FreeNAS QSFP NIC

[AJXCR]

I'm about to select an NIC for a FreeNAS build and was hoping some of the networking experts on here could shed some light on a few potential options. NIC QSFP port will be connected to 4x aggregated SFP ports on a Gnodal GS7200 switch. The options are:
-Intel AX2P40FRTIOM which is based on the XL710-QDA2 and uses the proprietary I/O port on my S2600WT mb.
-Chelsio T580-LP-CR
-Chelsio T580-CR

I've read that the T580-LP-CR is the preferred FreeNAS compatible NIC, but it would be awfully convenient to save the extra PCIe slot by way of the Intel I/O module card. Would this be a bad call?

Can anyone expand on the differences between the T580-LP-CR and the T580-CR?

Thanks!

 

[Patrick]

@AJXCR - LP is low profile.

The T580-SO-CR is lower concurrent connections and usually less expensive. Likely fine for your use case.

I have the single port XL710 AIC in one of my machines simply because of how inexpensively I got it.

 

[AJXCR]

@AJXCR - LP is low profile.

The T580-SO-CR is lower concurrent connections and usually less expensive. Likely fine for your use case.

I have the single port XL710 AIC in one of my machines simply because of how inexpensively I got it.

Patrick,
Thanks for the response. Have you run the XL710 with FreeNAS? 40G FreNAS information seems to be pretty sparse. I noticed the STH hardware guide recommended the T580-LP-CR as the top choice.. what is it that makes the Chelsio NIC's so attractive? Simply FreeNAS driver support? Performance? With the right buy the difference between an LP-CR and -CR appears to be only $200 or so.

Unfortunately networking, particularly fiber, is not my strong suit.. I can (and have) stumbled my way through it in the past, but it's not very graceful.

Does anyone have any general "get up to speed" reading material they've found to be particularly informative?

Any thoughts on the T6 Series Chelsio NIC's?

 

[Patrick]

T6 is newer and I believe supports 25/50/100GbE.

The Chelsio bit is that they have very good support for the FreeBSD community. Issues get fixed faster so that is why you see pfSense and FreeNAS recommend their NICs.

I have run the XL710 with FreeNAS. Good enough for FreeNAS.

At 40GbE if you want speed, FreeNAS is not the answer. As I understand, FreeNAS still runs into a 40GbE wall. 10GbE it is fine but there are performance challenges at 40GbE.

Use DACs for networking if you can at 40GbE and save some money.

 

[AJXCR]

T6 is newer and I believe supports 25/50/100GbE.

The Chelsio bit is that they have very good support for the FreeBSD community. Issues get fixed faster so that is why you see pfSense and FreeNAS recommend their NICs.

I have run the XL710 with FreeNAS. Good enough for FreeNAS.

At 40GbE if you want speed, FreeNAS is not the answer. As I understand, FreeNAS still runs into a 40GbE wall. 10GbE it is fine but there are performance challenges at 40GbE.

Use DACs for networking if you can at 40GbE and save some money.

If FreeNAS is not the answer, what is? It looked like you guys were running a high end flash 40Gbps (testing the XL710 vs T580) setup here:

Building new DemoEval Lab Storage with FreeNAS

Is there a follow up to this article? Did you have any problems/test results?

 

[CookiesLikeWhoa]

I am equally curious as well since I'm working to build a 40GbE FreeNAS using a supermicro NVMe system.

 

[nephri]

Me too, which are alternatives to FreeNas for 40Gb/s storage plateform ?

I would admit that my current plateform using T580 with FreeNas didn't saturate the 40Gb/s but is easily more than 10Gbs/s
Actually, i'm using arrays (stripping+mirror) of Intel SSD S3710.

But what we can expect with NVMe drive like Intel 750 series or Intel P3700 series ?

 

[AJXCR]

Me too, which are alternatives to FreeNas for 40Gb/s storage plateform ?

I would admit that my current plateform using T580 with FreeNas didn't saturate the 40Gb/s but is easily more than 10Gbs/s
Actually, i'm using arrays (stripping+mirror) of Intel SSD S3710.

But what we can expect with NVMe drive like Intel 750 series or Intel P3700 series ?

I'm hoping to have an all NVMe FreeNAS box up and running within the next 7 days.. Will report back.