40gb nic split to 4 10G port ?dream come to true ?

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Patrick

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Dec 21, 2010
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Double-check me on this. I think newer firmware versions of the XL710-QDA1/2 cards can split to 4x 10GbE. I remember that this was not a launch feature, but something that was added after the silicon re-spin time on them. Again, double-check before you proceed but it may be an option.
 

Freebsd1976

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Feb 23, 2018
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Double-check me on this. I think newer firmware versions of the XL710-QDA1/2 cards can split to 4x 10GbE. I remember that this was not a launch feature, but something that was added after the silicon re-spin time on them. Again, double-check before you proceed but it may be an option.
yes ,I read doc about this , but in their specs not mention split
 

Freebsd1976

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Feb 23, 2018
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So is there a single "all in one" cable?
since my nic not arrive , but I guess it can use one qsfp28 ---4 sfp28 cable to connect max 4 other 25gbe nic or use one qsfp->>sfp adapter + one sfp28 cable to connect one other 25gbe nic.
the first use as 4 port nic , the second only use 1 port like normal nic .
 

BoredSysadmin

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Mar 2, 2019
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There are card that won't work on consumer workstation boards, ie. My Intel P3700/HGST SN260 won't post on my asus and gigabyte boards, but they work fine on SM boards. Some sas hbas, nics won't work on consumer boards if they use smbus for management.
Not too hard to work around this little issue. I've had the same issue with my 10g nice.
 
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Apr 21, 2016
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Hello,
I also have a pair of 620qsfp28 adapters from hpe. I can't update the firmware to the stock qlogic one - I've only managed to advance a few versions with binaries from HP. Is there a way to crossflash/force flash ?

The reason I ask and the pain is giving me is that it doesn't seem to have an option to switch the port mode to 1x100 or 1x40. Bios option is disabled and the cli tool gives an error.

I could really use some help. I'd like to avoid the "mellanox months" of 6 years ago - building and testing and flashing firmware versions ...
 

Freebsd1976

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Feb 23, 2018
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@Gabriel Mateiciuc @up3up4
did you found and flash newer version firmware HPE or qlogic ?
1 HPE site the lastest veriosn support 620qsfp is ql_hp_bb_mbi_8.35.09.bin ( in cp033845.exe ,unpack it read payload.json ) .
2 payload.json in later version no 620qsfp support but some later version still newer ql_hp_bb_mbi_45.22.bin (cp038110.exe) .
3 HPE Synergy firmware also have newest version ql_hp_bb_mbi_8.50.44.bin (cp045001.exe) .
4 Qlogic website have newest ql_bb_mbi_8.52.14.bin
so the the question is could we flash these new version to 620qsfp ? HPE version or QLogic version.
firmware version matters, beacasue want run it on esxi 7.0 , vmware have native driver of 620qsfp ,but require firmware 8.52,
 
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Freebsd1976

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Feb 23, 2018
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answer myself quesiton , try on windows server 2019
1 can't upgrade to qlogic firmware ql_bb_mbi_8.52.14.bin
2 upgrade HPE Synergy firmware ql_hp_bb_mbi_8.50.44.bin ,
which newer than lastest veriosn support 620qsfp is ql_hp_bb_mbi_8.35.09.bin

there are a recover mode , but I do'nt try it , fear it will brick the card
 
Apr 21, 2016
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answer myself quesiton , try on windows server 2019
1 can't upgrade to qlogic firmware ql_bb_mbi_8.52.14.bin
2 upgrade HPE Synergy firmware ql_hp_bb_mbi_8.50.44.bin ,
which newer than lastest veriosn support 620qsfp is ql_hp_bb_mbi_8.35.09.bin

there are a recover mode , but I do'nt try it , fear it will brick the card
Pretty much as I stand. I've had to put a hold on this project for a bit (production is on mellanox cx3pro).
Can you detail the recovery option ? I'm willing to give it a go. PM me if you feel uncomfortable to post in the open :)

LE: for me, what I'm trying to achieve is make the port 1x40 or 1x100. It's split now and I don't have any spf25 ports to test.
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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@
LE: for me, what I'm trying to achieve is make the port 1x40 or 1x100. It's split now and I don't have any spf25 ports to test.
According to "User’s Guide Converged Network Adapters and Intelligent Ethernet Adapters FastLinQ 45000 Series ", only ql45611 support split100G to 4x25G and QL454xxHLCU or QL45412HLCU Support 40g to 4x10G.
620qsfp28 is ql45214 , it may be not support port combine.

about the recovery option , run winfwnx2.exe , in the console input "cfg -help " ,there are a recovery optime ,but I don't try it.
 
Apr 21, 2016
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@

According to "User’s Guide Converged Network Adapters and Intelligent Ethernet Adapters FastLinQ 45000 Series ", only ql45611 support split100G to 4x25G and QL454xxHLCU or QL45412HLCU Support 40g to 4x10G.
620qsfp28 is ql45214 , it may be not support port combine.

about the recovery option , run winfwnx2.exe , in the console input "cfg -help " ,there are a recovery optime ,but I don't try it.
Well, to add to this topic. I've managed to update to the latest version available in the "synergy" package from hpe - 8.50.44
I've yet to make more tests under linux, but, so far, it's still locked at 4x25G.
 

Freebsd1976

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Feb 23, 2018
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today when update new hp firmware , I found update program will extract mbi firmware to 4 different bins(HW_INIT MBA MFW PLDM), extract those part from qlogic 8.52.18 , there is result :
HW_INIT from HP and qlogic is same
MFW basically same , but qlogic is 4 byte (00 00 00 00) larger than HP
MBA and PLDM part is different.

so the question is could we upgrade MBA and PLDM use qlogic's firmware? for 10/25G speed , HP only support 25G

and another question what is PLDM part ?

edit :
this is how to extract bins form mbi , red line is start postion in file ,and blue line is bin length.
 

