-D which has PoE output in the same form factor. Think the only thing they lack over the larger models is the RJj45 console port.
@@camerongray1515 I hadn't seen these! One issue is the cabling to the gate is more than 100m so I would need fibre. An SFP port would be ideal. I don't think these have one. I could maybe use a fibre converter - not ideal. However, I don't think I will find a perfect solution anyway! Thanks for the reply and the suggestions - it's much appreciated!
I’m using SG series at home, which is the old version of the CBS. Seems to be basically the same, but the CBS series has more SKUs, especially in 10G and multi-gig. Most of the 1G CBS models are passively cooled, where most SG series are fan cooled. Tempted to upgrade just for the silence!
Another great video from you and you've gone into great detail throughout. My only problem is that every time I watch one of your videos, it makes me want to spend more money 😂
Really love these videos! I'm not yet in my own home, so eager to do something like this! So jelly. If you ever need to relocate your Ubiquiti gear, just uh...sent it my way 😉
@@ikkuranus Oh, Ubiquiti is garbage? 😂 Do you should learn that the video author is fan of this stuff since years! 😮 I wonder me that he start now to use now stuff from Cisco - one of my favourites since I learn with them 1990 my network stuff.
I'm not a "fan" of any particular platform - it's not a 2006 "Mac vs PC" war where people's identity became their choice of platform! I leave myself open to try all manners of different products and will pick the best for a given application. If a home user wants an easy to use but powerful home network that they can manage themselves, then UniFi with a UDM is basically the ideal option. Likewise, if a small-medium sized business wants a decent wireless network and possibly some switching for a low price, then you can't really go wrong with UniFi although I'd probably recommend a non-UniFi router to give them more flexibility. However, likewise if I'm kitting out a datacentre or massive enterprise environment, I'm going to be looking at the likes of Aruba, Cisco, Allied Telesis.etc. By contrast, if I were to spec out a network for a small office of < 50 people and insist they need to spend £10k+ on Cisco kit, plus the ongoing licencing/support costs while completely ignoring the cheaper vendors, then that would be silly!
Nothing wrong with UniFi - no less "real" networking equipment than anything else. Sure, it has its limitations, but it's still an ideal option for many simple home/small business networks where ease of management is prioritised over flexibility. Not everyone wants a system that requires them to be a networking expert to be able to use.
You say that as if I'm finally "seeing the light" and discovering non-UniFi equipment, I've worked on traditional "enterprise" networking equipment professionally for years, what you see on this channel isn't the only networking stuff I do. Part of my motivation for moving to UniFi in the first place was to try it out as an option to recommend to people who want high end networking kit but don't really care about learning to use more traditional gear. I'm not in the business of technical support so I want a solution I can set up/recommend for someone then hand it over to them to manage on an ongoing basis, and for that, UniFi is ideal
Mate, who gives a shit? We can both agree that the end result is still quite manageable and pretty neat. Shorter cables will not give you any benefit other than “oooo pretty” for the extra ~40-50 quid that it would take to get shorter ones, while getting better switches does bring real benefits to the table. Shorter cables will not forward packets any better…
@@pedifer1999 I will admit the end result does look good,. Maybe a 10gb link between computer and server for photo/video editing would be of use other than that it's all complete over kill , on a small flat, and paying extra for the switches will bring no benefits in that situation ( other than great CZcams content) .In some cases it is the same spec as the equipment I manage at work with 1000 +vms 25,000 clients split over two sites . It was a great video which I enjoyed my point was simply if you're paying that much on stuff that isn't really needed you may as well spend the extra tenner or so on cables .
It’s quite funny, but can see myself doing exactly the same thing… until i get bored with the setup and require it with new cables just so i can keep myself occupied
It's definitely excessive and I even started my previous video stating that it's complete overkill. However, I enjoy tinkering and this allows for a fair bit of new CZcams content. Even after spending a fair bit on switches (although under £2500, not anywhere close to £4k) there's still no point spending more £50 more for less cable! In the end, the longer cables actually proved useful when I decided I preferred the patch panel at the top, had I paid more for the shorter cables, I'd have struggled)
Hello, nice build, but I still prefer to use a single switch with 1 to 1 patching, because you can use VLAN's to separate different networks including ISP uplink. For future projects I recommend to try short 1U server and try to move to VM's instead of physical machines for Firewall/router, NVR's and other controllers. For this reason you can use 2x10G trunk between main switch and server via SFP+ or SFP28 and DAC for entire traffic.. and install UPS instead of PDU ;)
1-to-1 patching definitely makes sense when you have enough switch ports and all of the switch ports are identical. However, in my setup, I have the 12 port 5 GbE PoE switch and the separate 24 port gigabit switch. The 12 port switch wouldn't be big enough to handle everything and buying two of those would have been far too expensive. Therefore there will always be a requirement to patch certain ports into the 12 port switch and others into the 24 port one. Same goes for places where you have a PoE switch but only some of the ports are PoE - you'll end up needing to patch certain devices to certain ports which messes up it all being 1-to-1 patched. That said, the multiple switches are purely for having sufficient ports, not for separating devices - I'm already using VLANs to do that. As for running VMs - I already have a VM host and actually have plans in the works to add another (current one doubles as a NAS, I'd rather keep the VM host separate). However, there are certain devices that I prefer to keep on their own dedicated hardware rather than virtualising them, my firewall being one of them. As for the NVR, it currently needs to be on a dedicated device as UniFi require you to use either a CloudKey, Dream Machine or UNVR to run UniFi Protect, you can't run it on your own hardware. Long term when I replace it, I'll likely continue to keep it on a separate box - my servers all use fully SSD based storage, however for an NVR I'd rather have a mechanical hard drive since it'll be getting written to 24/7. Rather than trying to add specific hardware to my VM host to cater to specific VMs such as adding a hard drive for an NVR, I'd rather just keep it on a dedicated device. Additionally, my servers use Xeon chips which don't support any sort of video transcoding acceleration, whereas for an NVR I could specifically select a low power Intel desktop chip that supports hardware video transcoding for better performance rather than having to mess around with adding GPUs to a server and passing them through to VMs. This also means that I can keep the NVR in the comms cabinet (which is in a locked cupboard) rather than in the main server rack in my office which would be easier for an intruder to access. In terms of a UPS - it's something that I've not been hugely interested in after I had a UPS years ago that failed and started spewing out gas from the batteries! My servers all use ZFS which is relatively resilient against power failure and power outages here are pretty rare. It's still something I'm vaguely considering and may look into getting in the future, but it's not particularly high on my list of priorities.
