Mellanox Technologies MCX453A-FCAT User manual

Mellanox Technologieswww.mellanox.com
ConnectX®-4 VPI Single and Dual Port
QSFP28 Adapter Card User Manual
P/N:
MCX453A-FCAT, MCX454A-FCAT, MCX455A-FCAT, MCX456A-FCAT,
MCX455A-ECAT, MCX456A-ECAT
Rev 2.0

Mellanox Technologies
350 Oakmead Parkway Suite 100
Sunnyvale, CA 94085
U.S.A.
www.mellanox.com
Tel: [phone]
Fax: [phone]
© Copyright 2017. Mellanox Technologies Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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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
QUALIFY THE PRODUCT (S) AND/OR THE SYSTEM USING IT . THEREFORE , MELLANOX TECHNOLOGIES
CANNOT AND DOES NOT GUARANTEE OR WARRANT THAT THE PRODUCTS WILL OPERATE WITH THE
HIGHEST QUALITY . ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES , INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO , THE
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DAMAGE .
Doc#: MLNX-15-4723 2Mellanox Technologies

Rev 2.4 3Mellanox Technologies
Revision History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
About this Manual . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Intended Audience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Related Documentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Document Conventions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Technical Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Firmware Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
Chapter 1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.1 Product Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.2 Features and Benefits. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
1.3 Operating Systems/Distributions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
1.4 Connectivity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Chapter 2 Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.1 InfiniBand Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.2 Ethernet QSFP28 Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.3 PCI Express Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
2.4 LED 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
3.4.1 Removing the Existing Bracket. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.4.2 Installing the New Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
3.5 Card Installation Instructions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
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 2.4 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.3.3 Installation Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.3.4 openibd Script . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
4.1.3.5 Driver Load Upon System Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
4.1.3.6 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
4.1.5.2 Installing MLNX_OFED using the YUM Tool. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
4.1.5.3 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED using the YUM Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
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. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4.1.6.3 Uninstalling Mellanox OFED using the apt-get Tool . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.7 Updating Firmware After Installation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.7.1 Updating the Device Online . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
4.1.7.2 Updating the Device Manually . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.7.3 Updating the Device Firmware Automatically upon System Boot . . . . . 35
4.1.8 UEFI Secure Boot. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
4.1.8.1 Enrolling Mellanox's x.509 Public Key On your Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.8.2 Removing Signature from Kernel Modules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
4.1.9 Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.2 Windows Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.2.1 Hardware and Software Requirements. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.2.2 Downloading Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
4.2.3 Installing Mellanox WinOF-2 Driver. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
4.2.3.1 Attended Installation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.6.1 Attended Uninstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
4.2.6.2 Unattended Uninstallation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
4.2.7 Firmware Upgrade . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
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
4.2.9 Performance Tuning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50

Rev 2.4 5Mellanox Technologies
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 MCX453A-FCAT Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
7.2 MCX454A-FCAT Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
7.3 MCX455A-FCAT Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
7.4 MCX456A-FCAT Specifications. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
7.5 MCX455A-ECAT Specifications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
7.6 MCX456A-ECAT 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 Drawings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Appendix A Interface Connectors Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
A.1 QSFP28 Connector Pinout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
A.2 PCI Express x8 or x16 Edge Connector Pinout. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Appendix B Finding the GUID/MAC and Serial Number on the Adapter Card 70
Appendix C Safety Warnings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Appendix D Avertissements de sécurité d’installation (Warnings in French) 75
Appendix E Advertencias de seguridad para la instalación (Warnings in Spanish) 77
Appendix F Avertissements de sécurité d’installation (Warnings in French) 79

Rev 2.4 6Mellanox Technologies
List of Tables
Table 1: Revision History Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
Table 2: Documents List. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
Table 3: Single and Dual-port FDR Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Table 4: Single and Dual-port EDR Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .13
Table 5: Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
Table 6: Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Table 7: Hardware and Software Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Table 8: MCX453A-FCAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Table 9: MCX454A-FCAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Table 10: MCX455A-FCAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Table 11: MCX456A-FCAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Table 12: MCX455A-ECAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Table 13: MCX456A-ECAT Specifications Table . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Table 14: Physical and Logical Link Indications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61

