vmexplorer

10Gb Switch Options for VMware Home Lab

Posted on May 10, 2022 Updated on February 3, 2023

With so many 10Gbe Switch options out there for VMware Home Labs I thought I would take some time to create a list of some of the more common options.

Where did I get this data?

William Lam started the VMware Community Homelab project a few years ago. It allows Home Lab users to enter their information around their Home lab. To date the VMware Home Lab community have entered over 125 different VMware Home Labs. When a user registers they provide a URL link which leads to their home lab build-of-materials (BOM) or a description of the users home lab. Its a great resource when you are looking to see what others are doing. This was my primary data source for the results below.

On to the Results!

Over this past weekend, I took some time to review all VMware Community Homelab project links and specifically documented all the folks that noted their 10Gb Switch. I found where 25 users listed the use of a 10Gbe Switch. As I went to each link I documented the switch, its 10Gb Port count, who made it, the model, a current price, and a helpful link.

Here are the TOP 3 most popular and a curious switch:

#1 – With a user count of 7 the Ubiquity Unifi US-16-XG was the most used switch by a single model. Additionally, I noticed many of their other products in users home labs.

#2 – MikroTik with a user count of 8 across 4 different models. Their products are know to be very cost effective for 10Gbe so its no wonder they are in the top 3.

#3 – Our surprise result with a user count of 4 across 2 models is Netgear. But, its no surprise that Netgear has been making great home lab products for decades and they seem to be a bit popular in this 10Gbe arena.

Lastly, a curious switch I noted was the Brocade Communications BR-VDX6720-24-R VDX 6720. With 24 Ports of SFP+ 10Gbe its got me curious why you can find these on Ebay for ~$150. This is one switch I’ll have to look into.

This table contains to total results and extra information :

Count	10Gb Ports	Ports	Manufacture	Product	USD Cost (05/2022)	Link	Notes
7	16	12 x 10G SFP+ ports | 4 x 10Gbe RJ45	Ubiquity	UniFi US-16-XG 10G	$600-800	https://store.ui.com/collections/unifi-network-switching/products/unifi-switch-16-xg
4	8	8 x 10 Gb SFP+ | 1 x 1Gbe RJ45	MikroTik	CRS309-1G-8S+IN	$269	https://mikrotik.com/product/crs309_1g_8s_in
2	8	8 x 10Gbe RJ45 | 2 RJ45/SFP+ Combo Ports	Netgear	Prosafe XS708T	$850	https://www.netgear.com/business/wired/switches/smart/xs708t/
2	16	16 x 10 Gb SFP+ | 1 x 1Gbe RJ45	MikroTik	CRS317-1G-16S+RM	$400	https://mikrotik.com/product/crs317_1g_16s_rm
2	8	8 x 10Gbe RJ45 | 1 x 10GB RJ45/SFP+ Combo Ports	Netgear	XS708E	EOL	https://www.netgear.com/support/product/XS708E.aspx	EOL
1	12	8 x 10Gbe RJ45| 4 x Combo (TP and SFP+) | 1 10/100Gbe RJ45	MikroTik	CRS312-4C+8XG-RM	$625	https://mikrotik.com/product/crs312_4c_8xg_rm
1	8	8 x 10Gbe RJ45	Buffalo	BS-XP20	EOL	https://www.buffalotech.com/resources/bs-mp20-10gbe-multi-gigabit-switch-replaces-the-bs-xp20-10gbe-switch	EOL
1	24	24 x 10 Gb SFP+	Lenovo	RackSwitch G8124E	EOL	https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/tips0787
1	24	24 x 10 Gb SFP+	Brocade Communications	BR-VDX6720-24-R VDX 6720	EOL $150-400	https://www.andovercg.com/datasheets/brocade-vdx-6720-switch-datasheet.pdf	Hard to find information on this switch
1	See Note	48 x 1Gbe RG45 | 4 x QSFP+ 40GB	Cisco	N3K-C3064PQ-10GX Nexus 3064	$1,200	https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/nexus-3000-series-switches/data_sheet_c78-651097.html	Looks like the 4 x 40GB QSFP+ can be spilt into mutiple 10Gb SFP
1	4	4 x 10Gb SFP+	MikroTik	CRS305-1G-4S+IN	$140	https://mikrotik.com/product/crs305_1g_4s_in
1	4	4 x 10GB SFP+ | 24 x 1Gbe RJ45	Cisco	3750-24P w/ Cisco C3KX-NM-10G 3K-X Network Module		https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/products/collateral/switches/catalyst-3560-x-series-switches/data_sheet_c78-584733.html
1	8	4 x 10GB SFP+ | 4 x 10Gb RJ45/SFP+ Combo Ports	Qnap	QSW-804-4C	$500	https://www.qnap.com/en-us/product/qsw-804-4c

Update: Here are a few switches that folks mentioned to me in their comments but were not part of the VMware Community HomeLab listing:

• Brocade icx-6610 ~$200 | 16x10G ports, 2x40G ports, 48x1G
• TP-Link TL-SG3428XMP $600 | 24xPOE 1G + 4xSFP+
• TP-Link TL-SX1008 | $400 | 8x10G Desktop/Rackmount Switch
• Netgear XS508M $600 | 8 x 10Gbe RJ45 1 x shared SFP+
• Ubiquity USW-Pro-Aggregation $899 | Layer 3 switch with (28) 10G SFP+ ports and (4) 25G SFP28 ports.
• Ubiquity USW-Aggregation $270 | L2 8x 10Gb SFP+
• Dell S4112T $1500-$5000 | Multi-function Rack Switch See docs
• D-LINK DX-1210-10TS $1200 | 8 x 10Gbe RJ50 2 x 10Gbe SFP+
• Dell X4012 ~$500-1500 | 12 x 10Gbe SFP+
• MokerLink 10G080GSM $250 | 8 x 10Gbe SFP+ Managed Switch
• MokerLInk 10G080GS $200 | 8 x 10Gbe SFP+ Unmanaged Switch

It was a bit of a surprise the the following switch vendors were not mentioned by users: Linksys, Aruba (now HPE), Juniper, and Extreme Networks.

For a really good list of Network Switch and Router vendors check out this wiki page.

Lastly, it should be noted, there is a another way for Home lab users to enter their BOMs. Most recently a VMware fling known as Solution Designer is allowing Home lab users to enter their data. Here is a quick description of the new service:

The Solution Designer Fling provides a platform to manage custom VMware solutions. Building a custom VMware solution involves many challenging tasks. One of the most difficult is continuous manual verifications: checking the interoperability of multiple VMware products and performing compatible hardware validations. Solution Designer seeks to resolve these issues by automating repetitive manual steps and collecting scattered resources in a single platform.

Note: The only downside to this fling is you can only see your data and not others.

To sum it up, I’m sure this table is less then 100% accurate when it comes to VMware Home Labs. In viewing the listings on the VMware Community Home lab project, I found many dead user links and incomplete BOMs. The list above is more about how many folks are using which switch vs. the specifics of the switch. The specifics are something you might want to review at a deeper level. However, its a good start and the table above should come in handy if you are looking to compare some common 10Gbe switches for your home lab.

Thanks for reading and if I missed your switch, please do comment below and I’ll be glad to add it!