Loving your videos, can I ask what label printer you use? Been looking into starting up a similar project, and hopefully create something a little more maintainable
It's a Brother PT-E550w, I still need to make a video on it! The labels are created using the "Cable Wrap" feature and are printed on their special "Flexible ID" tape which is significantly more flexible than the standard tape so holds its shape around cables much better.
Brady, Dymo, Brother etc do industrial-type labelmakers which let you do tables and stuff for patch bays. I get away with using a low-end Brother P touch I got for $20 after cashback which just has basic features (width, two lines, symbols, continuous feed, cable labels) but so far hasn't let me down when I need to label something in a pinch. Unless you're labelling patch bays on a weekly basis or looking to splash out I would stick with a cheap one. Off brand plastic tapes are also stupid cheap off of Aliexpress and have been identical in quality to the manufacturer's ones, though, so it's a bit of a moot point, but certainly better than having to do them by hand or even designing and printing something from your computer.
Yes, the FX tape for the Brother is key for cable wraps. Sticks to itself, where the standard stuff peels off after a while. I only discovered the FX tape recently, after owning this printer for years!
I can't help but notice the DAC Cabling.....According to the labeling, the connection from router to the 10GB switch is connected SFP (1GB) not SFP+ (10GB) but plugged into a SFP+ 10GB port. Then Switch to switch it is 10GB.
Have you stood up a Cisco Business Dashboard as a VM to then get a dashboard for the Cisco switches? I too and looking to replace other unifi switches. Shame the Cisco APs are limited.
I keep meaning to try it but it's not something I'm hugely in a rush to try since it doesn't seem to have received the best reviews. I'd give it a go to see what it's like but long term I think I'll stick to the CLI
It's 390mm deep externally, internally it's rated up to 340mm of internal depth, but once you allow enough space at the front for patch cables you're limited to around 300mm of depth for equipment.
New video for new Catalyst 1300 Series Switches and Catalyst 1200 Series Switches ? C1300-8T-E-2G, C1300-8P-E-2G, C1200-8T-E-2G, C1200-8P-E-2G, C1200-8FP-E-2G CBS 250 350 EOL from 2022 Thanks
While I would love to review loads of different options, I can't justify the cost of buying all of those switches purely to review them as they are not ideal for my requirements (there are no multi-gig copper port options) and the video will almost certainly not generate enough revenue to cover the costs. As for the CBS 250 and 350 series, they are definitely not EOL. I imagine you're thinking of the older SG250, SG350, SG350X, SG550X series which became EOL in 2022 because they had been replaced with the new CBS250 and CBS350 ranges which were launched around the same time. The Catalyst 1000/1200/1300 range are a different product line that sits at a strange point above the CBS range but below their higher end Catalyst range. They look like good switches but the lack of any decent multi-gig, 10G BaseT options made them unsuitable for me.
Any particular reason for using TP SFP transceivers? DAC cables would be simpler, less cost, and give better power and latency performance for the cross connects between switches.
You can connect the router to any port, however I'm using the 10GbE port since my router also has 10GbE interfaces so using those will give better capacity for routing between VLANs.
@camerongray1515 thanks. I'm not that tech minded. So I have a vm hub 5 it's 2.5 gig port on the back. Can I just get cat 6 ethernet and connect that to the 10 bg sfp connection with the adaptor. Or would it be best to put that the ethernet in the 2.5 port and use the 10 gb connection the coreect adapter on a longer ethernet cable to the connect that 10 sfp port on the switch upstairs. Then use the 2.5 port for my nas which has a 2.5 port. Than you. Like I say just using 1gig ports seem more straight forward.
What labelling machine did you use for the cables? Are they flat and just stuck around, or a tube (if such things exist)? I find flat ones start to unpeal after a while as they are quit tightly rolled.
I use a Brother PT-E550w label printer and print these using the "cable wrap" feature which prints on regular labels which then wrap around the cable. The trick is to use the special "Flexible ID" tape that Brother sell (or an aftermarket alternative) as this is a lot more flexible and sticks really strongly to itself so it's ideal for either wrapping around cables or sticking to curved surfaces.
Thanks for the quick replay, I'll have a look at the printer. I enjoy your videos, especially the customising of many things, but the software programing is a bit beyond me!
It looks like you're loosing/wasting a 1U space. You have 1 hole unused under your PDU and 2 holes above your patch panel. If you move everything down a hole, you reclaim a 1U space.
