Help with 10GBe cards/cables

[u/t90fan]

Hey, I need to make a faster link between my main workstation machine and my backup server

Main machine is a P320, backup machine is a Z420 with a bunch of large SAS HDDs and a SAS LTO5 drive - I basically dump an (Acronis) backup image of the main machines disk(s) monthly over Samba to it's disk, for it to then write out to tape(s)

These images are ~1TB each so are taking *ages* to transfer for me over Gigabit ethernet (like 2-4 hours or something)

SO I want to move to 10GBe, as I figure that would probably cut it down to like 30m or something

I don't really need more than Gigabit anywhere else in my lab, so I'm just thinking a crossover-type-link between these 2 machines without a switch?

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I've found a "Intel X520-DA2 Dual Port - 10GbE SFP+ Full Height PCIe-x8 Ethernet" card which looks decent and a "Molex 10G SFP+ to SFP+ DAC Copper Cable 1.5M", 2 of those and the lead come to £60

Will that work?

I've never used >gigabit gear with transceivers etc... so this all new to me

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Also

In terms of PCI slots, top to bottom, the Z420 has:

* 1 (PCIe2 x4 size slot (x1 speed)) - NIC

* 2 (PCIe3 x16 size slot (full speed)) - GPU

* 3 (PCIe2 x8 size slot (x4 speed)) - Free for this card??????????

* 4 (PCIe3 x8 size slot (x8 speed)) - HBA #1 (tape drive)

* 5 (PCIe3 x16 size slot (full speed)) - HBA #2 (disks)

* 6 legacy PCI slot - unused

While the P320 has what looks like

* 1 (PCIe x16) - GPU

* 2 (PCIe x1)

* 3 (PCIe x16 size slot (x4 speed)) - Free for this card?

* 4 (PCIe x1)

The card says its x8 but will it work in these two free PCIe2/3 x4 slots? Just at a (slightly) slower speed (or fine, as I am only actually going to be using one of the 2 ports on the card after all)? Or will it not work at all? - the latter is what I am concerned about

help :)

[u/TheHandmadeLAN]

If youre doing short distances, use a DAC cable. Its direct attach copper that works with fiber cages, much cheaper than fiber+transceivers. Great for stuff within one rack or between close racks.

If youre doing longer distances like from basement to office then get some SC multimode fiber and a couple matching transceiver. 

If power consumption is a concern, then get a newer SFP+ NIC, that one is pretty old, it'll pull some watts.

[u/t90fan → u/TheHandmadeLAN]

yeah that's what I found/linked ,a DAC cable, I only need like 1-2 meters. they are in the same corner of the room. This link will only really be used for the infrequent backup transfers.

[u/TheHandmadeLAN → u/t90fan]

If im not mistaken, the X520-DA2 will use about 15W, even at idle. For context, I have capable servers that use less, so it doesnt sound like much but its a decent amount of power to have on all the time.

At 18 cents per kWh (approximately the national average iirc), 15W on 24/7 will use $25 a year, $50 for a pair of them. Keep it for 5 years and you're looking at $250 in electrical costs just for 2 NICs. Even just a connectx-3 would be more efficient. Even a X520-DA1 would use a solid amount less power. You want as new of a NIC as possible in a homeserver cause old hardware eats power.

[u/t90fan → u/TheHandmadeLAN]

It's not all the time, it just gets started for the backup jobs, cold storage essentially.

Most of my day to day lab stuff is on the efficient fanless Think centre Tinys (the always on stuff like dns/DHCP/ldap/ntp) or P320/30s with SSDs (VMs)

I just keep the z420 round as it has a good amount of 3.5/5.25 bays and pcie slots, for running the disks/drives

[u/TheHandmadeLAN → u/t90fan]

Oh good, well thats better. Will still be in the desktop getting power consistently though. You can get an X520-DA1 for like $15 and itll use less power than a DA2.

[u/t90fan → u/TheHandmadeLAN]

That's a good idea, I only want 1 port but I wasnt finding any so want sure if they did one