Mellanox Technologies ConnectX-5 Ex User manual

Mellanox Technologies
www.mellanox.com
Mellanox ConnectX®-5 Ex 100Gb/s VPI Single and Dual
Adapter Cards User Manual
P/N: MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT, MCX556A-EDAT
Rev 1.5

Doc #: MLNX-15-51362 2Mellanox Technologies
Mellanox Technologies
350 Oakmead Parkway Suite 100
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
U.S.A.
www.mellanox.com
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
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NOTE:
THIS HARDWARE , SOFTWARE OR TEST SUITE PRODUCT ( PRODUCT (S) ) AND ITS RELATED
DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED BY MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES AS-ISﺴ WITH ALL FAULTS OF ANY
KIND AND SOLELY FOR THE PURPOSE OF AIDING THE CUSTOMER IN TESTING APPLICATIONS THAT
USE THE PRODUCTS IN DESIGNATED SOLUTIONS . THE CUSTOMER 'S MANUFACTURING TEST
ENVIRONMENT HAS NOT MET THE STANDARDS SET BY MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES TO FULLY
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DAMAGE .

Rev 1.5 1Mellanox Technologies
Table of Contents
Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
About This Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Intended Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.1 Product Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.2 Features and Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3 Operating Systems/Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Chapter 2 Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.1 InfiniBand Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.2 Ethernet QSFP28 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.3 PCI Express Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2.4 LED Interface. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Chapter 3 Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.1.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2 Operating Systems/Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.2.1 Software Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.3 Safety Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.4 Pre-Installation Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
3.5 Bracket Installation Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.5.1 Removing the Existing Bracket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.5.2 Installing the New Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.6 Card Installation Instructions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
3.7 Cables and Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
3.7.1 Cable Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.8 Adapter Card Un-installation Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.8.1 Safety Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.8.2 Card Un-installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.9 Identify the Card in Your System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.9.1 On Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

Rev 1.5 2Mellanox Technologies
3.9.2 On Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Chapter 4 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1 Linux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1.1 Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1.2 Downloading Mellanox OFED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
4.1.3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Installing Mellanox OFED 23
4.1.3.1 Installation Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
4.1.3.2 Installation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.3.3 Installation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.3.4 Installation Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
4.1.3.5 openibd Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.3.6 Driver Load Upon System Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.3.7 mlnxofedinstall Return Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.4 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.5 Installing MLNX_OFED Using YUM. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.5.1 Setting up MLNX_OFED YUM Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.5.2 Installing MLNX_OFED Using the YUM Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.5.3 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED Using the YUM Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.5.4 Installing MLNX_OFED Using apt-get Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.5.5 Setting up MLNX_OFED apt-get Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.5.6 Installing MLNX_OFED Using the apt-get Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.5.7 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED Using the apt-get Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.6 Updating Firmware After Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.6.1 Updating the Device Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.6.2 Updating the Device Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.6.3 Updating the Device Firmware Automatically upon System Boot . . . . . 35
4.1.7 UEFI Secure Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7.1 Enrolling Mellanox's x.509 Public Key On your Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7.2 Removing Signature from kernel Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.8 Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.2 Windows Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.1 Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.2 Downloading Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.3 Installing Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2.3.1 Attended Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2.3.2 Unattended Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.4 Installation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
4.2.5 Extracting Files Without Running Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
4.2.6 Uninstalling Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.6.1 Attended Uninstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.6.2 Unattended Uninstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.7 Firmware Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49

Rev 1.5 3Mellanox Technologies
4.2.8 Deploying the Driver on a Nano Server. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.8.1 Offline Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.8.2 Online Update . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Chapter 5 Updating Adapter Card Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
5.1 Firmware Update Example . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 6 Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
6.2 Linux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
6.3 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Chapter 7 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.1 MCX555A-ECAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.2 MCX556A-ECAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.3 MCX556A-EDAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.4 MCX555A-ECAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.5 MCX556A-ECAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.6 MCX556A-EDAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.7 Airflow Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.8 Adapter Card LED Operations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.9 Board Mechanical Drawing and Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.10 Bracket Mechanical Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Appendix A Finding the GUID/MAC and Serial Number on the Adapter Card 64
Appendix B Safety Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Appendix C Avertissements de sécurité d’installation (Warnings in French) 68
Appendix D Sicherheitshinweise (Warnings in German) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Appendix E Advertencias de seguridad para la instalación (Warnings in Spanish) 72