Rev 2.4 7Mellanox Technologies
List of Figures
Figure 1: PCI Device . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Figure 2: Installation Results (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
Figure 3: Mechanical Drawing of the Single-port x8 Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Figure 4: Mechanical Drawing of the Dual-port x8 Adapter Cards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Figure 5: Mechanical Drawing of the Single-port x16 Adapter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 6: Mechanical Drawing of the Dual-port x16 Adapter Card . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Figure 7: Single-port Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Figure 8: Dual-port Bracket . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Figure 9: Connector and Cage Views . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Figure 10: PCIe x8 Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Figure 11: PCIe x16 Connector Pinout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Figure 12: MCX453A-FCAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Figure 13: MCX454A-FCAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 70
Figure 14: MCX455A-FCAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Figure 15: MCX456A-FCAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Figure 16: MCX455A-ECAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Figure 17: MCX456A-ECAT Board Label (Example) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72

Rev 2.4 8Mellanox Technologies
Revision History
This document was printed on March 28, 2017.
Table 1 - Revision History Table
Date Rev Comments/Changes
December 2016 2.0 • Added Section 4.2, “Windows Driver,” on page 38
September 2016 1.9 • Updated Card Installation Instructions on page 18.
• Added Adapter Card Un-installation Instructions on page 21.
• Updated Troubleshooting on page 53.
August 2016 1.8 • Updated Card Installation Instructions on page 18
• Updated Cable Installation on page 20.
• Updated Airflow Specifications Airflow Specifications on page 62.
• Added the following figures:
• Mechanical Drawing of the Single-port x8 Adapter Cards on page 63.
• Mechanical Drawing of the Dual-port x8 Adapter Cards on page 63.
• Mechanical Drawing of the Single-port x16 Adapter Card on page 64.
• Updated Safety Warnings on page 78.
April 2016 1.7 • Updated Cable Installation on page 20.
• Updated Airflow Specifications Airflow Specifications on page 62.
March 2016 1.6 • Removed I2C-compatible Interface from Interfaces on page 17
February 2016 1.5 • Updated speed specifications in the following sections:
• Product Overview on page 12.
• Features on page 14.
• MCX453A-FCAT Specifications on page 56.
• MCX454A-FCAT Specifications on page 57.
• MCX455A-FCAT Specifications on page 58.
• MCX456A-FCAT Specifications on page 59.
• MCX455A-ECAT Specifications on page 60.
• MCX456A-ECAT Specifications on page 61.

Rev 2.4 9Mellanox Technologies
February 2016 1.4 • Added 56GbE support to the following sections:
• Product Overview on page 12.
• OpenFabrics Windows Distribution (WinOF-2) on page 15.
• MCX453A-FCAT Specifications on page 56.
• MCX454A-FCAT Specifications on page 57.
• MCX455A-FCAT Specifications on page 58.
• MCX456A-FCAT Specifications on page 59.
• Updating Adapter Card Firmware on page 52.
• Updated Installing the New Bracket on page 18.
• Removed Windows from Operating Systems/Distributions on page 15.
• Removed VMware from the following sections:
• Operating Systems/Distributions on page 15.
• on page 51.
• Updated Software Stacks on page 17.
• Updated Linux Driver on page 24.
•Added a note to Finding the GUID/MAC and Serial Number on the Adapter
Card on page 72.
• Updated the following Board Labels:
• MCX453A-FCAT Board Label (Example) on page 72.
• MCX454A-FCAT Board Label (Example) on page 72.
• MCX455A-FCAT Board Label (Example) on page 73.
• MCX456A-FCAT Board Label (Example) on page 73.
December 2015 1.3 • Added port numbers to the specification tables. See Specifications on page
56.
• Updated MCX456A-ECAT Specifications on page 61.
December 2015 1.2 • Updated the following tables:
• MCX416A-CCAT Specifications on page 96.
• MCX454A-FCAT Specifications on page 57.
• MCX455A-FCAT Specifications on page 58.
• MCX456A-FCAT Specifications on page 59.
• MCX455A-ECAT Specifications on page 60.
• MCX456A-ECAT Specifications on page 61.
• Updated on page 13.
• Updated Section 3.8.1, “On Windows,” on page 22.
November 2015 1.1 • Updated power numbers in:
• MCX453A-FCAT Specifications on page 56.
• MCX454A-FCAT Specifications on page 57.
• MCX455A-FCAT Specifications on page 58.
• MCX456A-FCAT Specifications on page 59.
• Added Airflow Specifications Airflow Specifications on page 62.
• Added VMware Driver.
• Updated Updating Adapter Card Firmware on page 52.
June 2015 1.0 First Release
Table 1 - Revision History Table
Date Rev Comments/Changes

