Mellanox 40gbe NICs and Windows 10

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hmw

Active Member
Apr 29, 2019
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Did you download the WinOF or the WinOF-2 driver?

And did you download the mellanox firmware tools and set the cards to ethernet mode?
 

lahatte

New Member
Jul 8, 2020
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@hmw I downloaded MLNX_VPI_WinOF-5_50_53000_All_Win2019_x64 ... i guess that's WinOF?

I didnt know about Mellanox firmware tools.. i'm downloading that now... Is it pretty straight forward?

Thanks!
 

lahatte

New Member
Jul 8, 2020
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When i run ibv_devinfo it looks like firmware version is 2.42.5000 but both port 1 and port 2 are listed as Down... does that firmware version work with windows 10?
 

lahatte

New Member
Jul 8, 2020
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I went to admn cmd prompt and ran mlxconfig -d mt4099_pciconf0 set VPI_SETTINGS_PORT1=2 and then i did it again for port2=2... then i restarted machine, but, when i run ibv_devinfo from cmd prompt it looks like the firmware version is 2.42.5000 but both port 1 and port 2 are listed as Down... does that firmware version work with windows 10? or am I totally doing this wrong?

Also, when i go into device manager in windows, then system devices > Mellanox ConnectX-3 there is an option to select ETH too.. i did that as well, but still doesnt work.
 

hmw

Active Member
Apr 29, 2019
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How are you connecting these? SFP? QSFP? 10GBase-T adapter?

Try connecting Port1 to Port2 and see if there's a link ...
 

lahatte

New Member
Jul 8, 2020
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@hmw It's QSFP... i don't have a cable to connect port1 to port2 :( ... i just have a fiber line run from my office to network closet upstairs
 

hmw

Active Member
Apr 29, 2019
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@lahatte - I assume the fiber line was connected to something before and is known to work? What SFP module are you using? What switch are you using?

You could try to get a QSFP DAC cable off eBay and test whether the card is working. Once you eliminate that, you can try to figure out whether it's the QSFP module or the switch

And the Mellanox debug utilities can tell you about cable status as well: https://docs.mellanox.com/display/MFTv4150/Cable+Utilities (although I've found the windows versions suck big time)
 

klui

Well-Known Member
Feb 3, 2019
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I have the same card and the driver works for it as well as a real Mellanox CX354A. I used a Mellanox passive DAC cable to loop ports 1 and 2.

The driver I used is a little older available last December, MLNX_VPI_WinOF-5_50_52000_All_win2019_x64.exe; firmware is 2.42.5000 and I didn't cross flash to Mellanox. I had the CX354A installed originally but I swapped it with the HP part in the same slot. First boot the devices got a Code 56 (setting up class configuration) from Windows but another reboot made it go away.

Win10 1904.
 

i386

Well-Known Member
Mar 18, 2016
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Germany
Define better?
Connectx-3 work without problems with all relevant operatins systems and are cheap.
 

hmw

Active Member
Apr 29, 2019
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Netwerkz101

Active Member
Dec 27, 2015
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Is there a better 40gbe nic to use for Windows 10?
I want to say I flashed under Win 7 and ran some iometer test (NVMe testing between PCs over this HP branded Mellanox 40Gb NIC)
using Windows 10 - drivers were not an issue IIRC.

This was back in Jan 2020 ..so foggy.
 

hmw

Active Member
Apr 29, 2019
570
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Define better?
Connectx-3 work without problems with all relevant operatins systems and are cheap.
Linux drivers are built in and Windows drivers were straight forward. It was only MacOS that I had a problem with. I actually have the card installed in an external Thunderbolt3 enclosure and it works fine with Linux and Windows