MikroTik CSS326-24G-2S+RM Review

[@johnnybegood8049]

Ordered my 2nd one for my other office. These are great and cheap as you said. Have the 2 SFP+ ports connected to a FreeNAS box using an SFP+ connection and a MacPro 5.1 with a 10GB Ethernet (through the Mikrotik adapter) and a bunch other clients in Gigabit. Great investment. Thanks Mikrotik! Great video as usual!

[@TheDopamin3]

Just curious what's your throughput like between the FreeNAS / MacPro using something like iperf? That's basically what my use case would be too and wonder how close it can get to saturating full 10Gbps speed.

[@johnnybegood8049]

@@TheDopamin3 Well my setup is a bit more complex... I am using Proxmox as hypervisor and FreeNAS is a VM. Also I'm using a Mellanox card (mlx4) and when passing through the PCIe device to dedicate the NIC to FreeNAS, I got it to kernel panic and read the card is not support properly in version 11.2/11.3. So I am back with virtio virtual NIC (Proxmox virtual network interface) and I am getting only 2Gb I/O max so far so pretty lame. I have to dig into Proxmox and see if I can tuneup the setup and I'll definitely run iperf first but I am lacking time to do so. When I have some free time at the office, I'll run the tests and report, if I don't forget.

[@johnnybegood8049]

Well so I got 2Gb link speed using iPerf until I changed the MTU to 9000 and got 3Gb/s. There is clearly some more improvements and tune up to be made and that is involving the mellanox card and proxmox. I am pretty sure you can achieve 9Gb/s. I got a non supported 10Gb Ethernet card for the MacPro based on the Aquantia chipset. Add to flash the firmware to get it working. A lot of fun stuffs

[@bad__syntax]

Another great review, Patrick. Keep it up!

[@chrisumali9841]

Thanks for the review and info, I finally am starting to upgrade my switches, and I will go with those of these to connect my house and garage. Have a great day

[@thatLion01]

Keep these amazing videos coming... Really enjoying them. In the future do you mind to also show us the management console or web interface for these kind of deviceS?

[@gtsdude1053]

I got one working like a charm for 4 months now. Both 10Gbit ports work fine and fast!

[@TheUKDude_]

@ServeTheHome I just got mine today to replace a 10+ year old Netgear 16 Port Switch that decided to die on us. I already have their Cloud Core Router (CCR2004-1G-12S+2XS) that I recently upgraded from a RB4011iGS+RM which had been running great for 6 to 8 years. But I am also not a fan of the external power brick, but its fine if it reduces costs, what I do hate is the lack of a fan, this unit gets rather hot, I had one idle at 63°C in a room that is 20°C so this unit could of come with a fan, or at least a header for one so that we could install our own one if needed. But we will see how well it runs and how cool it stays.

[@massfrommars]

This is a pretty cool switch. The only thing I'd concern myself with regarding this switch is the Switch OS dependency. I have been "upgrading" my network over to mikrotik with due consideration for manageability. What I've found is only way to manage Switch OS is over the webfig portal. The winbox or the mobile app can be used to manage only Router OS. The mobile app has been quite useful for me to do a quick health and other status check of the mikrotik routers and switches. But as a SIFI (set it and forget it) device this CSS326 is a wonderful device.

[@B-hyphy]

How do you access SwOS - You have to dl the winbox and connect thru eth cable? I had this switch fail on me and now im trying to update the firmware to see if it will be functional again

[@Shane-Singleton]

These would be great in an instance where you have switches spread over a small campus or office building. You can use the SFP+ ports with whichever optics you want (depending on how far you need to go) to make an easy fiber run for your switch interconnects on a 10gb link. I've got a good old Dell Powerconnect 2724 that i've been using for YEARS but I'm going to swap it out for one of these for the SFP+ ports. The Dell has SFP ports but I want to have the ability to do a 10gb link when I set my rack up for my lab servers and NAS.