Rev 2.4 10Mellanox Technologies
About this Manual
This User Manual describes Mellanox Technologies ConnectX®-4 Single and Dual QSFP28
port PCI Express x16 adapter cards. The User Manual provides details as to the interfaces of the
adapter card, specifications, required software and firmware for operating the adapter card, and
relevant documentation.
Intended Audience
This manual is intended for the installer and user of these cards.
The manual assumes basic familiarity with InfiniBand® and Ethernet network architecture spec-
ifications.
Related Documentations
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 => 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
=> Firmware Tools => mlxup Firmware Utility
Mellanox OFED for Linux
User Manual
Document no. 2877
User Manual describing OFED features, performance, InfiniBand
diagnostic, tools content and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Infini-
Band/VPI drivers => Mellanox OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribu-
tion for Linux (MLNX_OFED)
Mellanox OFED for Linux Release Notes Release Notes for Mellanox OFED for Linux driver kit for Mella-
nox adapter cards:
See: http://www.mellanox.com =>Products => Software => Infini-
Band/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, Ethernet
diagnostic, tools content and configuration.
See http://www.mellanox.com => Products => Software => Infini-
Band/VPI drivers => 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 => Infini-
Band/VPI drivers => Windows SW/Drivers
IBTA Specification Release 1.3 InfiniBand Architecture Specification:
http://www.infinibandta.org/content/pages.php?pg=technology_-
public_specification
IEEE Std 802.3 Specification This is the IEEE Ethernet specification
http://standards.ieee.org/getieee802

Rev 2.4 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.
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]om
• 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/.
PCI Express 3.0 Specifications Industry Standard PCI Express 3.0 Base and Card Electromechan-
ical Specifications
https://pcisig.com/specifications
Table 2 - Documents List

Introduction
Rev 2.4 12Mellanox Technologies
1 Introduction
This is the User Guide for Mellanox Technologies VPI adapter cards based on the ConnectX®-4
integrated circuit device. These adapters connectivity provide the highest performing 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, “Features and Benefits,” on page 14
•Section 1.3, “Operating Systems/Distributions,” on page 15
•Section 1.4, “Connectivity,” on page 15
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 FDR Adapter Cards
Ordering Part Number (OPN) MCX453A-FCAT/ MCX455A-FCAT – Single-port card
MCX454A-FCAT/ MCX456A-FCAT– Dual-port card
Data Transmission Rate InfiniBand: SDR/DDR/QDR/FDR
Ethernet: 1/10/25/40/56 Gb/s
Network Connector Types Single or dual-port QSFP2
PCI Express (PCIe) SerDes Speed MCX453A-FCAT/MCX454A-FCAT: PCIe 3.0 x8 8GT/s
MCX456A-FCAT/MCX455A-FCAT: PCIe 3.0 x16 8GT/s
RoHS R6
Adapter IC Part Number MT27704A0-FDCF-FV
MT27708A0-FDCF-FV
Device ID 4115 for Physical Function (PF)
4116 for Virtual Function (VF)

Introduction
Rev 2.4 13Mellanox Technologies
Table 4 - Single and Dual-port EDR Adapter Cards
Ordering Part Number (OPN) MCX455A-ECAT – Single-port card
MCX456A-ECAT – Dual-port card
Data Transmission Rate InfiniBand: SDR/DDR/QDR/FDR/EDR
Ethernet: 1/10/25/40/50/100 Gb/s
Network Connector Types Single or Dual-port QSFP28
PCI Express (PCIe) SerDes Speed PCIe 3.0 x16 8GT/s
RoHS R6
Adapter IC Part Number MT27704A0-FDCF-EV
MT27708A0-FDCF-EV
Device ID 4115 for Physical Function (PF)
4116 for Virtual Function (VF)

Introduction
Rev 2.4 14Mellanox Technologies
1.2 Features and Benefits
Table 5 - Featuresa
100Gb/s Virtual Protocol
Interconnect (VPI)
Adapter
ConnectX-4 offers the highest throughput VPI adapter, supporting EDR 100Gb/s
InfiniBand and 100Gb/s Ethernet and enabling any standard networking, cluster-
ing, or storage to operate seamlessly over any converged network leveraging a
consolidated software stack.
InfiniBand Architecture
Specification v1.3
compliant
ConnectX-4 delivers low latency, high bandwidth, and computing efficiency for
performance-driven server and storage clustering applications. ConnectX-4 is
InfiniBand Architecture Specification v1.3 compliant.
PCI Express (PCIe)
Uses PCIe Gen 3.0 (1.1 and 2.0 compatible) through an x8 or x16 edge connector
up to 8GT/s
Up to 100 Gigabit
Ethernet
Mellanox adapters comply with the following IEEE 802.3 standards:
– 100GbE / 50GbE / 40GbE / 25GbE / 10GbE
– IEEE 802.3bj, 802.3bm 100 Gigabit Ethernet
– 25G Ethernet Consortium 25,50 Gigabit Ethernet
– IEEE 802.3ba 40 Gigabit Ethernet
– 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 KRstartup
– 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 accessesInfiniBand and/or Ethernet fabric connection
information and packet data.
SPI - includes one 16MB SPI Flash device (M25PX16-VMN6P device by ST
Microelectronics) .
EEPROM capacity is 128Kb.
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 effectively addresses this by
providing advanced NVGRE and VXLAN hardware offloading engines that
encapsulate and decapsulate the overlay protocol.