Rev 1.5 4Mellanox Technologies
List of Tables
Table 1: Revision History Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Table 2: Documents List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Table 3: Single and Dual-port VPI Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Table 4: Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Table 5: Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Table 6: Installation Results. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
Table 7: mlnxofedinstall Return Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
Table 8: Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
Table 9: General Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Table 10: Linux Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Table 11: Windows Troubleshooting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Table 12: MCX555A-ECAT Specification Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Table 13: MCX556A-ECAT Specification Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Table 14: MCX556A-EDAT Specification Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Table 15: MCX555A-ECAT Specification Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Table 16: MCX556A-ECAT Specification Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Table 17: MCX556A-EDAT Specification Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Table 18: Airflow Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Table 19: Physical and Logical Link Indications (Ethernet Mode). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Table 20: Physical and Logical Link Indications (InfiniBand Mode) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Rev 1.5 5Mellanox Technologies
List of Figures
Figure 1: PCI Device (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
Figure 2: Installation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 3: Mechanical Drawing of the Dual-port Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Figure 4: Dual-port Tall Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 5: MCX555A-ECAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Figure 6: MCX556A-ECAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Figure 7: MCX556A-EDAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

6Mellanox Technologies
Revision History
This document was printed on July 11, 2018.
Table 1 - Revision History Table
Date Rev Comments/Changes
July 2018 1.5 • Updated Adapter Card LED Operations on page 61
January 2018 1.4 • Updated Adapter Card LED Operations on page 61
• Added a note to Hardware on page 14
November 2017 1.3 • Updated Adapter Card LED Operations on page 61
October 2017 1.2 • Updated the following specification tables:
• MCX555A-ECAT Specification Table on page 55
• MCX556A-ECAT Specification Table on page 56
• MCX556A-EDAT Specification Table on page 57
• Updated Linux on page 22
April 2017 1.1 • Updated Product Overview on page 9
• Updated Card Installation Instructions on page 15
March 2017 1.0 First release

Rev 1.5 7Mellanox Technologies
About This Manual
This User Manual describes Mellanox Technologies ConnectX®-5 Ex VPI Single and Dual
QSFP28 port PCI Express x16 adapter cards. It provides details as to the interfaces of the board,
specifications, required software and firmware for operating the board, and relevant documenta-
tion.
Intended Audience
This manual is intended for the installer and user of these cards.
The manual assumes basic familiarity with InfiniBand and Ethernet network and architecture
specifications.
Related Documentation
Table 2 - Documents List
Mellanox Firmware Tools (MFT) User Manual
Document no. 2204UG
User Manual describing the set of MFT firmware management
tools for a single node.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software =>
Firmware Tools
Mellanox Firmware Utility (mlxup) User Manual
and Release Notes
Mellanox firmware update and query utility used to update the
firmware.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software =>
Firmware Tools => mlxup Firmware Utility
Mellanox OFED for Linux
User Manual
Document no. 2877
User Manual describing OFED features, performance, Band
diagnostic, tools content and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software =>
InfiniBand/VPI Drivers => Mellanox OpenFabrics Enterprise
Distribution for Linux (MLNX_OFED)
Mellanox OFED for Linux Release Notes
Document no. 2877
Release Notes for Mellanox OFED for Linux driver kit for Mel-
lanox adapter cards:
See: http://www.mellanox.com =>Products => Software =>
InfiniBand/VPI Drivers => Linux SW/Drivers => Release
Notes
WinOF-2 for Windows
User Manual
Document no. MLX-15-3280
User Manual describing WinOF-2 features, performance, Ether-
net diagnostic, tools content and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software =>
Windows SW/Drivers
Mellanox OFED for Windows Driver
Release Notes
Release notes for Mellanox Technologies' MLNX_EN for Linux
driver kit for Mellanox adapter cards:
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software =>
Ethernet Drivers => Mellanox OFED for Windows => WinOF-
2 Release Notes
IBTA Specification Release 1.3 InfiniBand Architecture Specification:
http://www.infinibandta.org/content/pages.php?pg=tech-
nology_public_specification

