Intel X540-T2 bs X550-T2 in Synology

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brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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I'm looking to add a 10G NIC to a Synology 1817+, which has a PCIe slot to do what I need. I was looking toward the X550-T2 due to lower power consumption, but I see that only the X540-T2 is on the Synology HCL.

Does anyone have experience that would lead to believe the X550-T2 would likely work but simply be untested? I have a hard time believing the unit,would have driver support for one but not the other.

Argh, title should say vs not bs.. mobile typo, sorry.
 

brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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I haven't learned much so far, but a little. Guess I'll reply to myself.

Synology got back to me and said that though the X540-T2 is the only 10G RJ45 NIC that they've tested, others may work. In addition, if I'd like to grab something else, they will support me in trying to get it working. I only focused on the X550-T2 because I think it's highly likely the driver situation is good, and it should run cooler than the X540-T2 they tested.

In addition, I'm curious about the Asus products that are available now, and I grabbed one for testing. I'll need one for my workstation anyways.

I'm also chasing a response from Synology regarding the newer, but less capable (in some ways) 1817. I would like to identify the 10G controller that they are using in this model, since obviously the drivers would be a slam dunk. Perhaps another PCIE NIC can be identified that will work based on this information.
 
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Rand__

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Since you usually have root access to Synology's you should be able to provide the necessary driver if its not working... Worst case you'd have to compile it but I wouldn't think so.
 
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brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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It's been years since I spent time with Linux, so my concern would be that I wouldn't possess the ability to do so. I appreciate the information though, and I'll look around for some examples of this.

I spend a lot of time using Solaris at work, so I'm not totally obtuse.. but it doesn't generally involve adding driver support since that's on a closed Oracle system.
 

Rand__

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Tons of guides for regular linux available.
Just need to adapt and maybe setup Syno specific environment - or maybe you can get one from XPEnology or so, they might have wider HW support since they do whiteboxes
 
Take a look at dmesg if you can, it will show you which version of the driver you are using.

$ dmesg | grep Intel

ixgbe: Intel(R) 10 Gigabit PCI Express Network Driver - version 4.4.0-k-rh7.3

Then go to Intel's driver download website. It looks like version 4.0 (date 5/12/2015) was the first release that supported x550:

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/24941/eng/readmeixgbe.txt

It also looks like there are some features new to x550, notibly the speeds 2.5, 5.0gb in addition to 10gb, and also the absense of low latency options as driver parameters.

I haven't learned much so far, but a little. Guess I'll reply to myself.

Synology got back to me and said that though the X540-T2 is the only 10G RJ45 NIC that they've tested, others may work. In addition, if I'd like to grab something else, they will support me in trying to get it working. I only focused on the X550-T2 because I think it's highly likely the driver situation is good, and it should run cooler than the X540-T2 they tested.

In addition, I'm curious about the Asus products that are available now, and I grabbed one for testing. I'll need one for my workstation anyways.

I'm also chasing a response from Synology regarding the newer, but less capable (in some ways) 1817. I would like to identify the 10G controller that they are using in this model, since obviously the drivers would be a slam dunk. Perhaps another PCIE NIC can be identified that will work based on this information.
 
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brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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Take a look at dmesg if you can, it will show you which version of the driver you are using.

$ dmesg | grep Intel

ixgbe: Intel(R) 10 Gigabit PCI Express Network Driver - version 4.4.0-k-rh7.3

Then go to Intel's driver download website. It looks like version 4.0 (date 5/12/2015) was the first release that supported x550:

https://downloadmirror.intel.com/24941/eng/readmeixgbe.txt

It also looks like there are some features new to x550, notibly the speeds 2.5, 5.0gb in addition to 10gb, and also the absense of low latency options as driver parameters.
This was beyond helpful, thanks.
 

