FS N8560

Jan 10, 2024

Today we have a 25GbE option from FS.com. The FS N8560-48BC is an interesting switch combining some elements that we have seen before with other elements that are new. The switch itself is a 48-port 25GbE switch but there are also 8x 100GbE ports making for a surprising amount of connectivity. Let us get to the hardware.

As we typically do with our hardware reviews, we are going to split our hardware section into internal and external overviews.

The N8560-48BC is a 1U switch that is 387mm or 15.2″ deep so it will fit into most racks needing this density of switch.

The main feature of the switch is the 48x SFP28 ports for 25GbE. These ports also will operate at 10Gbps speeds.

There are so many switch ports on the front of the 1U that the status and ID LEDs are on the edge below the switch. That small area even has the FS logo and the N8560-48BC model number.

On the right side of the switch, there are eight QSFP28 100GbE ports. These ports are meant for uplinks and can also run at 40GbE speeds.

The rear of the switch is dedicated to that airflow, made up of fans and power supplies. There is, however, one additional feature not present on all switches.

That feature is the management area. This small block has the out-of-band management port, the serial console port, and a USB port for upgrades. On some switches, this is found on the front of the switch, and we generally prefer it there, but there is no room on this switch.

The fan modules are dual-fan modules on a hot-swap carrier sled. Something we would have liked to see is that the handles adopt industry-standard coloring of red for the direction of the airflow, like the PSUs. There are a total of four of these redundant fan modules in the switch. At least one can read the text on the fan modules and see they end in -FB or front to back.

The power supplies exhaust to the rear and thus have red tabs on them (red for hot.) These are 550W units. It would have been nice to see some efficiency rating like “80Plus Platinum” or some indication of efficiency on the PSUs. For many organizations, this is becoming required as part of sustainability efforts with companies specifically looking for all gear to be rated with 80Plus Gold, Platinum, Titanium, or so forth as a minimum spec for IT equipment.

Overall, this is a nice layout for a 48-port 25GbE switch and compared to previous generations, it has eight 100GbE uplinks instead of just four or six.

Next, we are going to open the switch and get to the internal hardware overview.