[@bw_merlin]

Suggestion: If you are going to talk about this being PoE powered talk about what 802.3 standard it needs (I assume 802.3at). What about how the dual power is load balanced (does it draw from PoE first or DC?). Are there any limitation when running via PoE only (do all ports work or only sum? Does it down clock? Can I run other PoE devices off this if it has spare PoE budget?). The port numbers appear to be bottom to top and not top bottom like most networking equipment, why is that?

[@samal3196]

For posterity, the switch only accepts passive poe in.

[@Shinta0SaINt]

Great video guys! Keep up the good work!

[@ItsQuintFX]

Personally if i were to get this switch i'd probably mod it and put the adapter inside, then get a new cord from the adapter to c13 female, and frankenstein that to the back of the switch.

[@isladelobos]

power method is the best point in this swith we can use the swith on a lot of different environements and is more universal.

[@benricok]

Got one of those for my home, awesome little switch for the price!

[@ApexOT]

How loud is it? My Aruba S2500-48P is way too loud!

[@benricok]

​@@ApexOT Its passivly cooled, no noise at all!

[@sagetechnology4913]

I wouldn't exactly call it compact, considering that about a third of it is empty space. But even then, it's still a good switch, and I have one in my home network.

[@flywheeldk]

Oh - a baltic manufacturer, awesome - have to give them a closer look.

[@ferdievanschalkwyk1669]

I think the DC input and the POE input is due to their popularity in the 3rd world in DC powered remote cabinets that run off wind and solar with no inverters. its all DC Batteries and solar.

[@Repeaterbook]

I enjoy the 12-volt since it is in my mobile communications trailer which runs off of 12-volt batteries. It is difficult to find a DC-powered switch.

[@onyx0r]

thanks for the review!

[@ShandidyTechTips]

Dose it Support LACP Protocol?

[@LambdaDriven]

Great video!

[@spyrule]

The only problem with the PoE IN... it only works with poe injectors. Does not work properly with 802.3at/af power sources as its only power source.

[@aishabraddick8734]

Este dispositivo es compatible con el protocolo de ipv6?

[@nachtschatt3n]

I really have trouble with this switch ... it hangs after one day of use unless I downgrade it to a 2-year-old firmware ... the Mikrotik form is full of complaints but nothing seems so change...

[@vdevov]

Does this have enough processing power to connect a NAS with 2x10Gb LACP being uplinked to the Dell via 6x1Gb LACP (with PoE/PoE+, acting as a "core"). Trying to make sure a couple systems at the MikroTik end have full Gigabit, as well as multiple systems at the Dell end. No multiple VLANs, just one VLAN with two sets of LACP. I've had good experience donig this with the NetGear M4300-8X8F, at work, but I can't seem to find a cost effective solution for this at home. Just really need a 8x 1000BASE-T + 2x 10Gb SPF+ strong enough, with decent backplane, and good LACP handling. EDIT: I understand the 2x10Gb isn't necessary when connecting 8x1Gb systems. I'm obsessed with redundancy, which is why I always run LACP when possible.

[@TrueNetworking]

Does it have Vlan Translation?

[@jairotrujillomendoza140]

pls tellme how i can enter to old setting for use router mode for winbox i can't enter to there

[@vipinkrishnan5313]

Hi i having issue in one of my mikrotik switch crs 3.. its gives an rxoverruns error 1763.. what colud be the reason

[@niceguy235uk1]

Is this passive cooled ie fanless? And would this be a good replacement for an RB4011 that is full up?

[@UltimateAlgorithm]

RB4011 is a router while this one is a Switch. They can't really replace one another. You can though, use the RB4011 coupled with CSS326. I use one which is connected using 10G SFP.

[@ipv4to6]

The only downside is that Mirkotik is not publishing the MTU size for the switch type.

[@mobi8138]

I am hearing that you need to also purchase a license for the OS. Is this true?

[@ServeTheHomeVideo]

The license is included.

[@Taras-Nabad]

Nice switch but Microtik hardware is impossible to get. Not sure how they stay in business.

[@funkiam9214]

vxlan in ros 7.beta5

[@nettyvoyager6336]

its only got two sfp's no good if you go optical you could do with 4 min nice switch as switches go like :P