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Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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today when update new hp firmware , I found update program will extract mbi firmware to 4 different bins(HW_INIT MBA MFW PLDM), extract those part from qlogic 8.52.18 , there is result :
HW_INIT from HP and qlogic is same
MFW basically same , but qlogic is 4 byte (00 00 00 00) larger than HP
MBA and PLDM part is different.

so the question is could we upgrade MBA and PLDM use qlogic's firmware? for 10/25G speed , HP only support 25G

and another question what is PLDM part ?

edit :
this is how to extract bins form mbi , red line is start postion in file ,and blue line is bin length.
good news is Upgrade success use extracted bins form qlogic, bad news is still no 10g option only autoneg and 25g, but at least we can upgrade firmware use qlogic.
 
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up3up4

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Jun 10, 2018
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I upgraded 40g ql45412 will extract HW_INIT MBA MFW and META, no PLDM.bin file. Upgraded the 620qsfp28 with MFW.bin from qlogic 8.52.18 but no surprises, the port still locked at 25g.
 

Freebsd1976

Active Member
Feb 23, 2018
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I upgraded 40g ql45412 will extract HW_INIT MBA MFW and META, no PLDM.bin file. Upgraded the 620qsfp28 with MFW.bin from qlogic 8.52.18 but no surprises, the port still locked at 25g.
HW_INIT meta are same , no need to flash , maybe defaultcfg and nvmcfg is different .
need lenovo or qlogic 45214 card( don't have them) running on machine to dump defaultcfg and nvmcfg , and compare those cfg .
 

Freebsd1976

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Feb 23, 2018
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I think solve the puzzle one more step for 10/25G , in winfwnx2.exe there is a hidden command _cfg it can set some nvm cfg.
and [Internet] Bypassing the HH3K up to 2.5Gbps using a BCM57810S NIC - Bell Canada | DSLReports Forums part 7 has some hint for set speed mask and port speed
Code:
device 1
nvm cfg
6
35=70
36=70
56=6
59=6
save
exit

For context, the mask value of 35/36=70 means 1G, 2.5G, and 10G or 0x10 | 0x20 | 0x40 = 0x70, while 56/59=6 defaults the link speed to 2.5G rather than 10G.
also ,in 620qsfp28 meta file ,
Code:
array set bfLink_Speed {1 {1G} 2 {10G} 4 {20G} 8 {25G} 16 {40G} 32 {50G} 64 {BB_100G} }
array set Link_Speed {0 {Autoneg} 1 {1G} 2 {10G} 3 {20G} 4 {25G} 5 {40G} 6 {50G} 7 {BB_100G} }
27,name "Drv Speed capability mask" 27,entity_name "port" 27,offset 160 27,size 16 27,elementSize 0 27,listType bitfield 27,allowedList bfLink_Speed 27,configType hw\
29,name "Drv Link speed" 29,entity_name "port" 29,offset 192 29,size 4 29,elementSize 0 29,listType enum 29,allowedList Link_Speed 29,configType user\
maybe we can enter _cfg mode ,and set bfLink_Speed and Drv Link speed use their method?
but now need know how to calculate mask value which still don't konw , I dump ncfg (three of them) ,use winhex in position 160 which value is 3C or 3D ,so can't understand why it is this value ?
1617372754387.png
could anyone give some advise for speed mask and port speed ?
 
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Layla

Game Engine Developer
Jun 21, 2016
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I think solve the puzzle one more step for 10/25G , in winfwnx2.exe there is a hidden command _cfg it can set some nvm cfg.
and [Internet] Bypassing the HH3K up to 2.5Gbps using a BCM57810S NIC - Bell Canada | DSLReports Forums part 7 has some hint for set speed mask and port speed
Code:
device 1
nvm cfg
6
35=70
36=70
56=6
59=6
save
exit

For context, the mask value of 35/36=70 means 1G, 2.5G, and 10G or 0x10 | 0x20 | 0x40 = 0x70, while 56/59=6 defaults the link speed to 2.5G rather than 10G.
also ,in 620qsfp28 meta file ,
Code:
array set bfLink_Speed {1 {1G} 2 {10G} 4 {20G} 8 {25G} 16 {40G} 32 {50G} 64 {BB_100G} }
array set Link_Speed {0 {Autoneg} 1 {1G} 2 {10G} 3 {20G} 4 {25G} 5 {40G} 6 {50G} 7 {BB_100G} }
27,name "Drv Speed capability mask" 27,entity_name "port" 27,offset 160 27,size 16 27,elementSize 0 27,listType bitfield 27,allowedList bfLink_Speed 27,configType hw\
29,name "Drv Link speed" 29,entity_name "port" 29,offset 192 29,size 4 29,elementSize 0 29,listType enum 29,allowedList Link_Speed 29,configType user\
maybe we can enter _cfg mode ,and set bfLink_Speed and Drv Link speed use their method?
but now need know how to calculate mask value which still don't konw , I dump ncfg (three of them) ,use winhex in position 160 which value is 3C or 3D ,so can't understand why it is this value ?
View attachment 18147
could anyone give some advise for speed mask and port speed ?
I suspect all of these with a QSFP28 port are the exact same physical hardware card, so cross-flashing should work if it is permitted (like it is in Mellanox firmware tools). I wouldn't be too shy about just literally grabbing 100% of the 100G firmware and flashing that without double-checking first. But, if you want me to double-check, I'll try to find some time later this week -- I have both the HP 620QSFP and the native QLogic QL45000 card, so I should be able to dump the firmware of both.