Force10 Gear - Opinions

Tue Aug 26 14:55:52 UTC 2008

Paul Wall wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 22, 2008 at 10:34 AM, Matlock, Kenneth L
> <MatlockK at exempla.org> wrote:
>   
>> Does anyone here have real-world experience with Force 10 gear
>> (Specifically their E-Series and C-Series)? They came and did their
>> whole dog and pony show today, but I wanted to get real-world feedback
>> on their gear.
>>
>> I need to know about their
>>
>> 1)       Reliability
>> 2)       Performance
>>     
>
> EANTC did a comprehensive study of the E-series:
>
> http://www.eantc.de/en/test_reports_presentations/test_reports/force_10_sfm_failover_video_ftos_6211.html
>
> http://www.eantc.com/fileadmin/eantc/downloads/test_reports/2006-2008/Cisco-Force10/EANTC_Full_Report.pdf
>
> http://www.eantc.com/fileadmin/eantc/downloads/test_reports/2006-2008/Cisco-Force10/Section_8.pdf
>   

Standard benchmarketing.  Not that I blame Cisco or EANTC for that, 
since they were debunking some benchmarketing done by Force10 and Tolly, 
but consider the source (and follow the money) when reading any 
"independent" test and what that means for accuracy.

80% of the EANTC report can be summed up as "The default CAM profile 
didn't do what we wanted, and we didn't bother asking Force10 for the 
commands to make it work."  There are indeed some interesting product 
weaknesses, like any vendor has, but the fact that Force10's CAM can be 
partitioned to match the buyer's needs, rather than having a fixed 
configuration that all customers are forced to use, is an advantage in 
my book.

S

(Disclosure: I am a former employee of both Cisco and Force10, but have 
no ties to either today.)