Introduction
Rev 2.4 15Mellanox Technologies
1.3 Operating Systems/Distributions
• RHEL/CentOS
•Windows
• FreeBSD
• OpenFabrics Enterprise Distribution (OFED)
• OpenFabrics Windows Distribution (WinOF-2)
1.4 Connectivity
• Interoperable with EDR InfiniBand or 1/10/25/40/50/100 Gb/s Ethernet switches
• Passive copper cable with ESD protection
• Powered connectors for optical and active cable support
RDMA and RDMA over
Converged Ethernet
(RoCE)
ConnectX-4, utilizing IBTA RDMA (Remote Data Memory Access) and RoCE
(RDMA over Converged Ethernet) technology, delivers low-latency and high-
performance over InfiniBand and Ethernet networks. Leveraging data center
bridging (DCB) capabilities as well as ConnectX-4 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 advanced acceleration technology enables higher cluster effi-
ciency 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.
Hardware-based I/O
Virtualization
ConnectX-4 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 stor-
age access.
SR-IOV ConnectX-4 SR-IOV technology provides dedicated adapter resources and
guaranteed isolation and protection for virtual machines (VM) within the server.
a. This section describes hardware features and capabilities. Please refer to the driver release notes for feature availability. See
Table 2, “Documents List,” on page 10.
Table 5 - Featuresa

Interfaces
Rev 2.4 16Mellanox Technologies
2 Interfaces
Each adapter card includes the following interfaces:
• “InfiniBand Interface”
• “Ethernet QSFP28 Interface”
• “PCI Express Interface”
• “LED Interface”
The adapter cards include special circuits to protect from ESD shocks to the card/server when
plugging copper cables.
2.1 InfiniBand Interface
The network ports of the ConnectX®-4 adapter cards are compliant with the InfiniBand Architec-
ture Specification, Release 1.3. InfiniBand traffic is transmitted through the cards' QSFP28 connec-
tors.
2.2 Ethernet QSFP28 Interface
The network ports of the ConnectX®-4 adapter card are compliant with the IEEE 802.3 Ethernet
standards listed in Table 5, “Features,” on page 14. Ethernet traffic is transmitted through the
cards' QSFP28 connectors.
2.3 PCI Express Interface
The ConnectX®-4 adapter card supports PCI Express 3.0 (1.1 and 2.0 compatible) through an x8
or x16 edge connector. The device can be either a master initiating the PCI Express bus opera-
tions, 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 8.0 GT/s link rate x8/x16
• Auto-negotiates to x16, x8, x4, x2, or x1
• Support for MSI/MSI-X mechanisms
2.4 LED Interface
There is a 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 2.4 17Mellanox Technologies
3 Hardware Installation
3.1 System Requirements
3.1.1 Hardware
A system with a PCI Express x8 or x16 slot is required for installing the card.
3.1.2 Operating Systems/Distributions
Please refer to Section 1.3, “Operating Systems/Distributions,” on page 15.
3.1.3 Software Stacks
Mellanox OpenFabric software package MLNX_OFED for Linux, and WinOF -2 for Windows.
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.
3.4 Bracket Installation Instructions
The adapter 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, “Card
Installation Instructions,” on page 18. If you need to replace it with the short bracket that is
included in the shipping box, please follow the instructions in this section.
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 2.4 18Mellanox Technologies
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.
2. Save the two screws.
3.4.2 Installing the New Bracket
1. Place the bracket onto the adapter 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 are aligned onto the bracket holes. Use a torque driver to apply up to
2.9 lbf-in torque on the screws.
3.5 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.
Please avoid damaging the LEDs with a screwdriver.
Do not force the bracket onto the adapter card as to not damage the EMI fingers on the
cages.
Please note that the following figures are for illustration purposes only.

Hardware Installation
Rev 2.4 19Mellanox Technologies
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.
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 2.4 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.
b. Determine the correct orientation of the connector to the adapter 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.
Do not use excessive force when seating the card, as this may damage the system or
the adapter.