HPE 9000 and HPE e3000 Servers
1748185 Members
4055 Online
108759 Solutions
New Discussion юеВ

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

 
Eleas Malamas
Occasional Contributor

Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

Hello everyone,
I am interested in increasing the networking
speed of my HP9000/800/D390 server under HP-UX 10.20. Currently the system has the built-in Lan 10-BaseT card but my organization is heavily dependent on distributed applications that require faster network communication.
I have the following questions:
1. Are there network cards at 10/100MBps that are compatible with the system of reference?
2. Is there any documentation regarding such installations/modifications to the server machine?
3. Is there an alternative (easier/more cost effective than the one suggested in 1. and 2. above) method to increase the networking speed of the server?
Regards,
Eleas.
10 REPLIES 10
Pete Randall
Outstanding Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

Partsurfer ( http://partsurfer.hp.com ) lists the following LAN cards for the D390:

A3402A 10/100VG LAN single port EISA Ethernet network interface card
A3591A 1000Base-T HSC Fiber Channel (FC) network interface adapter - Has SC connectors
A3658A 100Base-T LAN EISA Ethernet network interface card


Pete

Pete
Steven E. Protter
Exalted Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

Shalom,

The fasteset LAN card this server supports is 100 BaseT full duplex. The add in card costs $100 or so from a re-seller and is your best bet for improving network speed.

These systems will also take fiber channel based HBA cards, I had a few in my D class boxes in the US. Mine were connected to fabric, but they can with a different part number be connected to copper. That would give you 1000 BaseT speeds.

The problem may be getting drivers for 10.20. I ran mine on 11.00 and am not sure drivers are available for 10.20

SEP
Steven E Protter
Owner of ISN Corporation
http://isnamerica.com
http://hpuxconsulting.com
Sponsor: http://hpux.ws
Twitter: http://twitter.com/hpuxlinux
Founder http://newdatacloud.com
Torsten.
Acclaimed Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

Hi,

the card

"A3402A 10/100VG LAN single port EISA Ethernet network interface card"

is a bad option, because it is only compatible to other "100VG" (voice grade) components. For "normal" ethernet connections on this card is able to do 10Mb only.

For reference documentation for a specific card see http://docs.hp.com -> I/O Cards and Networking Software

Hope this helps!
Regards
Torsten.

__________________________________________________
There are only 10 types of people in the world -
those who understand binary, and those who don't.

__________________________________________________
No support by private messages. Please ask the forum!

If you feel this was helpful please click the KUDOS! thumb below!   
Steve Lewis
Honored Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

The D class also supported 1000base-SX cards and FDDI cards (100Mbits).

DCE
Honored Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390


I beleive this is the installation/configuration manual for the A3658A card

http://docs.hp.com/en/J2782-90009/index.html
Marcel Burggraeve
Trusted Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

There are two other interfaces which you can use as well, both are HSC.
J3515A : dualport 100Base-T
J3516A : singleport 100Base-T

Installing the interface isn't that hard.
Loosen the three screws on the left front side and you can remove the left side panel.
Remove the SCSI cable from the SCSI interface and remember which it was connected to if you have several.
Now you can remove the plate and install the interface.

Place the application CD in your CDrom ( I think the driver is on the first one of the set ), mount it to eg /SD_CDROM and type swinstall -s /SD_CDROM
Highlight the driver with the spacebar ( same name as the interface ) and choose install from the action menu.
Jesse Dougherty
Honored Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

Hi Eleas, you can get a 1000Base-SX (A4925A) network card on your D390 running 10.20. Its an easy install and these card sell for around $400.00 in the used market. I attached a pic of one and an overview.

Hope this helps

Jesse
Cypress Technology Inc
Jesse Dougherty
Honored Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

A4925A overview attachment
rick jones
Honored Contributor

Re: Faster Ethernet card on HP9000/800/D390

Keep in mind that neither 100BT nor Gigabit, as fundamental link technologies, do _anything_ to make data transfer any easier on the host. It takes just as many CPU cycles to transfer a KB through them as it does through your existing 10Base-T connection.

So, in setting your expectations, you should see how much idle CPU you have in your current setup and use that as a gauge for just how much faster you _might_ see things go.

Also, small packet latency (eg netperf TCP_RR) is bound more by the path length in the stack than it is by bitrate on the wire - although a couple of orders of magnitude change in the bitrate will make some difference.

To achieve higher speed, you may need/want to upgrade from the obsolete OS and HW combination to something considerably newer. A D390 could be quite comfortably replaced by a wide range of both used and new HP 9000's and Integrity servers. An rp3400 series comes to mind in the HP 9000 space, an rx1620 or an rx2660 in the Integrity space - each new servers.

In the older hardware space, you could consider an rp2400 (A500).
there is no rest for the wicked yet the virtuous have no pillows