Recommended 10Gb Ethernet Adapter for HP Proliant DL380 servers?

[nathan_sampson]

We have some older DL380 G5 and G7 servers that we plan to hookup to our Nimble over 10Gb Ethernet. Are there any recommended network adapters?

[#2]

We have had good luck in the past with the NC552SFP cards ( these are the Emulex  Chipsets),

[bhartm62]

We use HP 10Gb 561-T Adapters.

[Nick_Dyer]

I've had numerous bad experiences (and outages) from working on/at Dell/HP/IBM with any NICs that are made by Broadcom. Always shoot for Intel!

[pswiatek119]

We have used Intel x520 adapters specifically the 82599 with no issue, but we do not push alot of bandwidth through the ports 2-3 gig tops.

[dmweimer52]

I've had excellent luck with the X520-DA1 Intel 10GB Ethernet Server Adapter

[jliu79]

+1 for Intel X520 cards. They've worked well for us.

[Daniel-san · Accepted solution]

If you want to make your life simple, and mitigate stress and any potential finger-pointing, always get the SKU that the HP QuickSpec says is compatible.  These aren't just 'sanctioned' part numbers - they are tested, qualified and verified compatible.  This helps to mitigate incompatibilities, and eliminate the possibility that the vendor (HP) can claim that a given option (a NIC in this case) isn't compatible with your server.  It might cost a bit more for the HP part vs. generic, but not having to deal with arguing with a support tech over what is or isn't compatible is well worth the extra money for most of us.

For the G5, this is the QS:

HP ProLiant DL380 Generation 5 - Worldwide QuickSpecs

https://h20195.www2.hpe.G67com/v2/getdocument.aspx?docname=c04282492 

Admin [above link is no longer valid, please visit https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/  to find the latest info ]

And these are the 10G options for the G5:

HP NC510F PCIe 10 Gigabit Server Adapter - 414126-B21

HP NC510C PCIe 10 Gigabit Server Adapter - 414129-B21

For the G7, this is the QS:

Product documentation

HP ProLiant DL380 Generation 7 (G7) (QuickSpecs/c04286665.pdf) 

Admin [above link is no longer valid, please visit https://support.hpe.com/connect/s/  to find the latest info ]

And these are the 10G options for the G7:

HP NC522SFP Dual Port 10GbE Gigabit Server Adapter	468332-B21
HP NC550SFP Dual Port 10GbE Server Adapter	581201-B21
HP NC523SFP 10Gb 2-port Server Adapter	593717-B21
HP NC552SFP 10Gb 2-port Ethernet Server Adapter	614203-B21
HP 10 GbE PCI-e G2 Dual Port Network Interface Card	516937-B21

Now, if you're going white box and building your own, I'd second the opinion to go Intel.  Note that many times the NICs that HP specs are OEM'd by Intel (among others).

[Note: broken link updated by Mod]

[nathan_sampson]

The challenge is we want to use 10GBaseT and many of the cards we looked into are fiber or the direct cabling variety.  The HP 530T (broadcom) are pretty standard and inexpensive.  The HP 561T (Intel) seem like they are newer and possibly more reliable.  However, I haven't been able to find papers or reviews that provide real world performance comparisons between the two. 

Any experiences in using Server branded (HP/Dell) vs OEM branded adapters?  Does it make a difference?

[nathan_sampson]

Performance issues or hardware failure problems with Broadcom chips?

[Daniel-san]

+1 Intel-based but HP-branded (to eliminate driver issues and finger-pointing)

And there's this: Broadcom vs Intel NIC? - AnandTech Forums 

[SD_Sim]

Has anyone used some of the newer cards (561T) with a Gen 7 dl380? I'm looking for 10GB with an RJ45 connector, all the adapters that I can find for Gen 7 are with SFP connectors.

[n6000]

did you find a solution and got a RJ45 10GB Adapter ? Which one ?

cheers