Solarflare SFN7122F supported by CORE?

[aix]

Are Solarflare SFN7122F NICs (SFC9120 controller silicon) supported by TrueNAS CORE?

I couldn't find any information either way.

 

[jgreco]

Check out the 10 Gig Networking Primer for the best discussion of compatible ethernet cards.

Failing that, the way I normally handle this is to go to the FreeBSD man page, which typically lists compatible cards.

Included below are relevant bits from the manpage, followed by my comments at the end.

Code:

DESCRIPTION
     The sfxge driver provides support for 10Gb Ethernet adapters based on
     Solarflare SFC9000 family controllers.  The driver supports jumbo frames,
     transmit/receive checksum offload, TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO), Large
     Receive Offload (LRO), VLAN checksum offload, VLAN TSO, and Receive Side
     Scaling (RSS) using MSI-X interrupts.

Code:

     hw.sfxge.stats_update_period_ms
             Period in milliseconds to refresh interface statistics from
             hardware.  The accepted range is 0 to 65535, the default is 1000
             (1 second).  Use zero value to disable periodic statistics
             update.  Supported on SFN8xxx series adapters with firmware
             v6.2.1.1033 and later and SFN5xxx and SFN6xxx series adapters.
             SFN7xxx series adapters and SFN8xxx series with earlier firmware
             use a fixed 1000 milliseconds statistics update period.  The
             period may also be changed after the driver is loaded using the
             sysctl dev.sfxge.%d.stats_update_period_ms.

SUPPORT
     For general information and support, go to the Solarflare support website
     at: https://support.solarflare.com.

Solarflare was acquired by Xilinx a few years back so is basically out of business. Prior to that, the cards had a very good reputation as a relatively power efficient and not super expensive alternative 10G card along the lines of the Mellanox ConnectX cards; driver support was funded/supported by Solarflare.

Like various other cards, these are not known for optimal compatibility with FreeNAS/TrueNAS; the Chelsio are still first-choice with some of the Intels in a close second place. However, enough people have had enough good experiences with cards like the 5122F/6122F that I cautiously recommend them as a low cost 10G option. I used a bunch of them for years in our ESXi cluster and was very pleased with them. This is not to say that they are on the same level as the Chelsio's though.

I have no experience with the 7122F but I would expect it to work without issue.

 

[aix]

Perfect, thanks, sounds like it's worth giving it a whirl. Worst case, I'll buy a Chelsio card.

 

[jgreco]

Perfect, thanks, sounds like it's worth giving it a whirl. Worst case, I'll buy a Chelsio card.

Please do circle back around and tell us how it went. Ideally by leaving a comment in the 10 Gig Networking Primer thread. As these cards age out of data centers, more of them will wind up on eBay at value prices. You can do your community neighbors a big favor by sharing your experiences. Thanks and good luck!

 

[dxun]

I've had great experience with SFN6122F on TrueNAS and can wholly recommend it.

Have been running it close to two years with a pair of 10G SMF SFP+ transcievers from fs.com and can only sing praises about the NIC. Compared to Intel X520, it's given me no problems, is quite tolerant of "foreign" transceivers and consumes less power (from what I had experimented over a year ago and reading directly off kill-a-watt).

It is by far the most trouble-free piece of hardware that I have had in my SAN server - it just works without _any_ problems or configuration.

TrueNAS 13-U3 classifies it as Solarflare SFC9000 family, so I would expect the more recent Solarflare would work at least as equally as well (if not better).

EDIT: I bought several of these and am using them wherever I can - they are that good. I've paid 10 - 30 CAD for each on eBay.

 

[aix]

The SFN7122F has arrived. I ended up putting it into my SCALE (rather than the CORE) box. The NIC is detected no problem, but none of the 10Gb MMF transceivers I have on hand appear compatible (can't get an Ethernet link). I tried a 1Gb copper transceiver and that connected without issues, so there's hope. Now I need to find a compatible module...

 

[jgreco]

The SFN7122F has arrived. I ended up putting it into my SCALE (rather than the CORE) box. The NIC is detected no problem, but none of the 10Gb MMF transceivers I have on hand appear compatible (can't get an Ethernet link). I tried a 1Gb copper transceiver and that connected without issues, so there's hope. Now I need to find a compatible module...

The Solarflare SFP+'s are available inexpensively on eBay. Look for FTLX8571D3BCL-SL or SFM10G-SR and expect to pay about $10-$15 each. Note that these are exact model numbers and in particular the dash-SL is significant.

 

[aix]

Thanks for this info -- very helpful indeed.

 

[dxun]

The SFN7122F has arrived. I ended up putting it into my SCALE (rather than the CORE) box. The NIC is detected no problem, but none of the 10Gb MMF transceivers I have on hand appear compatible (can't get an Ethernet link). I tried a 1Gb copper transceiver and that connected without issues, so there's hope. Now I need to find a compatible module...

In addition to buying used ones on ebay, another alternative I can recommend are new SFP+ transcievers from fs.com - they are not SolarFlare-branded of course, but are brand new, encoded to report as SolarFlare hardware and under warranty.

 

[jgreco]

In addition to buying used ones on ebay, another alternative I can recommend are new SFP+ transcievers from fs.com - they are not SolarFlare-branded of course, but are brand new, encoded to report as SolarFlare hardware and under warranty.

Duh, I should have mentioned that too. A great place to pick up inexpensive fiber patch as well. They either stock or can make almost anything you could need.