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Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter

IBM BladeCenter at-a-glance guide

The Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM® BladeCenter® delivers the industry's lowest latency performance of 10 Gigabit Ethernet connectivity with stateless offloads for converged fabrics in enterprise data centers, high-performance computing, and embedded environments.

Financial services, cluster databases, web infrastructure, and cloud computing are just a few example applications that will achieve significant throughput and latency improvements resulting in faster access, real-time response, and increased number of users per server. The adapter is based on Mellanox

ConnectX-2 EN technology, which improves network performance by increasing available bandwidth to the CPU, especially in virtualized server environments.

Figure 1 shows the adapter.

Figure 1. Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter

Did you know

New enhancements such as Data Center Ethernet (DCE) are being added to Ethernet for better I/O consolidations. The InfiniBand Trade Association's (IBTA) RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) technology provides efficient low-latency RDMA transport over Layer 2 Ethernet. The RoE software stack maintains existing and future application compatibility for bandwidth and latency-sensitive clustering applications. With link-level interoperability in existing Ethernet infrastructure, network administrators can leverage existing data center fabric management solutions with this adapter.

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 1

Part number information

The part number to order this card is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Ordering part number and feature code

Description

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter

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These part numbers include the following items:

One Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh)

Documentation CD that contains the Installation and User's Guide

Important Notices document

Part number

90Y3570

Feature code

A1NW

Features and benefits

The Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) has the features discussed below.

Performance

Based on ConnectX-2 EN technology, the Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) provides a high level of throughput performance for all network environments by removing I/O bottlenecks in mainstream servers that are limiting application performance. Blade servers in the BladeCenter H and

HT chassis can fully utilize both 10 Gbps ports and achieve up to 40 Gbps duplex bandwidth.

Hardware-based stateless offload engines handle the TCP/UDP/IP segmentation, reassembly, and checksum calculations that would otherwise burden the host processor. These offload technologies are fully compatible with Microsoft RSS and NetDMA.

RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) further accelerates application run time. RoCE specification provides efficient data transfer with very low latencies on lossless Ethernet networks. RoCE enables lowest latency memory transaction, with less than 2 µs at full bandwidth with small message size. This allows very high-volume transaction-intensive applications typical of financial market firms and other industries where speed of data delivery is paramount to take advantage. With the Mellanox 2-port 10Gb

Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh), high-frequency transaction applications are able to access trading information with shorter times, making sure that the trading servers are able to respond first to any new market data and market inefficiencies, while the higher throughput enables higher volume trading, maximizing liquidity and profitability.

In data mining or web crawl applications, RoCE provides the needed boost in performance to search faster by solving the network latency bottleneck associated with I/O cards and the corresponding transport technology in the cloud. Various other applications that benefit from RoCE with ConnectX-2 EN include Web 2.0 (Content Delivery Network), Business intelligence, database transactions, and various

Cloud computing applications. Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN's low-power consumption (less than 3.5 W per port) provides customers with high bandwidth and low latency at the lowest cost of ownership.

I/O virtualization

ConnectX-2 EN supports hardware-based I/O virtualization, providing dedicated adapter resources and guaranteed isolation and protection for virtual machines (VM) within the server. ConnectX-2 EN gives data center managers better server utilization and LAN and SAN unification while reducing costs, power, and complexity.

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 2

Quality of service

Resource allocation per application or per VM is provided by the advanced QoS supported by

ConnectX-2 EN. Service levels for multiple traffic types can be based on IETF DiffServ or IEEE 802.1p/Q, along with the Data Center Bridging enhancements, allowing system administrators to prioritize traffic by application, virtual machine, or protocol. This powerful combination of QoS and prioritization provides the ultimate fine-grained control of traffic, ensuring that applications run smoothly in today’s complex environment.