There's a free U under the PDU but that's required for the strain relief that hangs down from the plugs. As for moving up and down individual squares - this isn't really a good idea since the squares on a rack aren't equally spaced - you'll notice that the squares at either side of a U are slightly closer together than the one in the middle. While a lot of equipment will fit when misaligned with a U, sometimes you'll find that certain rails and mounting hardware will only fit when aligned with a U which can be a nightmare if all of the equipment in the rack is misaligned by one or two squares.
@@camerongray1515 Agreed 100% for strain relief, almost forgot how bulky and stiff these plugs can be ; I only had a few in hand, because where I live, 3leads AC plugs are CEE 7/7, and the sockets usually at a 45° angle, not 90° on most our powerstrips, needing thus less space for strain relief. As for the hole spacing, if I agree I wouldn't try to mount my UPS units or 30+kg servers in between units, I didn't ever thought of it as an issue for any type of equipment that's short and light enough that it's usually only secured on 2 posts instead of 4 with proper sliding rails.
Do you have enough SFP+ ports to setup LAG Groups for redundancy? The system is nice but more often then not cascading switches fail do to lack of redundancy.
I could do - uplink the 24 port switch to the router again and set up a failover interface so they're essentially all wired in a ring. However it's not something I'm particularly bothered about - this is only a home network so if a switch were to fail, I'd have bigger problems than having to swap a couple of cables around. However, in a commercial environment where switch redundancy is important, I'd of course do this.
A lot of people seem to do that in homelab setups, but it's not the main use case for them and I've never seen it done in a real world environment. Patch panels are intended for terminating structured cabling that runs to network points around a building into a rack. Structured cabling typically uses solid core cable which isn't as flexible or designed to be regularly moved around (hence why a patch panel is preferrable to just crimping RJ45 jacks onto the end of the cable) Patch leads are then used to connect ports from the patch panels into switches or to patch ports on the patch panel together to provide direct cable links between ports in various parts of a building. If all you're doing is connecting devices within the same rack to a switch - I'd just run the patch leads directly between the devices, maybe using a brush plate or cable dump bar to neatly bring the cables between the front/rear of the rack. No point adding in extra connection points for the sake of it.
It's a Brother P-Touch E550W. For the cable wraps I'm using special "Flexible ID" tape which is much more flexible than standard tape and sticks to itself really well which makes it ideal for wrapping around cables.
12:05 Why do you not buy long time ago a bigger network-closet with 15 or 20 U - so do you can running your network and add install different devices at the same time. In the downtime your full network not work, no TV, no security camera, no storage of your security videos, no down or up loads, no VPN for your outside devices, no inhouse WiFi, no full live streaming inside the internet about your work, aso. 😂 Since I follow you do you change in my feeling every four month all your configuration ... and it could be so easy after do you known "patch cable"... Specially do you like to test and configuration before and after so a bigger one is better. Now do you can not use your older stuff in your network if something wrong configuration. 😂 BTW: I have here real systems how running 24/7 since years and use full configuration backup hardware if I upgrade live - mostly one or twice a year.
That network cabinet is in a cupboard that is also used for storage - I live in a flat/apartment where space is at a premium so a larger cabinet would eat into valuable storage space! If I installed a cabinet that was any larger, I wouldn't have anywhere to store my vacuum cleaner, ironing board or suitcases! This setup needs to fit into my living space without the place looking like an office/datacentre. I have a larger rack in my office where I run my actual servers, however since no future property owner would want all of the network runs being terminated in the corner of what they'd likely end up using as a bedroom, I decided it was more appropriate to run all of the network cables and keep all of the core switching in a small cabinet hidden away in a cupboard. As for downtime - it's not a huge issue, I set up and test everything on a bench while the existing hardware is running, then only need a few hours to actually disconnect the old hardware and reinstall the new kit. During this time I usually just plug in my ISP's provided router to get a basic internet connection. I can even patch this into various network ports if I need to temporarily get a connection to a wired device. I don't run any critical or public facing services from home, so taking it down for a few hours really isn't an issue.
WiFi is good for many situations but it is in no way comparable to a hardwired connection. The speed ratings for WiFi systems are tested under ideal conditions and any obstructions/interference will significantly impact them. WiFi is also a shared channel meaning that multiple devices communicating on the same network/channel will reduce the amount of bandwidth available to others. These bandwidth limitations and interference issues can also be completely random and occur unpredictably. On the other hand, a wired connection will be significantly more stable and consistent and will be able to operate at its maximum speed irrespective of what other devices on the network are doing. This is particularly important for me as I work from home and need a fully reliable connection - I can't afford for a dodgy wireless connection to cause a video call to lag/drop out. Of course I do also have a WiFi network (currently AC but due to be upgraded to WiFi 6 soon) however I use this purely for mobile devices such as phones/laptops or devices that don't support a wired connection such as some smart home devices. Anything else that is in a fixed location (TVs, desktops, laptop docks, printers.etc) are all hardwired. Now of course, the setup I demonstrated here is completely overkill even for my needs, but even a cheap sub-£20 unmanaged switch would be a much more reliable option than WiFi.
@@camerongray1515 Thanks for your detailed response! I would so though, with WiFi 7 (and for sure with 8) cables will not be required any more. At least for homes (not the same for server rooms). As they will drop the cost a lot by not requiring to run any cables, and will exceed the speed of ethernet/fiber and not requiring expensive high bandwidth routers/switches. You can always have access points to increase the speed that will be dropped from obstacles.
