Mellanox Technologies MCX4111A-XCAT User manual

Mellanox Technologies
www.mellanox.com
ConnectX®-4 Lx Single and Dual 10/25 Gb/s Ethernet
SFP28 Port Adapter Card User Manual
P/N: MCX4111A-XCAT, MCX4121A-XCAT, MCX4111A-ACAT, MCX4121A-ACAT
Rev 2.2

Mellanox Technologies
350 Oakmead Parkway Suite 100
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
U.S.A.
www.mellanox.com
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
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DOCUMENTATION ARE PROVIDED BY MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES AS-ISﺴ WITH ALL FAULTS OF ANY
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Doc #: MLNX-15-5609 2Mellanox Technologies

Rev 2.2 3Mellanox Technologies
Table of Contents
Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
About this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Intended Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Related Documentation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Document Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1 Product Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 Operating Systems/Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.3 Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4 Features and Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Chapter 2 Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1 Ethernet SFP28 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 PCI Express Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3 LEDs Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Chapter 3 Hardware Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1 System Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.1 Hardware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.2 Operating Systems/Distributions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.1.3 Software Stacks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.2 Safety Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.3 Pre-installation Checklist . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4 Bracket Installation Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4.1 Removing the Existing Bracket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4.2 Installing the New Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.5 Adapter Card Installation Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
3.6 Cables and Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.6.1 Cable Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
3.7 Adapter Card Un-installation Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.7.1 Safety Precautions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.7.2 Card Un-installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
3.8 Identify the Card in Your System. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.8.1 On Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
3.8.2 On Linux . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Chapter 4 Driver Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1 Linux Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

Rev 2.2 4Mellanox Technologies
4.1.1 Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1.2 Downloading Mellanox OFED. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
4.1.3 Installing Mellanox OFED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
4.1.3.1 Installation Procedure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
4.1.3.2 Installation Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.3.3 Installation Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.3.4 openibd Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.3.5 Driver Load Upon System Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.3.6 mlnxofedinstall Return Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.4 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.5 Installing MLNX_OFED using YUM . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.5.1 Setting up MLNX_OFED YUM Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.5.2 Installing MLNX_OFED using the YUM Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
4.1.5.3 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED using the YUM Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.6 Installing MLNX_OFED using apt-get . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.6.1 Setting up MLNX_OFED apt-get Repository . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.6.2 Installing MLNX_OFED using the apt-get Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.6.3 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED using the apt-get Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7 Updating Firmware After Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7.1 Updating the Device Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7.2 Updating the Device Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7.3 Updating the Device Firmware Automatically upon System Boot . . . . . 36
4.1.8 UEFI Secure Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.8.1 Enrolling Mellanox's x.509 Public Key On your Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.8.2 Removing Signature from Kernel Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.1.9 Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2 Windows Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2.1 Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2.2 Downloading Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
4.2.3 Installing Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
4.2.3.1 Attended Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
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
4.2.7 Firmware Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.8 Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.3 VMware Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.3.1 Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.3.2 Installing VMware . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
4.3.3 Removing Previous Mellanox Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51

Rev 2.2 5Mellanox Technologies
4.3.4 Loading/Unloading Driver Kernel Modules. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
4.3.5 Firmware Programming . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Chapter 5 Updating Adapter Card Firmware. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
5.1 Firmware Update (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Chapter 6 Troubleshooting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.1 General . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
6.2 Linux. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
6.3 Windows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Chapter 7 Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.1 MCX4111A-XCAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.2 MCX4121A-XCAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.3 MCX4111A-ACAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.4 MCX4121A-ACAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
7.5 Airflow Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7.6 Adapter LEDs Operations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.7 Board Mechanical Drawing and Dimensions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
7.8 Bracket Mechanical Drawing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Appendix A Interface Connectors Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
A.1 SFP28 Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
A.2 PCI Express x8 Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Appendix B Finding the MAC and Serial Number on the Adapter Card . . . . 68
Appendix C Safety Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Appendix D Avertissements de sécurité d’installation (Warnings in French) 71
Appendix E Sicherheitshinweise (Warnings in German) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Appendix F Advertencias de seguridad para la instalación (Warnings in Spanish) 75

Rev 2.2 6Mellanox Technologies
List of Tables
Table 1: Revision History Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Table 2: Related Documents List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Table 3: Single and Dual-Port 10Gb/s Ethernet Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Table 4: Single and Dual-Port 25Gb/s Ethernet Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Table 5: Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Table 6: Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Table 7: mlnxofedinstall Return Codes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Table 8: Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Table 9: Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Table 10: MXC4111A-XCAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Table 11: MCX4121A-XCAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Table 12: MCX4111A-ACAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Table 13: MCX4121A-ACAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Table 14: Physical and Logical Link Indications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Table 15: SFP28 Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65

