Dell Mellanox ConnectX-3 User Manual

Flexible I/O for the Dynamic Data Center

Mellanox Dual Port 10 and 40 Gigabit Ethernet Adapters

with PCI Express 3.0 for Dell® Servers

Mellanox continues its leadership
in providing high-performance networking technologies
by delivering superior productivity and scaling in
10/40 Gigabit Ethernet Adapters,
enabling data centers to do more with less.

VALUE PROPOSITIONS

■ Data centers deploying virtualized servers are seeing higher demands

on their I/O infrastructure. Supporting 10/40 Gb/s and up to 8 virtual
functions Mellanox Ethernet Adapters satisfy the bandwidth and latency
demands of a virtualized environment. Providing backwards compatibility
the 10GbE Mezzanine cards can be deployed in 1/10GbE fabrics giving IT
managers a manageable migration path to 40GbE.

■ Web 2.0 and cloud service providers require high bandwidth, flexibility

and CPU offloading in order to provide the highest productivity and
performance from their infrastructure. Mellanox Ethernet Adapters
support 10/40GbE connectivity, CPU stateless offloads and RDMA over
Converged Ethernet (RoCE) enabling data center efficiency and scalability.

■ To guarantee maximum usage of expensive server and storage

investments, Financial Service Institutions (FSI) Data Centers must
deploy I/O and networking solutions that scale to support any level of
performance with the highest available bandwidth and lowest latency.
Mellanox Ethernet Adapters bring low latency sockets (PCIe 3.0) and
RDMA solutions for the ultimate in performance by leveraging the most
advanced technologies while enabling data centers the efficiency and
performance required for server and storage networking.

Mellanox 10/40 Gigabit Ethernet
Network Interface Cards (NIC)

deliver high bandwidth and industry­leading connectivity for performance­driven server and storage applications
in Enterprise Data Centers, Web 2.0,
High-Performance Computing, and
Embedded environments. Clustered

World-Class Ethernet Price/Performance

Utilizing RoCE technology Mellanox Ethernet Adapters provide efficient RDMA services, deliver
high performance and bandwidth to latency sensitive applications. With link-level interoperability
within Ethernet infrastructures Network Administrators can leverage existing data center fabric
management solutions.

Applications utilizing TCP/UDP/IP transport can achieve industry-leading throughput over 10/40GbE.
The hardware-based stateless offload and flow steering engines in Mellanox Ethernet Adapters
reduce the CPU overhead of IP packet transport, freeing more processor cycles required for the
application.

databases, web infrastructure, and
high frequency trading 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.

I/O Virtualization

Mellanox Ethernet Adapters provide dedicated adapter resources that guarantee isolation and
protection for virtual machines (VM) within the server. By enabling a single NIC to appear as multiple
virtual NIC’s Mellanox Ethernet Adapters give data center managers better server utilization for LAN
and SAN unification while reducing capital expenditures, power and cable complexity.

Overlay Networks

New large-scale cloud environments require the implementation of overlay network protocols to
overcome the issues of security, isolation and VLAN limitations within the cloud. Mellanox Ethernet
Adapters bring a unique value to cloud providers by enabling them to reduce their CPU overhead
and consequently reduce their OPEX and CAPEX by supporting more cloud tenants over the same
infrastructure.

Software Support

All Mellanox Ethernet Adapters are supported by a full suite of software drivers for
Microsoft Windows, Linux distributions, VMware and Citrix XenServer. Stateless
offload which is fully interoperable with standard TCP/UDP/IP stacks are supported
within the adapters. Various management interfaces and a rich set of configuration and
management tools are supported across multiple operating systems.

BENEFITS

■ Improved productivity and efficiency

■ Industry-leading throughput and latency performance

■ Enabling I/O consolidation by supporting TCP/IP, Storage and

RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE) transport protocols on a
single adapter

■ Supports industry-standard SR-IO Virtualization technology and

delivers VM protection to all levels of QoS for applications

■ High-availability and high-performance for data center networking

■ High level silicon integration and no external memory design

provides low power, low cost and high reliability

TARGET APPLICATIONS

■ Web 2.0 data centers and cloud computing

■ Data center virtualization

■ Low latency financial services

■ I/O consolidation (single unified wire for networking, storage

and clustering)

■ Video streaming

■ Enterprise data center applications

■ Accelerating back-up and restore operations

Ports 2 x 10GbE 2 x 40GbE 2 x 10Gbe

Connector SFP+ QSFP KR

Cabling Type* Direct Attached Copper and SR Fiber Optic N/A

Host Bus PCIe 3.0

Features Stateless Offload, RDMA, SR-IOV, RoCE, iSER, PXE Boot.

