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Does the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLR-SFP+ Adapter(700751-B21) support LLDP?

 
DiogoCosta
Collector

Does the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLR-SFP+ Adapter(700751-B21) support LLDP?

Hello, everyone.

I work at HPE Porto Alegre/Brazil and we bought a HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLR-SFP+ Adapter(700751-B21) to use with a DL Server.

I would like to know if this adapter supports LLDP. I already sent two emails to Sales Consultant and in each answer I had two different informations: one of them said the adapter does not support, and the another one said the adapter does support.

On the adapter's quick specification says nothing about the LLDP. With this, can I assume that the adapter does not support LLDP?

 

Thanks,

Diogo Costa

1 REPLY 1
parnassus
Honored Contributor

Re: Does the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLR-SFP+ Adapter(700751-B21) support LLDP?

Hello Diogo,

really interesting question: as you report, it looks like that no QuickSpecs versions (from older 1 to newer 5) state that the HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLR-SFP+ Adapter (HP Part Number 700751-B21) supports the IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP).

On the other hand it is interesting to note that the HP Ethernet 10Gb 2-port 530FLR-SFP+ Adapter (HP Part Number 647581-B21), which is based on the same Broadcom BCM57810S ASIC Controller (now called Qlogic 57810S), does instead support the IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP).

That's clearly reported on its QuickSpecs.

Considering that:

  • the most evident difference among those two Adapters is that the HP 534FLR-SFP+ Adapter supports L2 Networking + FCoE + iSCSI, by contrast the HP 530FLR-SFP+ Adapter supports L2 Networking only,
  • both have a FlexLOM form factor,
  • both were designed to work with HP ProLiant Gen8 and Gen9 Servers,
  • both use the PCI-e 2.0 x8 Bus

...that say to me that is reasonable to expect that both Adapters would support the same basic feature set (including the IEEE 802.1AB LLDP Standard)...but the latter NIC's QuickSpecs does state the IEEE 802.1AB Standard compliance, the former doesn't.

That's very strange.

The mistery continues if you start looking at either original Broadcom BCM57810S datasheet or latest Qlogic 57810S datasheet: they both don't report any IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP) compliance...nor this compliance is reported on a Broadcom Poster about "HP FlexibleNetwork Adapters Powered by Broadcom NetXtreme Technology" (2013), nor it is reported in any other actual Qlogic datasheet about these Adapters.

To add mistery to the mistery consider that on a HPE Flexible Network Adapters from Qlogic family datasheet isn't reported any compliance for IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP) on all listed Adapters.

It looks like nobody care about exactly documenting LLDP compliance (if any) for these Adapters.

IMHO four possible options (not mutually exclusive):

  • documentation about these Adapters is globally non-coherent (some details are there, some other aren't).
  • the HP Ethernet 10Gb 2-port 530FLR-SFP+ Adapter QuickSpecs may be incorrect, stating a false compliance to IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP) Standard.
  • sharing the same Qlogic 57810S ASIC Controller - probably - doesn't mean that various similar SFP+ Adapters also share a common feature set (including the IEEE 802.1AB you need).
  • It could be a matter of Adapter's Firmware.

...or is there something related to compliance with IEEE 802.1Qaz (DCBXP) or IEEE 802.1az that makes IEEE 802.1ab (LLDP) - sort of - "superseded" in some scenarios?

Last minute edits:

  • noticed that (700741-B21 and 700742-B21) HP FlexFabric 10Gb 2-port 534FLB Adapter (which uses the same Qlogic 57810S ASIC Controller with integrated MAC and PHY) instead supports IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP).
  • Be careful about Adapters that support DCBXP (IEEE 802.1Qaz) - typically those that work in FCoE mode - since it seems that DCBXP and LLDP are - sort of - mutually exclusive (so if one is going to be enabled the other should be disabled and vice-versa) or they both need to be enabled and configured on Switch side in case of FC/FCoE.
  • From the document linked above, DCBXP (Data Center Bridging Exchange) Protocol (IEEE 802.1Qaz) is a discovery and capability exchange protocol used for conveying capabilities and configuration of the above features between neighbors ensuring a consistent configuration across the network. This protocol leverages type-length-values (TLVs) within IEEE 802.1AB (LLDP). This is a hop-by-hop negotiation for PFC. It can be used to detect conflicting parameters and ETS and PFC configurations can be pushed to other devices.

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