Specifications

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The Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) has the following specifications:

CFFh form-factor

Two full-duplex 10 Gb Ethernet ports

PCI Express x8 Gen 2 host interface

Mellanox ConnectX-2 EN ASIC

Connectivity to high-speed I/O module bays in BladeCenter H and BladeCenter HT chassis

Features: Stateless Offload, Priority Flow Control, FCoE Ready

Power consumption: 6.4 W (typical)

Stateless iSCSI offload

BladeCenter Open Fabric Manager support (available early 4Q/2011)

PXE v2.1 boot support

Wake on LAN support (available early 4Q/2011)

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Ethernet support and standards are:

IEEE Std 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet

IEEE Std 802.3ad Link Aggregation and Failover

IEEE Std 802.3x Pause

IEEE 802.1Q, .1p VLAN tags and priority

Multicast

Jumbo frame support (10 KB)

128 MAC/VLAN addresses per port

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Data Center Bridging (DCB) support:

Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS) (IEEE 802.1Qaz)

Quantized Congestion Notification (QCN) (IEEE 802.1Qau)

Priority-based Flow Control (PFC) (IEEE 802.1Qbb)

Data Center Bridging Capability eXchange (DCBX) protocol

TCP/UDP/IP stateless offload:

TCP/UDP/IP checksum offload

TCP Large Send Offload (< 64 KB) or Giant Send Offload (64 KB - 16 MB) for segmentation

Receive Side Scaling (RSS) up to 32 queues

Line rate packet filtering

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 3

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Additional CPU offloads:

RDMA over Converged Ethernet support

FC checksum offload

VMDirect Path support

Traffic steering across multiple cores

Intelligent interrupt coalescence

Compliant to Microsoft RSS and NetDMA

Hardware-based I/O virtualization:

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Address translation and protection

Dedicated adapter resources and guaranteed isolation

Multiple queues per virtual machine

Hardware switching between guest OSs

Enhanced QoS for vNICs

VMware NetQueue support

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Storage support:

Compliant with T11.3 FC-BB-5 FCoE frame format

Operating environment

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This card is supported in the following environment:

Temperature: 0° C to 55° C (32° F to 131° F)

Operating power: Approximately 6.4 watts

Dimensions: Approximately 15.9 cm x 12.5 cm (6.26 in. x 4.92 in.)

Warranty

One-year limited warranty: When installed in a BladeCenter server, the card assumes the system’s base warranty and any IBM ServicePac® upgrade.

Supported servers

The Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) is supported in the IBM BladeCenter servers listed in Table 2.

Table 2. Supported servers

Expansion card

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet

Expansion Card (CFFh)

Part number

90Y3570 N N N Y Y Y N N N N N N

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 4

Figure 2 shows where the CFFh card is installed in a BladeCenter server.

Figure 2. Location on the BladeCenter server planar where the CFFh card is installed

Supported BladeCenter chassis and I /O modules

IBM BladeCenter chassis support is based on the blade server type in which the expansion card is installed. Consult IBM ServerProven® to see which chassis each blade server type is supported at: http://ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/ .

Table 3 lists the supported chassis and I/O module combinations that the card supports.

Table 3. I/O modules supported with the Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh)

Description

BNT Virtual Fabric 10 Gb Switch Module

BNT 6-port 10 Gb High Speed Switch Module

10 Gb Ethernet Pass-Thru Module

Cisco Nexus 4001I Switch Module

Part number

46C7191

39Y9267

46M6181

46M6071

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter

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N N N N N N N

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N N Y N Y N N

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In BladeCenter H, the ports of CFFh cards are routed through the midplane to I/O bays 7, 8, 9, and 10

(Figure 3). The BladeCenter HT works in a similar way because the CFFh cards are also routed through the midplane to I/O bays 7, 8, 9, and 10.

Figure 3. IBM BladeCenter H I/O topology showing the I/O paths from CFFh expansion cards

The Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) requires that two I/O modules be installed in bays 7 and 9 of the BladeCenter H or HT chassis (Table 4).

Table 4. Locations of I/O modules required to connect to the expansion card

Expansion card I/O bay 7 I/O bay 8 I/O bay 9

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion

Card (CFFh)

Supported I/O module

Not used Supported I/O module

I/O bay 10

Not used

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 6

Popular configurations

Figure 4 shows a configuration using the Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) together with two BNT Virtual Fabric 10 Gb Switch Modules. This solution enables two 10 Gbps Ethernet connections from each blade server. Two BNT Virtual Fabric 10 Gb Switch Modules are installed in bay 7 and bay 9 of the BladeCenter H chassis. All connections between the controller, the card, and the switch modules are internal to the chassis. No internal cabling is needed.

Figure 4. 20 Gb solution using Intel 2-port 10 Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh)

Table 5 lists the components used in this configuration.