Matt Lund

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Oct 20, 2016
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I'm really interested in your ASUS $99 NIC testing. Can you let us know what you observe with it?
 

brentsg

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I'm really interested in your ASUS $99 NIC testing. Can you let us know what you observe with it?
I will try. I need a NIC for my workstation and a NIC for the NAS, so I've ordered both the ASUS and the X550-T2. I'm confident that the Intel NIC will work, but I will have to gauge my comfort level with trying to add drivers for the ASUS.
 

lucidrenegade

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Dec 12, 2011
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I'm also chasing a response from Synology regarding the newer, but less capable (in some ways) 1817. I would like to identify the 10G controller that they are using in this model, since obviously the drivers would be a slam dunk. Perhaps another PCIE NIC can be identified that will work based on this information.
The DS1817 is powered by the Annapurna Labs Alpine AL-314 ARM SoC, so I would bet they are using the 10Gb built into the chip.
 

brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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My mind is a little bit blown that native 10G is already rolled into that ARM SoC. Shows what I know about ARM..
 

brentsg

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I'm really interested in your ASUS $99 NIC testing. Can you let us know what you observe with it?
A little follow-up.. I had some other things pop up that'll keep me busy for a bit. For now I've popped the X550-T2 into the NAS and it's working great out of the box. I'm using the Aquantia card in the PC for now, also great.

I guess I need to peek around and look into tuning, but for now it's all in place.

Hopefully I'll get some time to look into using the ASUS card in the NAS with the Linux drivers, but it won't be immediately. Sorry about that.. When I get around to picking up a proper switch, I'll be glad to have the 2 10G ports on the NAS anyways. Wish I had grabbed the Netgear during Prime day, as it happened to be ~$580 that day.

Edit: Just to make sure the fine details are covered, this is a 4 lane PCIE3 card, so if you want to run both ports on the Synology, you'll be constrained to 70-75% of max throughput. The Synology is a PCIE2.0 device, so in that regard the 8 lane card is better. I will only run 1 of the ports, so I prefer the newer silicon, as it'll get re-purposed going forward.

Even running both ports, I don't think I could saturate the available bandwidth with my NAS usage.
 
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korayus

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Jan 4, 2018
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A little follow-up.. I had some other things pop up that'll keep me busy for a bit. For now I've popped the X550-T2 into the NAS and it's working great out of the box. I'm using the Aquantia card in the PC for now, also great.

I guess I need to peek around and look into tuning, but for now it's all in place.

Hopefully I'll get some time to look into using the ASUS card in the NAS with the Linux drivers, but it won't be immediately. Sorry about that.. When I get around to picking up a proper switch, I'll be glad to have the 2 10G ports on the NAS anyways. Wish I had grabbed the Netgear during Prime day, as it happened to be ~$580 that day.

Edit: Just to make sure the fine details are covered, this is a 4 lane PCIE3 card, so if you want to run both ports on the Synology, you'll be constrained to 70-75% of max throughput. The Synology is a PCIE2.0 device, so in that regard the 8 lane card is better. I will only run 1 of the ports, so I prefer the newer silicon, as it'll get re-purposed going forward.

Even running both ports, I don't think I could saturate the available bandwidth with my NAS usage.
Thank you very much about all the details.
I'm also using Synology 1817+ and want to get 10 GbE (RJ45 card). So I want to ask if you can manage to work with Asus card without any additional driver update on NAS?
I want to buy Asus XG-C100 card with is about €100.

Thanks in advance.
Koray
 

brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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Sorry for the delay.

Quick summary, no on the Asus card because it would not work with my CAT7 cabling, despite which device I used. For that reason I did not invest the time.

I also finally yielded to Synologies recommendation and moved the X550-T2 card to my workstation and stuck an X540-T2 in the NAS because even with only 1 port being used, the X550 was slow for unknown reasons. I really wanted to dig into that with Synology support but at some point time is valuable. Since returning the Asus card created a need, it worked out ok.

Note that I paid an arm and a leg for all my Intel NICs and got them from a guaranteed authentic source. Once I confirmed they were not bootlegs, I price matched using some super cheap vendor with my credit card benefits. The cheap vendor advertised theirs as authentic, and who knows. The price was too good to be true though.

I may wind up buying a new Aquantia card since the new OSX builds have built-in driver support for them, so my 2010 Mac Pro could be upgraded. First I'll need a switch with more ports though. If so I may have to revisit the cabling issue.
 
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korayus

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Jan 4, 2018
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Thank you very much for the information.
I decide to buy X540-T2 and unfortunately I can not decide if they genuine or not :( I live in Cyprus so lloking to buy from any european website. If you know who is selling genuine parts I will be glad to know.
All the best wishes.
Koray
 

brentsg

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Aug 22, 2017
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I live in the US, so I am unfortunately unfamiliar with the EU web stores. Best of luck to you.