OS Support Windows 2008 SP2 and 2008 R2, Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 (vNext), Linux Distributions**

SLES11 SP2 / SP3, VMWare ESX/ESXi 5.5, XenServer 6.1 / 6.2

Ordering Number 540-BBEF (FH) & 540-BBEL (LP)*** 540-BBEG (FH) & 540-BBEM (LP)*** 407-BBOG

Customer Kit 540-BBEN (FH) & 540-BBEO (LP)*** 540-BBEJ (FH) & 540-BBEP (LP)*** 540-BBEI

*Please visit Mellanox’s web site for more cable information, best usage practice and availability.
**Please visit Dell’s web site for approved Linux Distributions.
***(FH) Full Hight (LP) Low Profile

FEATURE SUMMARY

COMPLIANCE COMPATIBILITY

ETHERNET

– IEEE Std 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE Std 802.3ba 40 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE Std 802.3ad Link Aggregation and

Failover
– IEEE 802.1Q, .1p VLAN tags and priority
– IEEE Std 802.3Qau Congestion Notification

– IEEE P802.1Qbb D1.0 Priority-based Flow

Control

– Multicast
– Jumbo frame support

ADDITIONAL CPU OFFLOADS

– RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE)
– Traffic steering across multiple cores
– Intelligent interrupt coalescence

HARDWARE-BASED I/O VIRTUALIZATION

– Single Root IOV
– Address translation and protection
– Dedicated adapter resources
– Multiple queues per virtual machine
– VMware NetQueue support

– 128 MAC/VLAN addresses per port

TCP/UDP/IP STATELESS OFFLOAD

– TCP/UDP/IP checksum offload (CSO)
– TCP Large Send (< 64KB) or Giant Send

(64KB-16MB) Offload for segmentation

(LSO)
– Receive Side Scaling (RSS) up to 32 queues
– Line rate packet filtering

* Product images may not include heat sync assembly; actual product may differ.
**Please visit Dell’s web site for approved Linux Distributions.

Mellanox Dell Contacts

Raphael Chocron
OEM Sales Manager, EMEA
[e-mail]

Will Stepanov
TSR, Dell Account
Tel: [phone]

General Inquiry:

[e-mail]

SAFETY

– USA/Canada: cTUVus UL
– EU: IEC60950
– Germany: TUV/GS
– International: CB Scheme

EMC (EMISSIONS)

– USA: FCC, Class A
– Canada: ICES, Class A
– EU: EN55022, Class A
– EU: EN55024, Class A
– EU: EN61000-3-2, Class A
– EU: EN61000-3-3, Class A
– Japan: VCCI, Class A
– Australia: C-Tick
– Korea: KCC

ENVIRONMENTAL

– EU: IEC 60068-2-64: Random Vibration
– EU: IEC 60068-2-29: Shocks, Type I / II
– EU: IEC 60068-2-32: Fall Test

[e-mail]

© Copyright 2014. Mellanox Technologies. All rights reserved.
Mellanox, BridgeX, ConnectX, CORE-Direct, InfiniBridge, InfiniHost, InfiniScale, MLNX-OS, PhyX, SwitchX, UFM, Virtual Protocol Interconnect and Voltaire are registered
trademarks of Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. Connect-IB, CoolBox, FabricIT, Mellanox Federal Systems, Mellanox Software Defined Storage, MetroX, Open Ethernet,
ScalableHPC and Unbreakable-Link are trademarks of Mellanox Technologies, Ltd. All other trademarks are property of their respective owners.

PCI EXPRESS INTERFACE

– PCIe Base 3.0 compliant, 1.1, 2.0

compatible
– Fits x8 or x16 slots
– Support for MSI/MSI-X mechanisms

OPERATING SYSTEMS/DISTRIBUTIONS

– Windows 2008 SP2 and 2008 R2
– Windows 2012 and 2012 R2 (vNext)
– Linux Distributions**
– SLES11 SP2 / SP3
– VMWare ESX/ESXi 5.5
– XenServer 6.1 / 6.2

MANAGEMENT

– Open Manage, iDRAC, Lifecycle Controller
– Configuration and diagnostic

The information contained in this document, including all instructions, cautions, and regulatory
approvals and certifications, is provided by Mellanox and has not been independently verified or
tested by Dell. Dell cannot be responsible for damage caused as a result of either following or
failing to follow these instructions. All statements or claims regarding the properties, capabilities,
speeds or qualifications of the part referenced in this document are made by Mellanox and not
by Dell. Dell specifically disclaims knowledge of the accuracy, completeness or substantiation for
any such statements. All questions or comments relating to such statements or claims should be
directed to Mellanox. Visit www.dell.com for more information.

350 Oakmead Parkway, Suite 100
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
www.mellanox.com

3530BR Rev 6.9dell