I'm not necessarily convinced, sure newer WiFi standards will begin to exceed the speeds of gigabit ethernet, but with the falling prices of 2.5, 5 and 10 gigabit ethernet, those will still easily exceed the speeds of newer WiFi standards. So much of the stuff around the speeds of these modern WiFi standards are completely theoretical pure marketing, you'll never get anywhere close to them in a real world situation. Unlike where you buy a X gigabit ethernet switch, and you will get that speed. It's completely misleading how these manufacturers such as TPLink and Netgear are advertising WiFi 7 as being "46 gigabit" in graphics that make it look to the average consumer as this is the types of speeds they can hope to get by buying a cheap consumer router and connecting their laptop to it! The WiFi 7 standard isn't even completed yet, devices using it are based off of an incomplete draft of the standard. It's telling that the only retail "WiFi 7" devices available nowadays are cheap consumer devices. None of the enterprise vendors are offering WiFi 7 devices. Of course for the average home user, WiFi will be more than sufficient (and has been for years) but cabling still has a place when reliability, consistency and/or raw bandwidth is important. In fact, more and more people seem to be moving towards installing wired home networks nowadays, dispite improving WiFi standards. No matter the WiFi standard, it will always still be a shared medium and bandwidth will be impacted by other devices on the same network/channel. Wired connections will also still be required for uplinks to access points, which you'd need several of to have any hope of getting these promised "as good as a wired connection" speeds in all important locations. Of course running cables is expensive, but this only needs to be done once and is often included with a lot of modern buildings. Excluding my time, I probably only spent around £300 to wire up my place back in 2017, and with that I can easily run up to 10 gigabit ethernet to all rooms. Of course, the switches I have here are expensive, but they don't have to be - you can pick up an 8 port gigabit switch for under £20 nowadays. You can also get 2.5gbit switches now for well under £100 and many computers are starting to include 2.5gbit NICs.
@@camerongray1515I agree that wired will always be more reliable. But let's also agree that a world without wires is much better and I think the time came for the most of the cases. WiFi + Thread/Matter for IoT, easier build, lower cost for most homes! :)
Cameron pls lower your talking spead to x 0.7 and take the sock out of your mouth while talking. The content is great but the presentation is extremely lackluster.
Feel free to watch another channel where you prefer the presenters voice then, plenty out there where the presentation isn't "lackluster"... Not everyone is a natural voice actor and just magically changing my voice isn't exactly easy! This is already me trying to talk as clearly as I can, it's not easy!
Buy on Amazon (Affiliate):
- CBS350-12NP-4X: geni.us/YnP0
- CBS350-12XT: geni.us/6ZVqo
- CBS250-24T-4X: geni.us/RP5OYi
- CBS250-16T-2G: geni.us/ZLjI
1U Intel Atom C3558 Server from AliExpress (Affiliate): geni.us/3pUQBn5
Patch Leads Used: patchsavesolutions.com/773-slim-small-diameter-pvc-snagless-patch-cables
Now I definitely feel like upgrading my network hardware again lol
Sometimes I live vicariously through these videos. Today I hit pause, went into my office, hit play, and meticulously cable managed my rack while viewing 😂
I recently deployed about 50 of these CBS switches and the console port is great for mass deployment. I pre built all the configs as text that I can drop in one go, into the CLI of factory fresh units, covering initial setup including passwords etc. Makes mass deployment very quick.
I have said it before but the detail you get into a video is amazing I am 6 minutes in and I have learned things I didn't know I needed to know. Also with all the cool tech I envy your friends who get to buy the old stuff haha.
Looks very good, and for a home production home lab is great, however, for a home user is too much complicated and expensive. For some one that is not doing networking as a hobby, is too much complexity having to login in 3 different GUIs just to create a VLAN. Appreciate very much yours videos, thanks for sharing.
Yes. I´m glad my home does not need any of these. But watched whole video to get to know what for is this all ;-)
Yeah, this is completely excessive for the average home and is not something I'd recommend to someone who isn't already interested in networking. For that UniFi will remain my recommendation. However, I like to tinker so wanted something very powerful rather than being tied down to something more limited.
@@camerongray1515 Yes, for some one like you makes perfect sense, thanks once again for sharing.
If you guys are wanting to go Gigabit and live in Northern Ireland the Fibrous might worth going with as you will get a great Eero Pro 6 Router that snuffs out any threats but scans still seem to happen or get your own Tower Router plus the SFP Optical module.
tbh, I kinda get your point about keystone couplers to bring cables from the back of the rack to the front, I'm a fan of doing it XD.
partially because it makes it easier for situations where you're going to disconnect something and leave it disconnected for a while, you can use other types of connections (I have a couple of HDMI keystones and USB keystones in my rack), and there are some major aesthetic advantages for it, especially in a homelab setting where the layout is going to be changing non-stop
As an aside, the numbering of the cables is a stellar tip, Thanks! I'll use that myself, I think!
Agreed, I use back to backs in my lab rack, that is constantly changing. Makes it easy to add and remove cables as kit changes.
However, I wouldn’t do this in a permanent install.
That seems like a fair way of doing it - using it for temporary/regularly changing things that may need to be left disconnected for periods of time in a rack where it's not easy to access the rear of the equipment.
@@camerongray1515
Yeah, though I will admit I am not a regular rack user, so my reasoning may not be a good one for a lot of other folx
If you need more rack space in the future, then you could look at mounting the PDU on the rear rails. Might be able to spin the rack ears on the PDU 180deg to achieve this. Also, I would avoid the rack tray above the 24 port switch, since this switch is passively cooled and you’re blocking the vents on the top. Great vid and clean install though.
Cisco switches do let you flip the mounting ears, unfortunatley if you have a shallow cab you sometinmes can't get the door on. Had that exact issue with a switch upgrade last eeek.
