What can be connected to the QSFP28 ports of the S4148F-ON?
They support 10, 25, 40, 50 and 100 GbE, and can be split into 10 or 25 GbE links with a breakout cable: a 100G port then becomes several server links. The SFP+ ports, for their part, handle 10 GbE as well as 1 GbE.
Does this switch require Dell's operating system?
No: the open ONIE environment lets you install Dell SmartFabric OS10 or the third-party network operating system of your choice. This is the major difference from a conventional enterprise switch, whose software cannot be separated from the hardware.
What happens if a power supply or a fan fails?
Service continues: two power supplies and four redundant fan modules, all hot-swappable. Airflow runs from the I/O panel towards the power supplies, in line with the hot and cold aisle layout of a data centre.
What latency does this switch claim?
It processes packets in cut-through mode, which means it starts retransmitting a frame before it has received it in full: latency is very low, unlike the store-and-forward mode of access switches. The non-blocking fabric reaches 1.76 Tbps with 1,320 Mpps.
What table sizes can this switch handle?
272,000 MAC addresses in Scaled L2 mode, up to 200,000 IPv4 routes and 130,000 IPv6 routes, with a 200,000-entry ARP table and a 12 MB packet buffer. These are data centre orders of magnitude, far removed from an office switch.
Is this switch suitable for a converged storage network?
Yes: it supports Data Center Bridging — Priority-based Flow Control PFC (802.1Qbb), ETS (802.1Qaz) and DCBX —, designed to carry storage traffic without loss over the same network as the data.
Can a VLAN be extended between two server rooms?
Yes: the Layer 2 and Layer 3 VXLAN gateway bridges physical and virtualised networks at line rate, and VLT technology extends a Layer 2 domain between two data centres. The software stack also covers VLANs, OSPF, BGP, policy-based routing, QoS and ACLs, over IPv4 as well as IPv6.
How much power should be planned for this 1U chassis?
200 W in typical use, for 54 ports in a single rack unit. It operates from 0 to 40 °C at 5 to 85% humidity, non-condensing — the usual conditions of a properly air-conditioned server room.
Is the switch new and covered by a warranty?
Yes, new equipment, with a 3-year warranty, the invoice serving as the warranty document. This is the Dell EMC PowerSwitch S4148F-ON, a top-of-rack switch intended for server rooms and dense virtualised environments.