Rev 1.5 8Mellanox Technologies
Document Conventions
When discussing memory sizes, MB and MBytes are used in this document to mean size in mega
Bytes. The use of Mb or Mbits (small b) indicates size in mega bits. IB is used in this document
to mean InfiniBand.In this document PCIe is used to mean PCI Express.
Technical Support
Customers who purchased Mellanox products directly from Mellanox are invited to contact us
through the following methods.
•URL: http://www.mellanox.com => Support
• E-mail: [email protected]
• Tel: [phone]
Customers who purchased Mellanox M-1 Global Support Services, please see your contract for
details regarding Technical Support.
Customers who purchased Mellanox products through a Mellanox approved reseller should first seek
assistance through their reseller.
Firmware Updates
The Mellanox support downloader contains software, firmware and knowledge database infor-
mation for Mellanox products. Access the database from the Mellanox Support web page,
http://www.mellanox.com => Support
Or use the following link to go directly to the Mellanox Support Download Assistant page,
http://www.mellanox.com/supportdownloader/.
IEEE Std 802.3 Specification This is the IEEE Ethernet specification
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802
PCI Express 3.0 Specifications Industry Standard PCI Express 3.0/4.0 Base and Card Electro-
mechanical Specifications
https://pcisig.com/specifications

Introduction
Rev 1.5 9Mellanox Technologies
1 Introduction
This is the User Guide for Mellanox Technologies VPI adapter cards based on the ConnectX®-5
integrated circuit device. These adapters connectivity provide the highest performing and most
flexible interconnect solution for PCI Express Gen 3.0/4.0 servers used in Enterprise Data Cen-
ters, High-Performance Computing, and Embedded environments.
This chapter covers the following topics:
• Section 1.1, “Product Overview”, on page 9
• Section 1.2, “Features and Benefits”, on page 10
• Section 1.3, “Operating Systems/Distributions”, on page 11
• Section 1.4, “Connectivity”, on page 12
1.1 Product Overview
The following section provides the ordering part number, port speed, number of ports, and PCI
Express speed.Each adapter comes with two bracket heights - short and tall.
Table 3 - Single and Dual-port VPI Adapter Cards
Ordering Part Number (OPN) Single-port card: MCX555A-ECAT
Dual-port cards: MCX556A-ECAT, MCX556A-EDAT
Data Transmission Rate InfiniBand: SDR/DDR/QDR/FDR/EDR
Ethernet: 1/10/25/40/50/100 Gb/s
Network Connector Types Single and dual-port QSFP28
PCI Express (PCIe)
SerDes Speed
MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT: PCIe 3.0 x16 8GT/s
Note: PCIe 3.0 x16 bus can supply a maximum bandwidth of
128Gb/s only (=16 * 8GT/s, including overhead), and therefore
cannot support 200Gb/s when both network ports of MCX556A-
ECAT run at 100Gb/s.
MCX556A-EDAT: PCIe 4.0 x16 16GT/s
Note: This card has been tested and certified with PCIe 3.0 serv-
ers. PCIe 4.0 interface will be tested when servers with Gen 4.0
support become available.
Note: PCIe 4.0 x16 bus can supply a maximum bandwidth of
256Gb/s (=16 * 16GT/s, including overhead), and can support
200Gb/s when both network ports of MCX556A-EDAT run at
100Gb/s.
RoHS R6
Adapter IC Part Number MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT: MT27808A0-FCCF-EV
MCX556A-EDAT: MT28808A0-FCCF-EV
Device ID (decimal)
MCX555A-ECAT, MCX556A-ECAT: 4119 for Physical Func-
tion (PF) and 4120 for Virtual Function (VF)
MCX556A-EDAT: 4121 for Physical Function (PF) and 4122 for
Virtual Function (VF)

