Speccing 25G and 100G optics for NETGEAR M4500-48XF8C and M4350 when NETGEAR brands none itself
We are building out two racks and the switching is settled: a pair of M4500-48XF8C as the leaves with M4350 underneath. What is not settled is the optics BOM. NETGEAR does not put its own label on 25G or 100G modules, and I would rather not discover after delivery that the SFP28 ports dislike what we bought.
- NETGEAR M4500-48XF8C, 100G QSFP28 between the two racks
- M4350 uplinking into the M4500s over SFP28
- 25G to servers, multimode inside the rack, single mode for the run between rooms
- one QSFP28 port earmarked as a 4x25G breakout into a group of servers
Roughly what has to be filled in:
M4500 <-> M4500 100G, same room, short MM run
M4500 <-> M4350 25G, MM inside the rack
M4500 <-> server 25G, 1-3 m, copper if possible
M4500 -> 4 servers breakout 4x25G
room A <-> room B 100G, single mode, under 10 kmSo which 25G SFP28 and 100G QSFP28 modules, DACs, AOCs and breakout cables are actually cleared for this line, and does anyone run third-party parts in these switches in production?
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Comments 4
NETGEAR does not make 25G or 100G optics of its own - the whole range is handed to a partner and the cleared parts all carry an -OC suffix. Fibre first, one line each:
Copper and active optical follow the same naming with the length dropped into the middle. At 25G the twinax is NGS25G-CUxM-OC and the AOC NGS25G-AOxM-OC; the 100G pair is NGQ100G-CUxM-OC and NGQ100G-AOxM-OC. For the breakout you want NGQ4X25-CUxM-OC or NGQ4X25-AOxM-OC, QSFP28 to 4xSFP28. Passive copper is stocked in 1-5 m and the active optical in 1-10 m, so your 1-3 m server links are CU parts and the room to room pair is NGQ100G-LR4-OC - PSM4 only helps you if the second room is inside 500 m.
Plan the M4350 uplinks in blocks before you order anything. On that line the SFP28 uplink ports are grouped in fours and a group runs at a single rate - 4x1G, or 4x10G, or 4x25G. Put a module of a different rate into one port of a group and the rest of the group misbehaves: porst that will not come up, or come up at a speed you did not ask for.
This came out of a support case on an M4350-24X4V rather than out of a manual, so check it against the exact model you are buying. Either way it is cheap to design around: one sped class per group of four, and no stray 10G module parked in a group you intend to run at 25G.
On the third-party question - we do it, just not everywhere. Cisco ASR and Nexus here, and genuine QSFP-100G-LR4-S was never going to fit the budget for the number of ports involved, so the 100G LR4 in those chassis is third-party and has been quietly working ever since. If you have not bought third-party before, FlexOptix is where most people start, mostly because the coding for the host platform is somebody else's problem there.
NETGEAR is an odd fit for that argument though. There is nothing NETGEAR-branded at 25G or 100G to be cheaper than in the first place - the -OC range is the vendor list.
Some practical experience with the brands you will end up comparing. FS optics have been in our racks for years with nothing to report - order a few spares along with the batch, it costs less than an emergency courier when one dies mid-week. Flexoptix has been reliable enough that it makes up most of the deployed optics at one carrier I worked with. 10Gtek shows up a lot as well; their copper modules run very hot, so give them airflow and do not bury them in a blind cage.
The rule we settled on: cleared or genuine parts on ports that carry a support obligation, third-party on everything else. For your build that is the -OC parts on the M4500 to M4500 uplinks and the room to room pair, and something sensible on the server-facing 25G.