EU Mellanox 100Gbps optical EDR infiniband cables 5-20m $45 / 35GBP

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Frobbit

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Feb 6, 2017
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Came across these Mellanox 100Gbps EDR infiniband cables on eBay:

Mellanox 834972-B22 100Gbs Optical cable 5m | eBay

Mellanox 834972-B27 100Gbs Optical cable 20m | eBay

Seller seems to have most cable lengths from 5 up to 20m.. The cables are HP branded (834972-B23) but according to this:

http://www.mellanox.com/related-docs/oem/hpe/RG-Mellanox-and-HPE-reference-guide.pdf

they should be identical to Mellanox MFA1A00 EDR cables.

I don't have EDR cards, but I bought a pair of 3 meter cables (834972-B21) from same seller a while back to test with my FDR and QDR infiniband stuff. Turns out they work fine for FDR and FDR10 with ConnectX-3 cards (both HP branded and regular MCX354A) and an EMC/Mellanox unmanaged SX6015 switch (switch was FDR10).

I was a bit surprised that they also worked at QDR speed with MHQH29 cards. Haven't tested them with Ethernet yet, but I'm going to test my 3m cables on 40GbE with MCX354 this weekend..
 
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ecosse

Active Member
Jul 2, 2013
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Came across these Mellanox 100Gbps EDR infiniband cables on eBay:

Mellanox 834972-B22 100Gbs Optical cable 5m | eBay

Mellanox 834972-B27 100Gbs Optical cable 20m | eBay

Seller seems to have most cable lengths from 5 up to 20m.. The cables are HP branded (834972-B23) but according to this:

http://www.mellanox.com/related-docs/oem/hpe/RG-Mellanox-and-HPE-reference-guide.pdf

they should be identical to Mellanox MFA1A00 EDR cables.

I don't have EDR cards, but I bought a pair of 3 meter cables (834972-B21) from same seller a while back to test with my FDR and QDR infiniband stuff. Turns out they work fine for FDR and FDR10 with ConnectX-3 cards (both HP branded and regular MCX354A) and an EMC/Mellanox unmanaged SX6015 switch (switch was FDR10).

I was a bit surprised that they also worked at QDR speed with MHQH29 cards. Haven't tested them with Ethernet yet, but I'm going to test my 3m cables on 40GbE with MCX354 this weekend..
I would love to know if they work with Ethernet.
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Do the optic cable behave differently than the DAC cables?
I have some of those and they worked fine on nic2nic tests (and @40gbs with my switch)
 

im2geek4you

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Feb 27, 2017
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According to this mellanox doc 834972-B22 is the equivalent to MFA1A00-E005. And looking to their cable documentation, cables MFA1A00-Exxx are infiniband. The Ethernet ones are MFA1A00-Cxxx.
If they work with Ethernet it would be interesting to know.
 

Frobbit

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Feb 6, 2017
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I can report that the cables work fine for 40Gb ethernet using MCX354 in ethernet mode card-to-card. I just set the card IP and connection worked without any issues.

Iperf shows close to 40Gbit speeds with 2 iperf processes. Unfortunately I don't have a 40GbE switch to test card-to-switch.
 
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Frobbit

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At least the 7m and 5m cables were complete, transceivers and all. Just plug and play and I got 40GbE and FDR infiniband working immediately (didn't have 100Gb cards to test with, but from others that works, too)
 

Rand__

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Mar 6, 2014
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Yes thats the whole package (I got 20m).

Note this is an IB cable, some limitations apply.
It does work for ETH up to 40Gbs, it does not work at 100Gbs with my CX4 but might do so with the CX5 (have not tested this cable specifically but similar issues with other IB cables; https://community.mellanox.com/s/qu...was-interoperability-of-cx4-with-sonic-switch)

Note it might do 56Gbs, have not tested as the 100G switch does not speak FDR
 

efschu2

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Feb 14, 2019
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Dunno if you have the possibility and time to do a quick card-to-card check if they'll work for 56GbE?
 

Rand__

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can give attaching to an fdr switch a try tonight or on the weekend if thats timely enough?
 
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efschu2

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Feb 14, 2019
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Forsure, thanks a lot!

As I do have some CX3-Pros and CX4s here, but still waiting for my SX6012 to arrive for my 56GbE storage network, I have not bought any QSFP+/14/28 cables yet. Was thinking about QSFP14/28 DACs but if these would work why should I take the worse option ;)
 
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