Introduction
Rev 1.5 10Mellanox Technologies
1.2 Features and Benefits
Table 4 - Featuresa
100Gb/s Virtual Protocol
Interconnect (VPI)
Adapter
ConnectX-5 offers the highest throughput VPI adapter, supporting EDR
100Gb/s InfiniBand and 100Gb/s Ethernet and enabling any standard
networking, clustering, or storage to operate seamlessly over any con-
verged network leveraging a consolidated software stack.
InfiniBand Architecture
Specification v1.3
compliant
ConnectX-5 delivers low latency, high bandwidth, and computing effi-
ciency for performance-driven server and storage clustering applica-
tions. ConnectX-5 is InfiniBand Architecture Specification v1.3
compliant.
PCI Express (PCIe) Uses PCIe Gen 3.0 (8GT/s) and Gen 4.0 (16GT/s) through an x16 edge con-
nector. Gen 1.1 and 2.0 compatible.
Up to 100 Gigabit Ethernet
Mellanox adapters comply with the following IEEE 802.3 standards
:– 100GbE/ 50GbE / 40GbE / 25GbE / 10GbE / 1GbE
– IEEE 802.3bj, 802.3bm 100 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3by, Ethernet Consortium25, 50 Gigabit Ethernet,
supporting all FEC modes
– IEEE 802.3ba 40 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3ap based auto-negotiation and KR startup
– Proprietary Ethernet protocols (20/40GBASE-R2, 50GBASE-R4)
– IEEE 802.3ad, 802.1AX Link Aggregation
– IEEE 802.1Q, 802.1P VLAN tags and priority
– IEEE 802.1Qau (QCN)
– Congestion Notification
– IEEE 802.1Qaz (ETS)
– IEEE 802.1Qbb (PFC)
– IEEE 802.1Qbg
– IEEE 1588v2
– Jumbo frame support (9.6KB)
InfiniBand EDR
A standard InfiniBand data rate, where each lane of a 4X port runs a bit
rate of 25.78125Gb/s with a 64b/66b encoding, resulting in an effective
bandwidth of 100Gb/s.
Memory
PCI Express - stores and accesses InfiniBand and/or Ethernet fabric connec-
tion information and packet data.SPI Quad - includes 128Mbit SPI Quad Flash
device (W25Q128FVSIG device by ST Microelectronics)
VPD EEPROM - The EEPROM capacity is 128Kbit.
Overlay Networks
In order to better scale their networks, data center operators often create overlay
networks that carry traffic from individual virtual machines over logical tunnels
in encapsulated formats such as NVGRE and VXLAN. While this solves net-
work scalability issues, it hides the TCP packet from the hardware offloading
engines, placing higher loads on the host CPU. ConnectX-5 effectively
addresses this by providing advanced NVGRE and VXLAN hardware offload-
ing engines that encapsulate and de-capsulate the overlay protocol.

Introduction
Rev 1.5 11Mellanox Technologies
1.3 Operating Systems/Distributions
• RHEL/CentOS
•Windows
• FreeBSD
•VMware
• OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED)
• OpenFabrics Windows Distribution (WinOF-2)
RDMA and RDMA over
Converged Ethernet (RoCE)
ConnectX-5, utilizing IBTA RDMA (Remote Data Memory Access) and RoCE
(RDMA over Converged Ethernet) technology, delivers low-latency and high-
performance over Band and Ethernet networks. Leveraging data center bridging
(DCB) capabilities as well as ConnectX-5 advanced congestion control hard-
ware mechanisms, RoCE provides efficient low-latency RDMA services over
Layer 2 and Layer 3 networks.
Mellanox PeerDirect™
PeerDirect™ communication provides high efficiency RDMA access by elimi-
nating unnecessary internal data copies between components on the PCIe bus
(for example, from GPU to CPU), and therefore significantly reduces applica-
tion run time. ConnectX-5 advanced acceleration technology enables higher
cluster efficiency and scalability to tens of thousands of nodes.
CPU Offload
Adapter functionality enabling reduced CPU overhead allowing more available
CPU for computation tasks.
Open VSwitch (OVS) offload using ASAP2(TM)
• Flexible match-action flow tables
• Tunneling encapsulation / decapsulation
Quality of Service (QoS) Support for port-based Quality of Service enabling various application require-
ments for latency and SLA.
Hardware-based I/O
Virtualization
ConnectX-5 provides dedicated adapter resources and guaranteed isolation and
protection for virtual machines within the server.
Storage Acceleration
A consolidated compute and storage network achieves significant cost-perfor-
mance advantages over multi-fabric networks. Standard block and file access
protocols can leverage InfiniBand RDMA for high-performance storage
access.
• NVMe over Fabric offloads for target machine
• Erasure Coding
• T10-DIF Signature Handover
SR-IOV
ConnectX-5 SR-IOV technology provides dedicated adapter resources and
guaranteed isolation and protection for virtual machines (VM) within the
server.
High-Performance
Accelerations
• Tag Matching and Rendezvous Offloads
• Adaptive Routing on Reliable Transport
• Burst Buffer Offloads for Background Checkpointing
a. This section describes hardware features and capabilities. Please refer to the driver release notes for feature availabil-
ity. See Related Documentation.
Table 4 - Featuresa