Thanks for putting me onto this stuff , you forget that cisco do some small business stuff when you are messing about with catalysts all day ( we just replaced about 30-40 brodaes/rukus ICX with 9300s. For me the CBS350-24MGP-4X fits all my needs in a single switch. Once the 200 series APs come out with AX ( they are AC 4x4 MIMO at the moment) i think i may replace my microtik setup with this switch and 2 APs. May even replace my RB3011 with a OPNsense box.
Based on this and your previous video, I am looking at getting these Cisco switches for my new house. However, I wish the 8 port switch was more compact. I want to install it in an outdoor enclosure near my gates for the doorbell, intercom, CCTV and gate opener. The 8 port switch is big for not a lot of room!
Thanks for the good content. Keep it up!
Have you seen the CBS250-8T-D? It's a fairly standard sized 8 port desktop switch as opposed to the others that are more of a 1U rackmount form factor. It can also be powered over PoE! They also do the CBS250-8PP-D which has PoE output in the same form factor. Think the only thing they lack over the larger models is the RJj45 console port.
@@camerongray1515 I hadn't seen these! One issue is the cabling to the gate is more than 100m so I would need fibre. An SFP port would be ideal. I don't think these have one. I could maybe use a fibre converter - not ideal. However, I don't think I will find a perfect solution anyway!
Thanks for the reply and the suggestions - it's much appreciated!
This is looking brilliant, really looking forward to the next few videos :)
Thanks, this project has definitely snowballed! Got several more videos in the works!
@@camerongray1515 always the way with these things!
Those Cisco switches have been working great for us
I’m using SG series at home, which is the old version of the CBS. Seems to be basically the same, but the CBS series has more SKUs, especially in 10G and multi-gig. Most of the 1G CBS models are passively cooled, where most SG series are fan cooled. Tempted to upgrade just for the silence!
Another great video from you and you've gone into great detail throughout. My only problem is that every time I watch one of your videos, it makes me want to spend more money 😂
Really love these videos! I'm not yet in my own home, so eager to do something like this! So jelly. If you ever need to relocate your Ubiquiti gear, just uh...sent it my way 😉
The proper place is the garbage. (at least for the UDM anything)
@@ikkuranus Oh, Ubiquiti is garbage? 😂 Do you should learn that the video author is fan of this stuff since years! 😮 I wonder me that he start now to use now stuff from Cisco - one of my favourites since I learn with them 1990 my network stuff.
I'm not a "fan" of any particular platform - it's not a 2006 "Mac vs PC" war where people's identity became their choice of platform! I leave myself open to try all manners of different products and will pick the best for a given application. If a home user wants an easy to use but powerful home network that they can manage themselves, then UniFi with a UDM is basically the ideal option. Likewise, if a small-medium sized business wants a decent wireless network and possibly some switching for a low price, then you can't really go wrong with UniFi although I'd probably recommend a non-UniFi router to give them more flexibility. However, likewise if I'm kitting out a datacentre or massive enterprise environment, I'm going to be looking at the likes of Aruba, Cisco, Allied Telesis.etc. By contrast, if I were to spec out a network for a small office of < 50 people and insist they need to spend £10k+ on Cisco kit, plus the ongoing licencing/support costs while completely ignoring the cheaper vendors, then that would be silly!
WOO HOO, you ditched Unifi :) congrats, welcome to real networking equipment :) Good video !!
Nothing wrong with UniFi - no less "real" networking equipment than anything else. Sure, it has its limitations, but it's still an ideal option for many simple home/small business networks where ease of management is prioritised over flexibility. Not everyone wants a system that requires them to be a networking expert to be able to use.
ok, One day you will understand :) @@camerongray1515
You say that as if I'm finally "seeing the light" and discovering non-UniFi equipment, I've worked on traditional "enterprise" networking equipment professionally for years, what you see on this channel isn't the only networking stuff I do. Part of my motivation for moving to UniFi in the first place was to try it out as an option to recommend to people who want high end networking kit but don't really care about learning to use more traditional gear. I'm not in the business of technical support so I want a solution I can set up/recommend for someone then hand it over to them to manage on an ongoing basis, and for that, UniFi is ideal
Spends over 4k on switches yet buys the wrong length cable just to save a few quid !!
Mate, who gives a shit? We can both agree that the end result is still quite manageable and pretty neat. Shorter cables will not give you any benefit other than “oooo pretty” for the extra ~40-50 quid that it would take to get shorter ones, while getting better switches does bring real benefits to the table. Shorter cables will not forward packets any better…
@@pedifer1999 I will admit the end result does look good,. Maybe a 10gb link between computer and server for photo/video editing would be of use other than that it's all complete over kill , on a small flat, and paying extra for the switches will bring no benefits in that situation ( other than great CZcams content) .In some cases it is the same spec as the equipment I manage at work with 1000 +vms 25,000 clients split over two sites . It was a great video which I enjoyed my point was simply if you're paying that much on stuff that isn't really needed you may as well spend the extra tenner or so on cables .
It’s quite funny, but can see myself doing exactly the same thing… until i get bored with the setup and require it with new cables just so i can keep myself occupied
And there we go again with the CZcams jealously
It's definitely excessive and I even started my previous video stating that it's complete overkill. However, I enjoy tinkering and this allows for a fair bit of new CZcams content. Even after spending a fair bit on switches (although under £2500, not anywhere close to £4k) there's still no point spending more £50 more for less cable! In the end, the longer cables actually proved useful when I decided I preferred the patch panel at the top, had I paid more for the shorter cables, I'd have struggled)
Obligatory floor mop right next to a network rack. Checked. Deployment complete.
