10Gbe compatability

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My Freenas box is getting a little long in the tooth and I am starting to plan for the next upgrade. I've decided its time to consider 10Gbe for both Freenas and vmware hosts as MPIO does not seem to meet my expectation and 10Gbe is fairly reasonably priced these days.
My question is about the 3400 series qlogic adapters, specifically the QLE3442. Driver support is listed for both Freenas and vmware but I was wondering how well its integrated with Freenas. I have searched the forum and not found a reference to this card and barely any mention of qlogic in general.

Thanks

 

[depasseg]

Check out the 10Gb network primer sticky.

 

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Yes I read that prior to asking this question. The card I mentioned is not mentioned. I guess I could always consider the 656596-B21 which uses the intel X540 chip and is the OEM for HP 530T GBe cards. Those are priced nicely, but if anyone has used or knows how well these qlogic adapters are supported that would be nice to know.

 

[Darren Myers]

Yes I read that prior to asking this question. The card I mentioned is not mentioned. I guess I could always consider the 656596-B21 which uses the intel X540 chip and is the OEM for HP 530T GBe cards. Those are priced nicely, but if anyone has used or knows how well these qlogic adapters are supported that would be nice to know.

I planned to use 2 qlogic cards..but they came up as unsupported, after some pocking around and seeing what worked best, i selected the Chelsio T420-CR cards because well, they work... the 10Gb card will set you back 80-150$ and then a single SFP can be had for 20-40$ depending how hard you look :P

 

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I planned to use 2 qlogic cards..but they came up as unsupported, after some pocking around and seeing what worked best, i selected the Chelsio T420-CR cards because well, they work... the 10Gb card will set you back 80-150$ and then a single SFP can be had for 20-40$ depending how hard you look :p

Thank you for the input (no pun intended). With the Chelsio T420-CR I could go Direct access to a SFP switch correct? Also is there any SFP module comparability issues between cards or is SFP = SFP always going to work?

 

[Darren Myers]

i think you can use SFP+ twinix cables, but i think SFP+ to SFP+ will always work, just make sure you get the right LR (Long Range) or SR (Short Range) receivers for both ends, and if youre going to be serious about it, get OM3 cable

 

[depasseg]

I'm not sure if your question is about card & SFP+ compatibility or SFP+ to SFP+ via fiber. The SFP+ that goes in the card has to be compatible with that card. But the SFP+'s on the 2 ends of the fiber connection can be different.

 

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I'm not sure if your question is about card & SFP+ compatibility or SFP+ to SFP+ via fiber. The SFP+ that goes in the card has to be compatible with that card. But the SFP+'s on the 2 ends of the fiber connection can be different.

Yes, I was asking about SFP module compatibility with a particular card. For example while looking at the Chelsio T440-CR the product page they state that "*SFP+ optics sold separately. Only Chelsio supplied modules may be used". When shopping on ebay is there an easy way to know if a SFP module will be recognized in any particular card? I understand that when using fiber optics I would need to match the modules wavelength and type.

While I am considering a Chelsio card for the freenas box, I will likely use something else for my esxi hosts.

 

[Darren Myers]

Yes, I was asking about SFP module compatibility with a particular card. For example while looking at the Chelsio T440-CR the product page they state that "*SFP+ optics sold separately. Only Chelsio supplied modules may be used". When shopping on ebay is there an easy way to know if a SFP module will be recognized in any particular card? I understand that when using fiber optics I would need to match the modules wavelength and type.

While I am considering a Chelsio card for the freenas box, I will likely use something else for my esxi hosts.

The Chelsio T4xx cards far as i know are supported, there was T420-CR drivers for ESXi 5.5 uX and i am using them very happily, and on my FreeNAS server. There are links in the 10Gb premier thread i put there to alllllll the stuff i purchased, the chelsio SFP+'s are there, but the ebay link is more then likely "dead" as in the seller has no more ,but it includes the make/model.

 

[depasseg]

I'm using the T420 in both my freenas and esx hosts without issue. I got the finisair FTLX8571D3BCL off ebay to go in them.



Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

 

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The Chelsio T4xx cards far as i know are supported, there was T420-CR drivers for ESXi 5.5 uX and i am using them very happily, and on my FreeNAS server. There are links in the 10Gb premier thread i put there to alllllll the stuff i purchased, the chelsio SFP+'s are there, but the ebay link is more then likely "dead" as in the seller has no more ,but it includes the make/model.

I had read through what you had purchased for your setup. I found your switch to especially interesting. I am going to have to keep an eye on ebay for a switch at a decent price. I had read about someone having issues in esxi using the T-420. I noticed in your signature you are using qlogic in your esxi hosts. I was thinking of doing something similar.

Thanks for all the advice, both of you.

 

[Darren Myers]

I had read through what you had purchased for your setup. I found your switch to especially interesting. I am going to have to keep an eye on ebay for a switch at a decent price. I had read about someone having issues in esxi using the T-420. I noticed in your signature you are using qlogic in your esxi hosts. I was thinking of doing something similar.

Thanks for all the advice, both of you.

I use both chelsio and qlogic , really whatever was cheap and had support :P lol

 

[jgreco]

i think you can use SFP+ twinix cables, but i think SFP+ to SFP+ will always work, just make sure you get the right LR (Long Range) or SR (Short Range) receivers for both ends, and if youre going to be serious about it, get OM3 cable

Twinax is not guaranteed to work. Compatible optic to compatible optic is; if it doesn't, one of the manufacturers is noncompliant with the Ethernet spec. None of the hardware we discuss is like that as far as I'm aware, and I definitely consider using a vendor's optics and fiber in between to be the gold standard in 10GbE non-copper networking. However, twinax between two vendor-locked cards from two different vendors may still work even though it'd seem like maybe that shouldn't. It's all crap and as I've gotten older my "fix" has been just to do it all fiber and damn the modest extra cost.