Dell Chelsio T520-CR equipment compatibility

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pwr94

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Aug 31, 2022
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Well I have a Dell Chelsio T520-CR and a Dell PowerEdge R320 server but they don't seem to be compatible as my server freezes while loading firmware.

What equipment could I use to use the Chelsio? I am using FreeBSD.

Any normal PC would work? although I would like some more professional equipment.

Greetings to the community
 

blinkenlights

Active Member
May 24, 2019
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Well I have a Dell Chelsio T520-CR and a Dell PowerEdge R320 server but they don't seem to be compatible as my server freezes while loading firmware.

What equipment could I use to use the Chelsio? I am using FreeBSD.

Any normal PC would work? although I would like some more professional equipment.

Greetings to the community
Hmm. I have successfully used T520-CRs in mainboards from ASUS and Supermicro for the past 2-3 Intel CPU generations, minimal (if any) tweaks to the configuration... mainly for optimization, not compatibility.

At your own risk, I would try them in a different system and update the firmware to the latest from Chelsio (Chelsio Download Center.Software Downloads (Driver, Firmware, Option ROM, etc,.) for Network, iSCSI, FCoE, iWARP, Boot, WD-UDP, TOE) or the FreeBSD source tree (firmware « cxgbe « dev « sys - src - FreeBSD source tree). I always use whatever they upload for FreeBSD, as that is what most of my servers are running.
 
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pwr94

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Aug 31, 2022
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Thanks for the information.

If I can't find a compatible rack server, I'll look for a PC with the main boards you told me about.

But I would like to be able to find a rack server that is compatible with my Chelsio, that's my idea.

It is what frustrates me, how is it possible that components like the Chelsio card are not compatible with Servers like my Dell? If you want to enable an interface for fiber optic connections, you can't...

I understand that it is a storage server, and somewhat outdated, since it is the one I use to study and perform tests, but it does not support this type of hardware, it frustrates me....
 

blinkenlights

Active Member
May 24, 2019
157
65
28
Thanks for the information.

If I can't find a compatible rack server, I'll look for a PC with the main boards you told me about.

But I would like to be able to find a rack server that is compatible with my Chelsio, that's my idea.

It is what frustrates me, how is it possible that components like the Chelsio card are not compatible with Servers like my Dell? If you want to enable an interface for fiber optic connections, you can't...

I understand that it is a storage server, and somewhat outdated, since it is the one I use to study and perform tests, but it does not support this type of hardware, it frustrates me....
Based on what you were saying, the firmware could have a bug that is causing it to freeze when loading. I would use the DOS utility (it works fine under FreeDOS) to flash a recent firmware and try to boot again in the Dell. You could do all of this with your Dell server, but if there really is a hardware issue, you do not want to have it lock up halfway through a firmware flash - that is why I suggest trying a different system. Might be worthwhile making sure your Dell server's BIOS/firmware is up to date as well.
 
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pwr94

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Aug 31, 2022
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Well I will try to update the server bios, since from what I see it is very outdated.

I have version 1.2.4, I think the most recent if I'm not mistaken is 2.9.0 and idrac 2.65.65.65. I guess that's all I need to update? at least to try to solve this problem, right?

I will also reset the Chelsio to factory settings. Yes, I don't dare to update the Chelsio firmware, due to the compatibility problems I'm having.

Thanks.
 

pwr94

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Aug 31, 2022
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I am trying to update the Bios and idrac. I managed to update the bios to the most recent version 2.9.0

But I am unable to update idrac, it is at version 1.23.23.

With F11 I enter LIFECYCLE CONTROLLER and from there I go to the Firmware Update section, I select LocalDrive since I have it on a USB.

You can see how it detects my USB, but it does not detect any catalog, how am I supposed to update the idrac?

I have many formats, "exe, sign, EXE, BIN" but what is that catalog?

What would be the method to update idrac from usb as I did with the BIOS?

I hope that this solves the problem, on the other hand I was able to see the idrac log, here I report the error that I have when I connect the chelsio card.



Message ID: PCI320 Description: A bus fatal error was detected on a component at bus 0 device 28 function 0

Message ID: PCI320 Description: A bus fatal error was detected on a component at bus 0 device 10 function 0

Thanks.
 

pwr94

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Aug 31, 2022
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I found an HP ProLiant ML110 G5to do the test , I think it might work.

It has PCI-E x8 for my chelsio, these are the specs, and the mainboard:

MainBoard

Specs

What do you think? The board looks more "Generic" could it work with the Chelsio T520-CR?

Thanks.
 

pwr94

New Member
Aug 31, 2022
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Apparently, according to this paper by Chelsio, my NIC is only compatible for the following models:


Chelsio paper

Dell T5600
DELL PowerEdge 2950
DELL PowerEdge T110
DELL PowerEdge T710
DELL PowerEdge R220
DELL PowerEdge R720
IBM X3650 M2
IBM X3650 M4*
HP Proliant DL180 gen9
HP ProLiant DL385G2
Supermicro X7DWE
Supermicro X8DTE-F
Supermicro X8STE
Supermicro X8DT6
Supermicro X9SRL-F
Supermicro X9SRE-3F
Supermicro-X10DRi
ASUS P5KPL
ASUS P8Z68
Lenovo X3650 M5
Intel DQ57TM



But as said above, how is it possible to search for Chelsio drivers on a PowerEdge r220 and find nothing?

So there is no solution then? do I have to use one of the listed servers?



Thanks.