Hello, nice build, but I still prefer to use a single switch with 1 to 1 patching, because you can use VLAN's to separate different networks including ISP uplink. For future projects I recommend to try short 1U server and try to move to VM's instead of physical machines for Firewall/router, NVR's and other controllers. For this reason you can use 2x10G trunk between main switch and server via SFP+ or SFP28 and DAC for entire traffic.. and install UPS instead of PDU ;)
1-to-1 patching definitely makes sense when you have enough switch ports and all of the switch ports are identical. However, in my setup, I have the 12 port 5 GbE PoE switch and the separate 24 port gigabit switch. The 12 port switch wouldn't be big enough to handle everything and buying two of those would have been far too expensive. Therefore there will always be a requirement to patch certain ports into the 12 port switch and others into the 24 port one. Same goes for places where you have a PoE switch but only some of the ports are PoE - you'll end up needing to patch certain devices to certain ports which messes up it all being 1-to-1 patched. That said, the multiple switches are purely for having sufficient ports, not for separating devices - I'm already using VLANs to do that.
As for running VMs - I already have a VM host and actually have plans in the works to add another (current one doubles as a NAS, I'd rather keep the VM host separate). However, there are certain devices that I prefer to keep on their own dedicated hardware rather than virtualising them, my firewall being one of them. As for the NVR, it currently needs to be on a dedicated device as UniFi require you to use either a CloudKey, Dream Machine or UNVR to run UniFi Protect, you can't run it on your own hardware. Long term when I replace it, I'll likely continue to keep it on a separate box - my servers all use fully SSD based storage, however for an NVR I'd rather have a mechanical hard drive since it'll be getting written to 24/7. Rather than trying to add specific hardware to my VM host to cater to specific VMs such as adding a hard drive for an NVR, I'd rather just keep it on a dedicated device. Additionally, my servers use Xeon chips which don't support any sort of video transcoding acceleration, whereas for an NVR I could specifically select a low power Intel desktop chip that supports hardware video transcoding for better performance rather than having to mess around with adding GPUs to a server and passing them through to VMs. This also means that I can keep the NVR in the comms cabinet (which is in a locked cupboard) rather than in the main server rack in my office which would be easier for an intruder to access.
In terms of a UPS - it's something that I've not been hugely interested in after I had a UPS years ago that failed and started spewing out gas from the batteries! My servers all use ZFS which is relatively resilient against power failure and power outages here are pretty rare. It's still something I'm vaguely considering and may look into getting in the future, but it's not particularly high on my list of priorities.
If I'm not mistaken 100mb half duplex is the speed that devices default to if auto negotiation fails
What's up with the sneaky little TP-Link switch that casually went unmentioned? ;-)
That'll be coming in a video soon 😉 - Although it's not anywhere near as exciting as my secrecy would imply!
Thanks for the video, Mr x0.75 ;) ps. I prefer the metal mesh front panel rather than glass, but if your airflow is fine then glass is ok too
Loving your videos, can I ask what label printer you use? Been looking into starting up a similar project, and hopefully create something a little more maintainable
It's a Brother PT-E550w, I still need to make a video on it! The labels are created using the "Cable Wrap" feature and are printed on their special "Flexible ID" tape which is significantly more flexible than the standard tape so holds its shape around cables much better.
Brady, Dymo, Brother etc do industrial-type labelmakers which let you do tables and stuff for patch bays. I get away with using a low-end Brother P touch I got for $20 after cashback which just has basic features (width, two lines, symbols, continuous feed, cable labels) but so far hasn't let me down when I need to label something in a pinch. Unless you're labelling patch bays on a weekly basis or looking to splash out I would stick with a cheap one. Off brand plastic tapes are also stupid cheap off of Aliexpress and have been identical in quality to the manufacturer's ones, though, so it's a bit of a moot point, but certainly better than having to do them by hand or even designing and printing something from your computer.
Yes, the FX tape for the Brother is key for cable wraps. Sticks to itself, where the standard stuff peels off after a while. I only discovered the FX tape recently, after owning this printer for years!
I can't help but notice the DAC Cabling.....According to the labeling, the connection from router to the 10GB switch is connected SFP (1GB) not SFP+ (10GB) but plugged into a SFP+ 10GB port. Then Switch to switch it is 10GB.
The ports on the router are labelled incorrectly, they are 10 GbE SFP+ ports running off of the Atom C3558R SoC.
Have you stood up a Cisco Business Dashboard as a VM to then get a dashboard for the Cisco switches? I too and looking to replace other unifi switches. Shame the Cisco APs are limited.
I keep meaning to try it but it's not something I'm hugely in a rush to try since it doesn't seem to have received the best reviews. I'd give it a go to see what it's like but long term I think I'll stick to the CLI
Another great video, curious to know what depth your rack is?
It's 390mm deep externally, internally it's rated up to 340mm of internal depth, but once you allow enough space at the front for patch cables you're limited to around 300mm of depth for equipment.
Which Is better switch ? catalyst C1000 or CBS350 for small business
The half-duplex sounds like it could be a fallback due to autoneg failure
New video for new Catalyst 1300 Series Switches and Catalyst 1200 Series Switches ?
