Starter iscsi and network switches

A decent entry level iSCSI switch (from Dell) would be a 5424 if you can find one. Dell sold these for around US$800 when they still had them on their website.

The 5500-series (5524 or so) isn't recommended with the current firmware for Equallogic implementations, but I'm not sure how 'good' they are for MD-series iSCSI implementations.

Anything less than 24 ports puts you in the series of switches that cannot realistically sustain any decent iSCSI traffic (too small a buffer, too slow a processor, no support for the features you want from an iSCSI switch).

I dunno.   We use cheap 16 port unmannaged D-Link switches and they work fine using Vmware.  Sustain proper throughput and all and should be fine for MD series iSCSI sans in general.   They are like cheapo DG-1016's.   You would need 4 of them for the 3220i.  Way less reccomended for other iSCSI Sans for sure.

I'm about to try Dell 5224 switches out with my MD3000i and VMWARE ESXI 5.0

52xx will NOT work, better use HP V1810-24G 24 Port Gigabit Switch Manufacturer Part No: J9450A

Seb

spgsit, can you elaborate on why 52xx won't work?

Thanks.

I know that Dell's 53xx couldn't sustain jumbo frame iSCSI traffic, which is why that model should be avoided for any iSCSI implementation.

I don't know if the same applied to the even older 52xx-series.