Table 5. Components used when connecting Intel 2-port 10 Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) to two

BNT Virtual Fabric 10 Gb Switch Modules

Diagram reference

Part number/machine type

Description Quantity

Varies IBM BladeCenter HS22 or other supported server 1 to 14

90Y3570 Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh)

8852 or 8740/8750 BladeCenter H or BladeCenter HT

1 per server

1

46C7191 BNT Virtual Fabric 10 Gb Switch Module 2

44W4408 IBM 10GBase-SR SFP+ Transceiver Up to 20*

*The BNT Virtual Fabric 10Gb Switch Module has 10 external ports. You must have one transceiver for every external port that you plan to utilize.

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 7

Operating system support

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The Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) supports the following operating systems:

Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2

Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Datacenter x64 Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Enterprise x64 Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Standard x64 Edition

Microsoft Windows Server 2008, Web x64 Edition

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server with Xen x64 Edition

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server x64 Edition

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server x64 Edition

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 for AMD64/EM64T

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 10 with Xen for AMD64/EM64T

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 for AMD64/EM64T

SUSE LINUX Enterprise Server 11 with Xen for AMD64/EM64T

VMware ESX 4.0

VMware ESX 4.1

VMware ESXi 4.0

VMware ESXi 4.1

Support for operating systems is based on the combination of the expansion card and the blade server in which it is installed. See IBM ServerProven for the latest information about the specific versions and service packs supported by going to the following address: http://ibm.com/servers/eserver/serverproven/compat/us/ .

Select the blade server and then select the expansion card to see the supported operating systems.

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Related publications

For more information, see the following documents:

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter Installation Guide http://ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5087563

IBM BladeCenter Interoperability Guide http://ibm.com/support/entry/portal/docdisplay?lndocid=MIGR-5073016

IBM Redbooks® publication IBM BladeCenter Products and Technology, SG24-7523 http://www.redbooks.ibm.com/abstracts/sg247523.html

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 8

Notices

This information was developed for products and services offered in the U.S.A.

IBM may not offer the products, services, or features discussed in this document in other countries. Consult your local

IBM representative for information on the products and services currently available in your area. Any reference to an

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IBM Director of Licensing, IBM Corporation, North Castle Drive, Armonk, NY 10504-1785 U.S.A.

The following paragraph does not apply to the United Kingdom or any other country where such provisions

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PUBLICATION "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EITHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING, BUT

NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF NON-INFRINGEMENT, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS

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Any references in this information to non-IBM Web sites are provided for convenience only and do not in any manner serve as an endorsement of those Web sites. The materials at those Web sites are not part of the materials for this

IBM product and use of those Web sites is at your own risk.IBM may use or distribute any of the information you supply in any way it believes appropriate without incurring any obligation to you. Information concerning non-IBM products was obtained from the suppliers of those products, their published announcements or other publicly available sources. IBM has not tested those products and cannot confirm the accuracy of performance, compatibility or any other claims related to non-IBM products. Questions on the capabilities of non-IBM products should be addressed to the suppliers of those products. This information contains examples of data and reports used in daily business operations. To illustrate them as completely as possible, the examples include the names of individuals, companies, brands, and products. All of these names are fictitious and any similarity to the names and addresses used by an actual business enterprise is entirely coincidental.

Any performance data contained herein was determined in a controlled environment. Therefore, the results obtained in other operating environments may vary significantly. Some measurements may have been made on development-level systems and there is no guarantee that these measurements will be the same on generally available systems. Furthermore, some measurement may have been estimated through extrapolation. Actual results may vary. Users of this document should verify the applicable data for their specific environment.

COPYRIGHT LICENSE:

This information contains sample application programs in source language, which illustrate programming techniques on various operating platforms. You may copy, modify, and distribute these sample programs in any form without payment to IBM, for the purposes of developing, using, marketing or distributing application programs conforming to the application programming interface for the operating platform for which the sample programs are written. These examples have not been thoroughly tested under all conditions. IBM, therefore, cannot guarantee or imply reliability, serviceability, or function of these programs.

© Copyright International Business Machines Corporation 2011. All rights reserved.

Note to U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by

GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.

Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 9

This document was created or updated on June 13, 2011.

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ServicePac®

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Mellanox 2-port 10Gb Ethernet Expansion Card (CFFh) for IBM BladeCenter 10