Introduction
Rev 1.5 12Mellanox Technologies
1.4 Connectivity
• Interoperable with 1/10/25/40/50/100 Gb/s Ethernet switches
• Passive copper cable with ESD protection
• Powered connectors for optical and active cable support

Interfaces
Rev 1.5 13Mellanox Technologies
2 Interfaces
The adapter card includes special circuits to protect from ESD shocks to the card/server when
plugging copper cables.
Each adapter card includes the following interfaces:
• “InfiniBand Interface”
• “Ethernet QSFP28 Interface”
• “PCI Express Interface”
• “LED Interface”
2.1 InfiniBand Interface
The network ports of the ConnectX®-5 adapter cards are compliant with the InfiniBand Architec-
ture Specification, Release 1.3. InfiniBand traffic is transmitted through the cards' QSFP28 con-
nectors.
2.2 Ethernet QSFP28 Interface
The network ports of the ConnectX®-5 adapter card are compliant with the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet
standards listed in Table 4, “Features,” on page 10. Ethernet traffic is transmitted through the
cards' QSFP28 connectors.
2.3 PCI Express Interface
The ConnectX®-5 adapter card supports PCI Express Gen 3.0/4.0 (1.1 and 2.0 compatible)
through an x16 edge connector. The device can be either a master initiating the PCI Express bus
operations, or a slave responding to PCI bus operations.
The following lists PCIe interface features:
• PCIe Gen4.0 and 3.0 compliant, 2.0 and 1.1 compatible
• 2.5, 5.0, or 8.0, or 16.0 GT/s link rate x16
• Auto-negotiates to x16, x8, x4, x2, or x1
• Support for MSI/MSI-X mechanisms
2.4 LED Interface
There is one bi-color I/O LED per port located on the adapter card.For LED specifications,
please refer to Section 7.8, “Adapter Card LED Operations”, on page 61.

Hardware Installation
Rev 1.5 14Mellanox Technologies
3 Hardware Installation
3.1 System Requirements
3.1.1 Hardware
A system with a PCI Express x16 slot is required for installing the card.
3.2 Operating Systems/Distributions
Please refer to Section 1.3, “Operating Systems/Distributions”, on page 11.
3.2.1 Software Stacks
Mellanox OpenFabric software package MLNX_OFED for Linux, and WinOF-2 for Windows.
See Chapter 4, “Driver Installation”.
3.3 Safety Precautions
1. Remove any metallic objects from your hands and wrists.
2. Make sure to use only insulated tools.
3. Verify that the system is powered off and is unplugged.
4. It is strongly recommended to use an ESD strap or other antistatic devices.
3.4 Pre-Installation Checklist
1. Verify that your system meets the hardware and software requirements stated above.
2. Shut down your system if active.
3. After shutting down the system, turn off power and unplug the cord. Remove the card from its
package. Please note that the card must be placed on an antistatic surface.Check the card for
visible signs of damage. Do not attempt to install the card if damaged.
Unless otherwise specified, Mellanox products are designed to work in an environmentally
controlled data center with low levels of gaseous and dust (particulate) contamination.
The operation environment should meet severity level G1 as per ISA 71.04 for gaseous
contamination and ISO 14644-1 class 8 for cleanliness level.
The adapter is being installed in a system that operates with voltages that can be lethal.
Before opening the case of the system, observe the following precautions to avoid injury and
prevent damage to system components.