C1300-8T-E-2G, C1300-8P-E-2G, C1200-8T-E-2G, C1200-8P-E-2G, C1200-8FP-E-2G
CBS 250 350 EOL from 2022
Thanks
While I would love to review loads of different options, I can't justify the cost of buying all of those switches purely to review them as they are not ideal for my requirements (there are no multi-gig copper port options) and the video will almost certainly not generate enough revenue to cover the costs. As for the CBS 250 and 350 series, they are definitely not EOL. I imagine you're thinking of the older SG250, SG350, SG350X, SG550X series which became EOL in 2022 because they had been replaced with the new CBS250 and CBS350 ranges which were launched around the same time. The Catalyst 1000/1200/1300 range are a different product line that sits at a strange point above the CBS range but below their higher end Catalyst range. They look like good switches but the lack of any decent multi-gig, 10G BaseT options made them unsuitable for me.
Wiggum
Any particular reason for using TP SFP transceivers? DAC cables would be simpler, less cost, and give better power and latency performance for the cross connects between switches.
They are DAC cables
Thanks for the clarification. They looked like RJ45 transceivers on my phone.
In simple terms do you have to connect the router to the 10 gb port in the switch in order to link everything?
You can connect the router to any port, however I'm using the 10GbE port since my router also has 10GbE interfaces so using those will give better capacity for routing between VLANs.
@camerongray1515 thanks. I'm not that tech minded. So I have a vm hub 5 it's 2.5 gig port on the back. Can I just get cat 6 ethernet and connect that to the 10 bg sfp connection with the adaptor. Or would it be best to put that the ethernet in the 2.5 port and use the 10 gb connection the coreect adapter on a longer ethernet cable to the connect that 10 sfp port on the switch upstairs. Then use the 2.5 port for my nas which has a 2.5 port. Than you. Like I say just using 1gig ports seem more straight forward.
What labelling machine did you use for the cables? Are they flat and just stuck around, or a tube (if such things exist)? I find flat ones start to unpeal after a while as they are quit tightly rolled.
I use a Brother PT-E550w label printer and print these using the "cable wrap" feature which prints on regular labels which then wrap around the cable. The trick is to use the special "Flexible ID" tape that Brother sell (or an aftermarket alternative) as this is a lot more flexible and sticks really strongly to itself so it's ideal for either wrapping around cables or sticking to curved surfaces.
Thanks for the quick replay, I'll have a look at the printer. I enjoy your videos, especially the customising of many things, but the software programing is a bit beyond me!
I am not a fan of those Cisco switches any more since switching to Ubiquiti. Way better price to performance and the software is free.
It looks like you're loosing/wasting a 1U space. You have 1 hole unused under your PDU and 2 holes above your patch panel. If you move everything down a hole, you reclaim a 1U space.
There's a free U under the PDU but that's required for the strain relief that hangs down from the plugs. As for moving up and down individual squares - this isn't really a good idea since the squares on a rack aren't equally spaced - you'll notice that the squares at either side of a U are slightly closer together than the one in the middle. While a lot of equipment will fit when misaligned with a U, sometimes you'll find that certain rails and mounting hardware will only fit when aligned with a U which can be a nightmare if all of the equipment in the rack is misaligned by one or two squares.
@@camerongray1515 Agreed 100% for strain relief, almost forgot how bulky and stiff these plugs can be ; I only had a few in hand, because where I live, 3leads AC plugs are CEE 7/7, and the sockets usually at a 45° angle, not 90° on most our powerstrips, needing thus less space for strain relief.
As for the hole spacing, if I agree I wouldn't try to mount my UPS units or 30+kg servers in between units, I didn't ever thought of it as an issue for any type of equipment that's short and light enough that it's usually only secured on 2 posts instead of 4 with proper sliding rails.
What is that brand of the home theater rack at 38 min in? With the metal vented doors?
It's an IKEA FJÄLLBO - www.ikea.com/gb/en/p/fjaellbo-tv-bench-black-90501309/
Do you have enough SFP+ ports to setup LAG Groups for redundancy? The system is nice but more often then not cascading switches fail do to lack of redundancy.
I could do - uplink the 24 port switch to the router again and set up a failover interface so they're essentially all wired in a ring. However it's not something I'm particularly bothered about - this is only a home network so if a switch were to fail, I'd have bigger problems than having to swap a couple of cables around. However, in a commercial environment where switch redundancy is important, I'd of course do this.
Isn't the point of a patch panel to avoid terminating connections from your devices directly into your switch?
A lot of people seem to do that in homelab setups, but it's not the main use case for them and I've never seen it done in a real world environment. Patch panels are intended for terminating structured cabling that runs to network points around a building into a rack. Structured cabling typically uses solid core cable which isn't as flexible or designed to be regularly moved around (hence why a patch panel is preferrable to just crimping RJ45 jacks onto the end of the cable) Patch leads are then used to connect ports from the patch panels into switches or to patch ports on the patch panel together to provide direct cable links between ports in various parts of a building. If all you're doing is connecting devices within the same rack to a switch - I'd just run the patch leads directly between the devices, maybe using a brush plate or cable dump bar to neatly bring the cables between the front/rear of the rack. No point adding in extra connection points for the sake of it.
Which label maker do you use?
It's a Brother P-Touch E550W. For the cable wraps I'm using special "Flexible ID" tape which is much more flexible than standard tape and sticks to itself really well which makes it ideal for wrapping around cables.
trim and make 6 pieces from 1m
12:05 Why do you not buy long time ago a bigger network-closet with 15 or 20 U - so do you can running your network and add install different devices at the same time. In the downtime your full network not work, no TV, no security camera, no storage of your security videos, no down or up loads, no VPN for your outside devices, no inhouse WiFi, no full live streaming inside the internet about your work, aso. 😂
Since I follow you do you change in my feeling every four month all your configuration ... and it could be so easy after do you known "patch cable"... Specially do you like to test and configuration before and after so a bigger one is better. Now do you can not use your older stuff in your network if something wrong configuration. 😂
BTW: I have here real systems how running 24/7 since years and use full configuration backup hardware if I upgrade live - mostly one or twice a year.
