<html><body><p><font size="2">Hi,</font><br><br><font size="2">> May I know if could feedback from anyone who is using Arista or Mellanox switches on the</font><br><font size="2">> clusters to understand the pros and cons, stability and the performance numbers of the same?</font><br><br><font size="2">Most current network switches are using Merchant Silicon ASICs instead of custom ASICs as in the past. (This is even true for some Cisco devices.)</font><br><br><font size="2">"Merchant silicon is a term used to described chips, usually ASICs, that are designed and made by an entity other than the company selling the switches in which they are used. I might be tempted to say such switches use off-the-shelf ASICs, though that might imply that I could buy these chips from a retail store."</font><br><br><a href="https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/networks/why-merchant-silicon-taking-over-data-center-network-market"><font size="2">https://www.datacenterknowledge.com/networks/why-merchant-silicon-taking-over-data-center-network-market</font></a><br><br><font size="2">All of the Merchant Silicon ASICs lines have different family members from entry to high-end features. Switch vendors will pick and choose these ASICs by price and target market for the specific switch models. You can't tell from the "outside" which switch does offer which kind of performance. You need to do more research on the specific switch and use case. Most of the time Mellanox switches does offer very attractive features and performance levels for parallel I/O workloads but there are more options in the market.</font><br><br><font size="2">The NOS (Network OS) which is running on these new networking switches is also not a fixed option. You have some choice here. Some switches can be ordered with different NOS versions. Which NOS is the best fit for Spectrum Scale or other pFS's is still a topic to be researched.</font><br><br><font size="2">Last but not least the question of which NIC card is the best fit in this job is important. SmartNIC: A network interface card (network adapter) that offloads processing tasks that the system CPU would normally handle. Using its own on-board processor, the SmartNIC may be able to perform any combination of encryption/decryption, firewall, TCP/IP and HTTP processing. SmartNICs can be ASIC, FPGA, and System-on-a-Chip (SOC) based. Naturally vendors who make just one kind of NIC seem to insist that only the type of NIC they make should qualify as a SmartNIC. Mellanox is a good choice here but there is wide range of choices and features already in the market.</font><br><font size="2"> </font><br><font size="2">-frank-</font><br><br><font size="2">Appendix:</font><br><br><font size="2">1 - A Network-centric View of Scalable Storage by Andy Bechtolsheim, Chief Development Officer and Co-Founder, Arista Networks</font><br><a href="https://youtu.be/__LomgSguSc"><font size="2">https://youtu.be/__LomgSguSc</font></a><br><br><font size="2">2 - Broadcom Ships Tomahawk 4, Industry’s Highest Bandwidth Ethernet Switch Chip at 25.6 Terabits per Second – Broadcom</font><br><br><a href="https://www.broadcom.com/products/ethernet-connectivity/switching/strataxgs/bcm56990-series"><font size="2">https://www.broadcom.com/products/ethernet-connectivity/switching/strataxgs/bcm56990-series</font></a><br><a href="https://packetpushers.net/podcast/network-break-264-broadcoms-new-tomahawk-4-hits-25-6tbps-juniper-announces-sd-lan-for-ex-switches/"><font size="2">https://packetpushers.net/podcast/network-break-264-broadcoms-new-tomahawk-4-hits-25-6tbps-juniper-announces-sd-lan-for-ex-switches/</font></a><br><a href="https://www.telecompaper.com/news/broadcom-ships-tomahawk-4-ethernet-switch-chip--1319338"><font size="2">https://www.telecompaper.com/news/broadcom-ships-tomahawk-4-ethernet-switch-chip--1319338</font></a><br><br><font size="2">Broadcom delivered the StrataXGS Tomahawk 4 switch series, demonstrating an unprecedented 25.6 Tbps of Ethernet switching performance in a single device.</font><br><br><font size="2">3 - Mellanox Introduces Revolutionary ConnectX-6 Dx and BlueField-2 Secure Cloud SmartNICs and I/O Processing Unit Solutions</font><br><br><font size="2">ConnectX-6 Dx and BlueField-2 Provide 200 Gb/s Ethernet and InfiniBand Connectivity, Enabling Next Generation of Clouds, Secure Data Centers and Storage Platforms</font><br><a href="https://www.mellanox.com/page/press_release_item?id=2195"><font size="2">https://www.mellanox.com/page/press_release_item?id=2195</font></a><br><br><br><font size="2">Frank Kraemer<br>IBM Consulting IT Specialist / Client Technical Architect<br>Am Weiher 24, 65451 Kelsterbach, Germany<br><a href="mailto:kraemerf@de.ibm.com">mailto:kraemerf@de.ibm.com</a><br>Mobile +49171-3043699<br>IBM Germany</font><BR>
</body></html>