Rev 2.2 7Mellanox Technologies
List of Figures
Figure 1: PCI Device (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 2: Installation Results (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 3: Mechanical Drawing of the MCX4111A-XCAT/MCX4111A-ACAT Adapter Card . . . . . . . 62
Figure 4: Mechanical Drawing of the MCX4121A-ACAT/MCX4121A-XCAT Adapter Card . . . . . . . 63
Figure 5: Single-port Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 6: Dual-port Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Figure 7: Rear View of Module With Pin Placement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Figure 8: PCIe x8 Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Figure 9: MCX4431A-GCAN Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Figure 10: MCX4431M-GCAN Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68

Rev 2.2 8Mellanox Technologies
Revision History
This document was printed on January 29, 2018.
Table 1 - Revision History Tables
Date Rev Comments/Changes
November 2017 2.2 • Updated Features on page 14.
• Added a note to System Requirements on page 17.
July 2017 2.1 • Updated Adapter LEDs Operations on page 62.
• Updated “Cable Installation” on page 20.
May 2017 2.0 • Updated the following Specifications Tables:
•MXC4111A-XCAT Specifications Table on page 57.
•MCX4121A-XCAT Specifications Table on page 58.
•MCX4111A-ACAT Specifications Table on page 59.
•MCX4121A-ACAT Specifications on page 60.
September 2016 1.9 • Updated Adapter Card Installation Instructions on page 19.
• Added Card Un-installation on page 21.
• Updated the following tables:
•MXC4111A-XCAT Specifications Table on page 57.
•MCX4121A-XCAT Specifications Table on page 58.
•MCX4111A-ACAT Specifications Table on page 59.
•MCX4121A-ACAT Specifications on page 60.
August 2016 1.8 • Updated Cable Installation on page 20.
• Updated Physical and Logical Link Indications on page 62.
• Added Board Mechanical Drawing and Dimensions on page 62.
June 2016 1.7 • Added Mellanox logo "25 is the New 10™" in the cover page.
• Updated Safety Warnings on page 69.
April 2016 1.6 • Updated Physical and Logical Link Indications on page 62.
March 2016 1.5 • Removed I2C-compatible Interface from Interfaces on page 16.
• Updated Features and Benefits on page 14.
February 2016 1.4 Updated Bracket Installation Instructions on page 18
February 2016 1.3 • Updated Linux Driver on page 24.
• Updated Windows Driver on page 39.
• Updated VMware Driver on page 52.
• Added a note to Finding the MAC and Serial Number on the Adapter Card
on page 68.
December 2015 1.2 • Updated Related Documentation on page 10.
• Updated Product Overview on page 12.
• Updated speed specifications in the following sections:
•Features and Benefits on page 14.
•Connectivity on page 13.
• Updated Specifications on page 59.
• Added SFP28 Connector Pinout on page 64.

Rev 2.2 9Mellanox Technologies
December 2015 1.1 • Added mlxup to Documents List on page 9 and Updating Adapter Card
Firmware on page 51.
• Updated Device ID in Product Overview on page 12.
• Added IEEE 802.3by support. See “Features and Benefits” on page 14.
• Updated PCI Device on page 23.
• Added VMware support. See VMware Driver on page 48.
• Updated Specifications on page 55.
• Added Single-port Bracket on page 61.
November 2015 1.0 First Release
Table 1 - Revision History Tables
Date Rev Comments/Changes

Rev 2.2 10Mellanox Technologies
About this Manual
This User Manual describes Mellanox Technologies ConnectX®-4 Lx 10/25Gb/s Ethernet Sin-
gle and Dual SFP28 port PCI Express x8 adapter cards. It provides details as to the interfaces of
the board, specifications, required software and firmware for operating the board, and relevant
documentation.
Intended Audience
This manual is intended for the installer and user of these cards.
The manual assumes basic familiarity with Ethernet network and architecture specifications.
Related Documentation
Table 2 - Related 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 => Firm-
ware 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 => Firm-
ware Tools => mlxup Firmware Utility
Mellanox OFED for Linux
User Manual
Document no. 2877
User Manual describing OFED features, performance, tools con-
tent and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Ether-
net Drivers => Mellanox OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution for
Linux (MLNX_OFED)
WinOF-2 for Windows
User Manual
Document no: MLNX-15-3280
User Manual describing WinOF-2 features, performance, tools
content and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Ether-
net Drivers
WinOF-2 for Windows
Release Notes
Release notes for Mellanox Technologies WinOF-2 for Ethernet
drivers for Mellanox adapter cards:
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Ether-
net Drivers
Mellanox MLX4_EN Driver for VMware
README
Document no. 3527
User Manual describing MLX4_EN driver for VMware features,
performance, diagnostic, tools content and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Ether-
net Drivers => VMware Drivers
Mellanox EN for Linux 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 => Ether-
net Drivers => Mellanox EN for Linux