That network cabinet is in a cupboard that is also used for storage - I live in a flat/apartment where space is at a premium so a larger cabinet would eat into valuable storage space! If I installed a cabinet that was any larger, I wouldn't have anywhere to store my vacuum cleaner, ironing board or suitcases! This setup needs to fit into my living space without the place looking like an office/datacentre. I have a larger rack in my office where I run my actual servers, however since no future property owner would want all of the network runs being terminated in the corner of what they'd likely end up using as a bedroom, I decided it was more appropriate to run all of the network cables and keep all of the core switching in a small cabinet hidden away in a cupboard.
As for downtime - it's not a huge issue, I set up and test everything on a bench while the existing hardware is running, then only need a few hours to actually disconnect the old hardware and reinstall the new kit. During this time I usually just plug in my ISP's provided router to get a basic internet connection. I can even patch this into various network ports if I need to temporarily get a connection to a wired device. I don't run any critical or public facing services from home, so taking it down for a few hours really isn't an issue.
rooooooooter
Why should still spend money for switches when we can use really good speed with WiFi? (waiting for WiFi 7!)
WiFi is good for many situations but it is in no way comparable to a hardwired connection. The speed ratings for WiFi systems are tested under ideal conditions and any obstructions/interference will significantly impact them. WiFi is also a shared channel meaning that multiple devices communicating on the same network/channel will reduce the amount of bandwidth available to others. These bandwidth limitations and interference issues can also be completely random and occur unpredictably. On the other hand, a wired connection will be significantly more stable and consistent and will be able to operate at its maximum speed irrespective of what other devices on the network are doing. This is particularly important for me as I work from home and need a fully reliable connection - I can't afford for a dodgy wireless connection to cause a video call to lag/drop out.
Of course I do also have a WiFi network (currently AC but due to be upgraded to WiFi 6 soon) however I use this purely for mobile devices such as phones/laptops or devices that don't support a wired connection such as some smart home devices. Anything else that is in a fixed location (TVs, desktops, laptop docks, printers.etc) are all hardwired.
Now of course, the setup I demonstrated here is completely overkill even for my needs, but even a cheap sub-£20 unmanaged switch would be a much more reliable option than WiFi.
@@camerongray1515 Thanks for your detailed response! I would so though, with WiFi 7 (and for sure with 8) cables will not be required any more. At least for homes (not the same for server rooms). As they will drop the cost a lot by not requiring to run any cables, and will exceed the speed of ethernet/fiber and not requiring expensive high bandwidth routers/switches. You can always have access points to increase the speed that will be dropped from obstacles.
I'm not necessarily convinced, sure newer WiFi standards will begin to exceed the speeds of gigabit ethernet, but with the falling prices of 2.5, 5 and 10 gigabit ethernet, those will still easily exceed the speeds of newer WiFi standards. So much of the stuff around the speeds of these modern WiFi standards are completely theoretical pure marketing, you'll never get anywhere close to them in a real world situation. Unlike where you buy a X gigabit ethernet switch, and you will get that speed.
It's completely misleading how these manufacturers such as TPLink and Netgear are advertising WiFi 7 as being "46 gigabit" in graphics that make it look to the average consumer as this is the types of speeds they can hope to get by buying a cheap consumer router and connecting their laptop to it!
The WiFi 7 standard isn't even completed yet, devices using it are based off of an incomplete draft of the standard. It's telling that the only retail "WiFi 7" devices available nowadays are cheap consumer devices. None of the enterprise vendors are offering WiFi 7 devices.
Of course for the average home user, WiFi will be more than sufficient (and has been for years) but cabling still has a place when reliability, consistency and/or raw bandwidth is important. In fact, more and more people seem to be moving towards installing wired home networks nowadays, dispite improving WiFi standards. No matter the WiFi standard, it will always still be a shared medium and bandwidth will be impacted by other devices on the same network/channel. Wired connections will also still be required for uplinks to access points, which you'd need several of to have any hope of getting these promised "as good as a wired connection" speeds in all important locations. Of course running cables is expensive, but this only needs to be done once and is often included with a lot of modern buildings. Excluding my time, I probably only spent around £300 to wire up my place back in 2017, and with that I can easily run up to 10 gigabit ethernet to all rooms. Of course, the switches I have here are expensive, but they don't have to be - you can pick up an 8 port gigabit switch for under £20 nowadays. You can also get 2.5gbit switches now for well under £100 and many computers are starting to include 2.5gbit NICs.
@@camerongray1515I agree that wired will always be more reliable. But let's also agree that a world without wires is much better and I think the time came for the most of the cases. WiFi + Thread/Matter for IoT, easier build, lower cost for most homes! :)
I use wifi 6 and forget about cables, no regrets.
Cameron pls lower your talking spead to x 0.7 and take the sock out of your mouth while talking.
The content is great but the presentation is extremely lackluster.
Feel free to watch another channel where you prefer the presenters voice then, plenty out there where the presentation isn't "lackluster"... Not everyone is a natural voice actor and just magically changing my voice isn't exactly easy! This is already me trying to talk as clearly as I can, it's not easy!
@@camerongray1515 well I said the content is great, I just wanted to give feedback about the type of presentation.