Hardware Installation
Rev 1.5 15Mellanox Technologies
3.5 Bracket Installation Instructions
The card is usually shipped with a tall bracket installed. If this form factor is suitable for your
requirements, you can skip the remainder of this section and move to Section 3.6, “Card Installa-
tion Instructions”, on page 15. If you need to replace it with the short bracket that is included in
the shipping box, please follow the instructions in this section.
To replace the bracket you will need the following parts:
• The new brackets of the proper height
• The 2 screws saved from the removal of the bracket
3.5.1 Removing the Existing Bracket
Remove the two screws holding the bracket in place. The bracket comes loose from the card.
Save the two screws.
3.5.2 Installing the New Bracket
1. Place the bracket onto the card until the screw holes line up.
2. Screw on the bracket using the screws saved from the bracket removal procedure above.
3. Make sure that the LEDs on the adapter card are aligned onto the bracket holes.
4. Use a torque driver to apply up to 2 lbs-in torque on the screws
3.6 Card Installation Instructions
1. Before installing the card, make sure that the system is off and the power cord is not con-
nected to the server. Please follow proper electrical grounding procedures.
Due to risk of damaging the EMI gasket, it is not recommended to replace the bracket more
than three times.
Be careful not to put stress on the LEDs on the adapter card.
Do not force the bracket onto the adapter card. You may have to gently push the LEDs
using a small screwdriver to align the LEDs with the holes in the bracket.
Please note that the following figures are for illustration purposes only.

Hardware Installation
Rev 1.5 16Mellanox Technologies
2. Open the system case. Applying even pressure at both corners of the card, insert the adapter
card into the PCI Express slot until firmly seated.
3. When the adapter is properly seated, the port connectors are aligned with the slot opening,
and the adapter faceplate is visible against the system chassis.
4. Secure the adapter with the adapter clip or screw.
5. Close the system case.
3.7 Cables and Modules
To obtain the list of supported Mellanox cables for your adapter, please refer to the Cables Refer-
ence Table.
Do not use excessive force when seating the card, as this may damage the system or the
adapter.

Hardware Installation
Rev 1.5 17Mellanox Technologies
3.7.1 Cable Installation
1. All cables can be inserted or removed with the unit powered on.
2. To insert a cable, press the connector into the port receptacle until the connector is firmly
seated.
a. Support the weight of the cable before connecting the cable to the adapter card. Do this by using a cable
holder or tying the cable to the rack.
b. Determine the correct orientation of the connector to the card before inserting the connector. Do not try and
insert the connector upside down. This may damage the adapter card.
c. Insert the connector into the adapter card. Be careful to insert the connector straight into the cage. Do not
apply any torque, up or down, to the connector cage in the adapter card.
d. Make sure that the connector locks in place.
3. After inserting a cable into a port, the Amber LED indicator will light when the physical con-
nection is established (that is, when the unit is powered on and a cable is plugged into the port
with the other end of the connector plugged into a functioning port). See Section 7.8,
“Adapter Card LED Operations”, on page 61.
4. After plugging in a cable, lock the connector using the latching mechanism particular to the
cable vendor. When data is being transferred the Green LED will blink.See Section 7.8,
“Adapter Card LED Operations”, on page 61.
5. Care should be taken as not to impede the air exhaust flow through the ventilation holes. Use
cable lengths which allow for routing horizontally around to the side of the chassis before
bending upward or downward in the rack.
6. To remove a cable, disengage the locks and slowly pull the connector away from the port
receptacle. LED indicator will turn off when the cable is unseated.
When installing cables make sure that the latches engage.
Always install and remove cables by pushing or pulling the cable and connector in a
straight line with the card.

Hardware Installation
Rev 1.5 18Mellanox Technologies
3.8 Adapter Card Un-installation Instructions
3.8.1 Safety Precautions
1. Remove any metallic objects from your hands and wrists.
2. It is strongly recommended to use an ESD strap or other antistatic devices.
3. Turn off the system and disconnect the power cord from the server.
3.8.2 Card Un-installation
1. Verify that the system is powered off and unplugged.
2. Wait 30 seconds.
3. To remove the card, disengage the retention mechanisms on the bracket (clips or screws).
4. Holding the adapter card from its center, gently pull the adapter card from the PCI Express
slot.
The adapter is installed in a system that operates with voltages that can be lethal.
Before un-installing the adapter card, please observe the following precautions to
avoid injury and prevent damage to system components.
Please note that the following images are for illustration purposes only.