Rev 2.2 11Mellanox 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. In this document PCIe is
used to mean PCI Express
Mellanox VMware for Ethernet User Man-
ual
Document no. MLNX-15-4896
User Manual describing the various components of the Mellanox
ConnectX®-4 NATIVE ESXi stack:
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Ether-
net Drivers => VMware Driver => User Manual v4.15.2.0
Mellanox VMware for Ethernet Release
Notes
Release notes for Mellanox ConnectX®-4 NATIVE ESXi stack:
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Ether-
net Drivers => VMware Driver => Release Notes
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 Base and Card Electromechan-
ical Specifications
https://pcisig.com/specifications
Table 2 - Related Documents List

Introduction
Rev 2.2 12Mellanox Technologies
1 Introduction
This is the User Guide for Mellanox Technologies Ethernet adapter cards based on the Con-
nectX®-4 Lx integrated circuit device. These adapters connectivity provide the highest perform-
ing and most flexible interconnect solution for PCI Express Gen3 servers used in Enterprise Data
Centers, High-Performance Computing, and Embedded environments.
This chapter covers the following topics:
•Section 1.1, “Product Overview,” on page 12
•Section 1.2, “Operating Systems/Distributions,” on page 13
•Section 1.3, “Connectivity,” on page 13
•Section 1.4, “Features and Benefits,” on page 14
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 10Gb/s Ethernet Adapter Cards
Ordering Part Number (OPN) MCX4111A-XCAT - Single-port card
MCX4121A-XCAT - Dual-port card
Data Transmission Rate Ethernet: 1/10 Gb/s
Network Connector Types Single and dual-port SFP28
PCI Express (PCIe) SerDes Speed PCIe 3.0 x8 8GT/s
RoHS R6
Adapter IC Part Number MT27712A0-FDCF-XE
Device ID (decimal) 4117 for Physical Function (PF)
4118 for Virtual Function (VF)

Introduction
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Table 4 - Single and Dual-Port 25Gb/s Ethernet Adapter Cards
1.2 Operating Systems/Distributions
• RHEL/CentOS
• FreeBSD
•VMware
• OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED)
• OpenFabrics Windows Distribution (WinOF-2)
1.3 Connectivity
• Interoperable with 1/10/25 Gb/s Ethernet switches
• Passive copper cable with ESD protection
• Powered connectors for optical and active cable support
Ordering Part Number (OPN) MCX4111A-ACAT - Single-port card
MCX4121A-ACAT - Dual-port card
Data Transmission Rate Ethernet: 1/10/25 Gb/s
Network Connector Types Single and dual-port SFP28
PCI Express (PCIe) SerDes Speed PCIe 3.0 x8 8GT/s
RoHS R6
Adapter IC Part Number MT27712A0-FDCF-AE
Device ID (decimal) 4117 for Physical Function (PF)
4118 for Virtual Function (VF)

Introduction
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1.4 Features and Benefits
Table 5 - Featuresa
PCI Express (PCIe) Uses PCIe Gen 3.0 (1.1 and 2.0 compatible) through an x8 edge connector up to
8GT/s
Up to 25 Gigabit
Ethernet
Mellanox adapters comply with the following IEEE 802.3 standards:
– 25GbE / 10GbE / 1GbE
– 25G Ethernet Consortium 25
– IEEE 802.3by 25 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3ap based auto-negotiation and KR startup
– 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)
Memory
PCI Express - stores and accesses Ethernet fabric connection information and
packet data.
SPI - includes one 16MB SPI Flash device (W25Q128FVSIG device by WIN-
BOND-NUVOTON).
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 network
scalability issues, it hides the TCP packet from the hardware offloading engines,
placing higher loads on the host CPU. ConnectX-4 Lx effectively addresses this
by providing advanced NVGRE and VXLAN hardware offloading engines that
encapsulate and de-capsulate the overlay protocol header as well as offloads TCP
stateless activities on the encapsulated packet.
RDMA and RDMA over
Converged Ethernet
(RoCE)
ConnectX-4 Lx, utilizing IBTA RoCE (RDMA over Converged Ethernet) tech-
nology, delivers low-latency and high-performance over Ethernet networks.
Leveraging data center bridging (DCB) capabilities as well as ConnectX-4 Lx
advanced congestion control hardware 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 eliminat-
ing unnecessary internal data copies between components on the PCIe bus (for
example, from GPU to CPU), and therefore significantly reduces application run
time. ConnectX-4 Lx 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.
Quality of Service (QoS) Support for port-based Quality of Service enabling various application require-
ments for latency and SLA.

