topic Re: HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ? in ProLiant Servers (ML,DL,SL)

HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ?

Interopguy — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 14:37:12 GMT

Can the HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) be used as a regular Ethernet card for iSCSI connectivity?

I'd like to use the above HP adapter as a regular Ethernet card to connect to the array over iSCSI.

Re: HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ?

Torsten. — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 14:54:55 GMT

Looks like you can:

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/productbulletin.html#spectype=north_america&type=html&docid=13078

Single or dual port 40 or 10 Gbps Ethernet

Re: HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ?

Interopguy — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:00:12 GMT

Thank you Torsten,

Yes, it appears that you should be able to based on the spec.

But I wanted to get confirmation from someone that has actually used this adapter to connecte to a 10Gb Ethernet switch and install and configure the iSCSI SW initiator on the Host to connect to a storage array.

Re: HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ?

Jimmy Vance — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:00:54 GMT

Specs shows it working as Infiniband, Ethernet, or a mix

Re: HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ?

Torsten. — Wed, 16 Apr 2014 15:03:01 GMT

>> But I wanted to get confirmation from someone that has actually used this adapter to connecte to a 10Gb Ethernet switch and install and configure the iSCSI SW initiator on the Host to connect to a storage array.

Sorry, I only used infiniband cards for infiniband ...

Re: HP 649281-B21 adapter (InfiniBand/Ethernet) ?

Johan Guldmyr — Thu, 17 Apr 2014 07:44:46 GMT

Hi, not sure how to check which HP adapter is installed in a server. But looks like the MT27500 is used in 649281-B21 adapter.

I've a few Mellanox connectx 3 and 2 based adapters in HP servers with RHEL6 that are in Ethernet mode.

09:00.0 Network controller: Mellanox Technologies MT26428 [ConnectX VPI PCIe 2.0 5GT/s - IB QDR / 10GigE] (rev b0)
04:00.0 Network controller: Mellanox Technologies MT27500 Family [ConnectX-3]

http://community.mellanox.com/docs/DOC-1131

One can change by echoing ib/eth into the right place in /sys/bus/pci/devices/$PCIID/mlx4_port*
With the openibd and script /sbin/connectx_port_config installed there's the URL above
if you're using the rdma that comes with RHEL6 one can edit /etc/rdma/mlx4.conf and change between ib/eth.

The ports in these cards are QSFP, so you'll need an adapter between QSFP and SFP+ unless your switch has QSFP ports.