Intel 10GbE Networking

Why Intel FCoE

Intel 10Gb Ethernet:

Over the past 15 years, gigabit LAN adapters have served us all well, but technology has moved on enormously since gigabit ethernet was mainstream. We use so much more networking throughput now than ever before. 10 years ago, typical tasks would include saving files to servers, accessing company programs over the local network, and maybe looking up basic static websites, probably only using around 3% of the network bandwidth available.

In todays workplace we are working on virtual servers, desktops, constantly working on cloud applications, looking up multimedia websites, logging in from remote workplaces and saving large files across networks. All these types of applications are using alot more bandwidth than ever before, and 10Gb Ethernet is the way forward over the coming 15 years.

If you were to run 10 virtual servers on a gigabit LAN, bandwidth would drop to around 100Mbits which unless the servers are running very basic tasks, is unacceptable in today's environment.

With Intel's latest Dual or Quad Xeon 8 Core Processors, SSD Technology, and iSCSI Storage becoming the norm, it is practical to run alot of virtual servers and virtual desktops, and gigabit LAN would be the bottleneck in most cases. 10Gb Ethernet is the most practical way forward and alot more cost effective than Infiniband and Fiber channel.

Broadberry Recommend using Intel 10GbE Ethernet cards for the following reasons :

Industry Standard

Intel has always been the industry standard for network server adapters. Intel was the manufacturer of choice and became the standard technology used by almost all server and motherboard manufacturers. In almost all servers you will find Intel Gigabit LAN Adapters, this ensures driver compatibility across all operating systems. All the operating system manufacturers including Microsoft, VMware, Redhat, and all version of Linux and Unix will always have Intel driver support for their product. 

Due to this level of operating system support we are sure that Intel 10Gb Ethernet adaptors will also follow this level of support in future, so you can be assured that the Intel cards will be the most supported Network cards in the industry for the foreseeable future.

90% of servers today use Intel processors, and almost all these servers also use Intel chipset on the motherboards, it's therefore ideal to use Intel network adapter chipset for ultimate compatibility and performance with the Intel based server 

Benefits of Open FCoE

The Open FCoE architecture uses a combination of FCoE initiators in Microsoft Windows and Linux operating systems and in the VMware ESX hypervisor, to deliver high-performing FCoE solutions over standard 10GbE Ethernet adapters.

This approach allows IT managers to simplify the datacenter and standardize on a single adapter for all LAN and SAN connectivity. 

Further, the Intel 10GbE Server products (LOM and NIC) fully offload the FCoE data path to deliver a full featured Converged Network Adapter (CNA) functionality without compromising on power efficiency and interoperability. What's more the Open FCoE solution is available on Intel Ethernet 10GbE products at no additional charge. Key advantages of Intel Open FCoE solution are:

• Scalable Performance: Since there are no proprietary hardware offloads, the Intel Open FCoE performance scales naturally with the server processor. For real-life applications Open FCoE delivers the performance that IT managers expect. Please review 3rd party performance evaluation by Demartek of Intel X520 Server Adapter compared to competitor CNAs
• Ease of Use: Open FCoE approach uses standard 10GbE adapters so IT can leverage existing knowledge to configure and manage the adapters for FCoE deployments and standardize on Intel 10GbE server adapter
• Cost Effectiveness: The intelligent combination of hardware data plane offloads and software initiators enables full CNA functionality but at a fraction of the price
• Reliability: Intel 30 years of Ethernet experience combined with certified FCoE initiators enable a reliable Open FCoE solution that just works.

iSCSI simplifies SAN connectivity

iSCSI uses Ethernet to carry storage traffic, extending the familiarity and simplicity of Ethernet to storage networking, without the need for SAN-specific adapters or switches. Intel Ethernet Server Adapters are the easiest, most reliable, and most cost-effective way of connecting servers to iSCSI SANs.

Open FCoE consolidates LANs and legacy SANs

Intel Open FCoE solution enables Intel Ethernet 10 Gigabit Server products (LOM or NICs) to support Fibre Channel payload encapsulated in Ethernet frames. There is no upgrade charge for Open FCoE. Just as iSCSI, now customers can easily connect to an FCoE network with Intel 10GbE solutions (82599 based).