Introduction
Rev 2.2 15Mellanox Technologies
Hardware-based I/O
Virtualization
ConnectX-4 Lx 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 RDMA for high-performance storage access.
SR-IOV ConnectX-4 Lx SR-IOV technology provides dedicated adapter resources and
guaranteed isolation and protection for virtual machines (VM) within the server.
NC-SI
The adapter cards support a Network Controller Sideband Interface (NC-SI),
MCTP over SMBus and MCTP over PCIe - Baseboard Management Controller
interface.
a. This section describes hardware features and capabilities. Please refer to the driver release notes for feature availability. See
Table 2, “Related Documents List,” on page 10.
Table 5 - Featuresa

Interfaces
Rev 2.2 16Mellanox Technologies
2 Interfaces
Each adapter card includes the following interfaces:
•“Ethernet SFP28 Interface”
•“PCI Express Interface”
•“LEDs Interface”
The adapter cards include special circuits to protect from ESD shocks to the card/server when
plugging copper cables.
2.1 Ethernet SFP28 Interface
The network ports of the ConnectX®-4 Lx adapter cards are compliant with the IEEE 802.3
Ethernet standards listed in Table 5, “Features,” on page 14. The SFP28 port has one Tx/Rx
pair of SerDes. Ethernet traffic is transmitted through the cards' SFP28 connectors.
2.2 PCI Express Interface
The ConnectX®-4 Lx adapter cards support PCI Express 3.0 (1.1 and 2.0 compatible) through an
x8connector. 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 Gen 3.0 compliant, 1.1 and 2.0 compatible
• 2.5, 5.0, or 8.0GT/s link rate x8
• Auto-negotiates to x8, x4, x2, or x1
• Support for MSI/MSI-X mechanisms
2.3 LEDs Interface
There is one bi-color I/O LED per port. For LEDs specifications, please refer to Section 7.6,
“Adapter LEDs Operations,” on page 62.

Hardware Installation
Rev 2.2 17Mellanox Technologies
3 Hardware Installation
3.1 System Requirements
3.1.1 Hardware
A system with a PCI Express x8 edge connector slot is required for installing the card.
3.1.2 Operating Systems/Distributions
Please refer to Section 1.2, “Operating Systems/Distributions,” on page 13.
3.1.3 Software Stacks
Mellanox OpenFabric software package - MLNX_OFED for Linux, WinOF-2 for Windows and
VMware. See Chapter 4,“Driver Installation” on page 24.
3.2 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.
3.3 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.
4. Remove the card from its package.
5. Please note that the card must be placed on an antistatic surface.
6. 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 environ-
mentally controlled data center with low levels of gaseous and dust (particulate) con-
tamination.
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 2.2 18Mellanox Technologies
3.4 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 3.5, “Adapter
Card Installation Instructions,” on page 19. 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 bracket of the proper height
• The 2 screws saved from the removal of the bracket
3.4.1 Removing the Existing Bracket
1. Remove the two screws holding the bracket in place. The bracket comes loose from the card.
3.4.2 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 and washers saved from the bracket removal procedure
above.
3. Make sure that the LEDs are aligned onto the bracket holes.
4. Use a torque driver to apply up to 2.9 lbf-in torque on the screws.
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 LED.
Do not force the bracket onto the card. You may have to gently push the LEDs using a
small screwdriver to align the LEDs with the holes in the bracket.

Hardware Installation
Rev 2.2 19Mellanox Technologies
3.5 Adapter 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.
2. Open the system case.
3. Locate an available PCI Express slot for the adapter card.
4. Applying even pressure at both corners of the card, insert the adapter card into the PCI
Express slot until firmly seated.
Please note that the following images are for illustration purposes only.
A lesser width adapter can be seated into a greater width slot (x8 in a x16), but a
greater width adapter cannot be seated into a lesser width slot (x16 in a x8). Align the
adapter connector edge with the PCI Express connector slot.

Hardware Installation
Rev 2.2 20Mellanox Technologies
5. 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.
6. Secure the adapter with the adapter clips or screws.
7. Close the system case.
3.6 Cables and Modules
To obtain the list of supported cables for your adapter, please refer to:
http://www.mellanox.com/products/interconnect/cables-configurator.php
3.6.1 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.