Apple Event: May 7th at 7 am PT
On a Mac mini filesharing server (or a 27 inch iMac) is there a way to add several thunderbolt gigabit ethernet adapters and combine the throughput?
The goal is to use fast Thunderbolt (or SANlink) storage and overcome the mac’s 1 gigabit networking bottleneck. In other words provide more total bandwith to the fileserver’s users than 1 gigabit.
Yes. You can do this with the Thunderbolt to 1000Base Ethernet adaptor or with the USB3 to 1000Base Ethernet adaptor (provided the host machine has a USB3 port). You can also do this with a Thunderbolt cinema display's ethernet port as well. Remember, your switch must support the LACP port bonding.
Yes. You can do this with the Thunderbolt to 1000Base Ethernet adaptor or with the USB3 to 1000Base Ethernet adaptor (provided the host machine has a USB3 port). You can also do this with a Thunderbolt cinema display's ethernet port as well. Remember, your switch must support the LACP port bonding.
As far as I can see currently the most Thunderbolt Gigabit Ethernet adaptors you are going to be able to connect is two, to an iMac, this along with the built-in Gigabit Ethernet port would give you a total of 3 x 1000Mbps if you trunk them together.
If you need more than this then you should look at PCI-E 10Gbps cards. Either directly in a Mac Pro, or via a Thunderbolt to PCI-E expansion chassis.
This approach is not normally needed. You would use a Thunderbolt to FDDI adaptor see http://www.attotech.com/products/category.php?id=15&catid=16
You can also get a Thunderbolt to 10Gbps card however both are a cheat, it looks like a Thunderbolt to PCI-E expansion box and then a standard PCI-E card.
This is a bit more genuine see http://www.promise.com/media_bank/Download%20Bank/Datasheet/SANLink_Series_DS_v1 .02.pdf although on paper it is not as fast.
Increased bandwith using multiple gigabit thunderbolt ethernet adapters?