Data Center Bridging delivers lossless Ethernet

Conventional Ethernet does not guarantee successful data delivery, which is not acceptable for SAN traffic. Ethernet enhancements such as data center bridging overcome that

Intel 10GbE The Industry leader in Ethernet adaptors.

The growth in 10 Gigabit Ethernet has helped to enable the deployments of virtualized servers and Ethernet SANs, by providing the high throughput that they need. This extra performance can come at a cost, however, as servers will need to handle more network data than ever before.
With their latest 10 Gigabit Ethernet Controller the 82598EB, Intel have added a number of latency-lowering features that enable it to meet the throughput and traffic processing required for the next generation of data centres.
Intel's next-generation 10GbE controller is specifically optimized for the new multi-core Intel Xeon processor-based platforms. These features can help to distribute network data processing among the multiple cores in a system.

MSI-X uses multiple queues, or "vectors", to load-balance interrupts and relieve bottlenecks. These vectors can drive interrupt messages to multiple processor cores, while the previous-generation technology (MSI) passed interrupts to a single core only. When vectors are bound to specific processors, the Ethernet controller sends interrupt messages to those processors only, allowing the other processors to ignore the message.

Receive-Side Scaling (Scalable I/O in Linux*) directs packets to different queues in the Ethernet controller without the need for reordering. Incoming packets are first segregated into flows, and those packet flows can be assigned to a specific processor or core

Optimised for virtualisation

Intel have added Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq) technology to handle multiple hardware queues and offload features that can be used to reduce the software overhead associated with sharing a single networking controller between multiple virtual machines.
With VMDq, individual hardware queues are associated with the simulated network interfaces of the running VMs, so the Ethernet controller itself performs the routing of received packets, relieving the software switch of these duties and substantially lowering the overhead.

Driving storage over Ethernet

The fast growth in storage capacity coupled with server virtualisation has brought the need for the Storage Area Network (SAN) to the forefront, and technologies such as iSCSI are leading the charge for storage over Ethernet. In addition, a new storage paradigm, referred to as "unified storage," which would include Fibre Channel and other storage technologies over Ethernet, is emerging.

Today's multi-core processor-based platforms have more than enough power to handle these workloads, and 10GbE bandwidth provides the throughput that has been lacking. Additionally, advanced QoS features such as priority groups and per priority pause provide the guaranteed delivery required by storage solutions.

Intel's new 10GbE controller includes support for iSCSI acceleration and advanced features for unified storage connectivity. The controller enables fast and reliable networked storage with native iSCSI support with Microsoft, Linux*, and VMWare operating systems as well as support for iSCSI remote boot. Priority groups and per priority pause support are also implemented in the controller.

Intel is working on ways to simplify the network connectivity to SAN’s.
Intel 10GbE network adaptors support iSCSI remote boot to work with the initiators that are native in latest operating systems from Microsoft and Linux.
Intel is working with the major switch vendors to deliver Fibre Channel over Ethernet “FCoE” and beyond to Enhanced Ethernet for Data Centres “EEDC”.

Intel range of 10GbE server adapters supporting both copper and fiber

Connectors and cabling for 10GbE

Connectors	Cables	Use Case
10G SFP+ Direct Attach	Passive Twinax Copper: 10m (nominal)	Short distance for low cost, low power copper connections for server clusters, appliances and rack servers & High density rack server to top of the rack switch connections & Expect most SFP+ switches to support in 2008 due to the shared electrical and mechanical connection with SFP+ optics
10G Base-T	CAT6a/7 100m CAT6 55m CAT5 35m	& Short to medium distances inside the rack, end of the row, and to core switches & Leverage pre-existing copper cabling & Dual speed performance with 1 GbE backwards compatibility
10G Base-Cx4	Cx4 cables: 15m (nominal)	Short distance for low cost, low power copper connections for server clusters, appliances and rack servers & Deployed primarily for switch-to-switch links and switch-to-server links in high-performance computing clusters

 

