Getting 10GB Connectivity to a P4300. Compatible NIC list?

[Tom Scott_2]

Hello, I am working a project and the sales engineer purchased two P4300 Nodes to use for shared storage for VMWare. The two ESX hosts are DL385 G5's.. They would like to get 10gb connectivity..

They purchased (2) HP NC550SFP Dual Port 10GbE Server Adapter Network adapter and (2) Intel E10G42BTDA Dual Port 10GbE adapters..

He planned on connecting these to a Cisco 4507R+E with a WS-x4606-x2-e .  He has (6)  x2-10GB-SR'S.. 

I don't know which adapters go in which.. IE: Do the NC550SFP cards go in the SAN or the DL385's and vice versa with the Intel cards.. Will either work in etiher??

Does anyone know if those cards are both fully supported and will work with his Cisco switch?

Thanks much!

[Jitun]

Please check the SPOCK for Hardware Compatibility

http://spock.corp.hp.com/Pages.internal/spock2Html.aspx?htmlFile=hw_iscsi.internal.html

HP NC550SFP would definitely go into the P4300s. Intel Cards will not work on the P4300 Nodes.

Just remember 10Gb card for the P4000 needs additional 2 Gb RAM to be installed on the P4000 Nodes.

Hence a total of 6Gb RAM min for each P4000 nodes.

Cant say much about their compatibility with Cisco Switch, I expect them to be compatible.

[Tom Scott_2]

Thanks much for the reply..

How did you know about the 6GB memory requirement if you want to put 10GB cards in the P4000's? I'm just curious where you got that info so I know where to look for valuable info like that in the future..

Also, regarding the Intel cards.. How would I find out if they would work out of the box (ie: Install them in the DL385, install ESXi, have them work)..

Thanks for the help!

[Jitun]

BQ891A is the Upgrade Kit for 10Gb SFP+

http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/za/en/sm/WF06c/A1-329290-3320517-3320518-3320518-3936288-4208889.html

HP P4000 G2 10G BASE-SFP+ Upgrade Kit

The Upgrade Kit above is a 2 Gb RAM

cant find it mentioned officially anywhere though.

They should ideally work fine. Make sure you do not turn ON any additional features like TCP Offloading.. etc..

[Tom Scott_2]

Thanks again for the reply.. So you're saying it should work with the installed 4GB if I don't turn on any additional features?

One other question.. How would you connect these SAN Nodes to the network if each SAN only had room in the switch for one 10GB port?

Would you bind (1) 10GB port and (1) 1GB port for redudancy? That's what I was thinking but wanted to get it confirmed..

Also, when you bind two ports, you only need one IP address assigned to the first NIC and then in the CMC you bind them together?

Thanks!!

[Tom Scott_2]

Ok so I just installed the SAN and when I went to create the management group I get the error:

"System memory too small: Either memory has been removed or has failed."

I'm assuming this is what you were talking about? I need to upgrade the memory?

[Tom Scott_2]

What type of memory is in these so I can just throw in some sticks?

Thanks!!

[CRiiser]

Hey - I got the 10GbE kit and am reading from the memory stick now :)

2GB 2Rx8 PC3-10600R-09-11-B1-03

Its an samsung memory - and I believe the HP part is: KG0JZR1

So - an normal PC3 server REGISTERD memory i guess would make it happy enough! :)

/Christian

[Steve Burkett]

Interesting price difference there between the official HP upgrade kit and the individual parts....

HP P4000 G2 10G BASE-SFP+ Upgrade Kit (BQ891A)  :  £771.72

The individual parts:

HP-NC550SFP Dual Port 10GbE Server Dual Port PCI Express 2.0 x8 Network Adapter (581201-B21)
£448.89
HP 2GB (1x2GB) Dual Rank x8 PC3-10600 (DDR3-1333) Registered CAS-9 Memory Kit (500656-B21)
£48.40

So thats a £274.43 difference in price there per node.  Ouch!

[Steve Burkett]

BTW, confirmation of the ram requirements in the Hardware Installation guides, looks like you need a patch on older SANiQ versions for the drivers:

P4000 G2 10GbE SFP+ Hardware Installation Instructions

and for the older G1 model:

P4000 10GbE SFP+ Hardware Installation Instructions

[CRiiser]

The box it ships in, the kit, is nice... and brown...... and large...... :)

/Christian