Intel 10 Gigabit Ethernet Cards & Gigabit Ethernet Cards

Part Code	Product	Category	Bus	Media	Ports	Availability
Intel 10 Gigabit Ethernet Cards
X540-T2	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X540-T2	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual Port	In Stock
E10G41BFLR	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-LR1	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10G42BFSR	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-SR2	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Dual port	In Stock
E10G41BFSR	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-SR1	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10G42BTDA	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-DA2	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
E10GSFPLR	Intel Ethernet SFP+ LR Optics	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10GSFPSR	Intel Ethernet SFP+ SR Optics	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10G42AFDA	Intel 10 Gigabit AF DA Dual Port	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
E10G41AT2	Intel 10 Gigabit AT2 Server Adapter	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
EXPX9502CX4	Intel 10 Gigabit CX4 Dual Port	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber Optic	Dual port	In Stock
EXPX9501AFXSR (Single-Port) EXPX9502AFXSR (Dual-Port)	Intel 10 Gigabit XF SR	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber Optic	Single port	In Stock
EXPX9501AFXSR (Single-Port) EXPX9502AFXSR (Dual-Port)	Intel 10 Gigabit XF SR Dual Port	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Dual port	In Stock
PXLA8591CX4	Intel PRO/10GbE CX4	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Copper	Single port	In Stock
PXLA8591LR	Intel PRO/10GbE LR	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Fiber Optic	Single port	In Stock
PXLA8591SR	Intel PRO/10GbE SR	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Fiber Optic	Single port	In Stock
E10G41BFLR	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-LR1	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10G42BFSR	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-SR2	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Dual port	In Stock
E10G41BFSR	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-SR1	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10G42BTDA	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter X520-DA2	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
E10GSFPLR	Intel Ethernet SFP+ LR Optics	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10GSFPSR	Intel Ethernet SFP+ SR Optics	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
E10G81GFSR	NetEffect Ethernet Server Cluster Adapter SFP+ SR	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Single Port	In Stock
E10G81GP	NetEffect Ethernet Server Cluster Adapter DA	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Single Port	In Stock
E10G81GTCX4	NetEffect Ethernet Server Cluster Adapter CX4	10 Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Single Port	In Stock
Intel Gigabit Ethernet Cards
E1G42EF E1G42EFBLK	Intel Gigabit EF Dual Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber	Dual port	In Stock
E1G42ET / E1G42ETBLK	Intel Gigabit ET Dual Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
E1G44ET / E1G44ETBLK	Intel Gigabit ET Quad Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Quad port	In Stock
PWLA8494GT	Intel PRO/1000 GT Quad Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Copper	Quad port	In Stock
PWLA8490MF	Intel PRO/1000 MF	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Fiber Optic	Single port	In Stock
PWLA8490LX	Intel PRO/1000 MF (LX)	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Fiber Optic	Single port	In Stock
PWLA8490MT	Intel PRO/1000 MT	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Copper	Single port	In Stock
PWLA8492MT	Intel PRO/1000 MT Dual Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI-X	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
EXPI9400PF	Intel PRO/1000 PF	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber Optic	Single port	In Stock
EXPI9402PF	Intel PRO/1000 PF Dual Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber Optic	Dual port	In Stock
EXPI9404PF EXPI9404PFBLK	Intel PRO/1000 PF Quad Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Fiber Optic	Quad port	In Stock
EXPI9400PT	Intel PRO/1000 PT	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Single port	In Stock
EXPI9402PT	Intel PRO/1000 PT Dual Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Dual port	In Stock
EXPI9404PT EXPI9404PTBLK	Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Quad port	In Stock
EXPI9404PTL EXPI9404PTLBLK	Intel PRO/1000 PT Quad Port Low Profile	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Quad port	In Stock
E1G44HT	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I340	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Quad port	In Stock
E1G44HTBLK	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I340	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express	Copper	Quad port	In Stock
I350T2 I350T2BLK	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express V2.0	Copper	Dual Port	In Stock
I350T4 I350T4BLK	Intel Ethernet Server Adapter I350	Gigabit Ethernet	PCI Express V2.0	Copper	Dual Port	In Stock