Noob help with Mellanox IS5023

[marg]

I recently got my hands on a Mellanox IS5023 switch which I believe is a 16x 40Gb Infiniband switch.

I currently have

• a Juniper EX4300 switch that serves my current networking needs.
• a couple of ConnectX-3 MCX354A-FCBT 40GE cards and MC2207130-0A1 cables

For the purposes of testing I plan to

• configure the CX354A port1 as (Infiniband) connected with the MC cable into the IS5023
• I could use a second MC cable from the IS5023 into the Juniper EX4300

I am looking for guidance in the following areas.

1. Is there a way to enable Ethernet on this switch?
2. How does one manage this switch? My understanding is that Mellanox provides a Software utility (windows based) to manage it.
3. I have seen some references to an I2C/USB adapter being required to program it, costing around $150+. Is that really needed?
4. how do I configure the IS5023 to talk to the EX4300?


Looking forward to feedback from the experts

Thanks

 

[klui]

1. No
2. InfiniBand Management Tools
3. No
4. You can't since it doesn't support ethernet

 

[marg]

1. No
2. InfiniBand Management Tools
3. No
4. You can't since it doesn't support ethernet

@klui

Thanks for response.

So a couple of additional questions.

the link for the Management tool points a Redhat only version, is it not available for other OS?

I have seen references in some threads here about an EMC variant (black front) of the SX6036 that can be cross flashed to Mellanox firmware or a Mellanox SX6036. Do they support Ethernet out of the box or do we need a license for it, before one can apply the 56GB Ethernet license ? can you please confirm?

Or would you recommend an Arista instead, probably a 7050QX?

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thx.

 

[klui]

You can try the open source opensm on the distro of your choice.

Since you know about the EMC variant go through the thread. Because there were enough people who know about the EMC SX6012 models they have shot up in price the last year. Although the 6036 is much cheaper it is deeper dimensionally than the SX6012.

Aristas are nice but you will pay a premium for them. The 7050QXes are coming down in price. Mellanox 40G switches are really nice for power usage ~40W idle; Aristas use typical power ~110W idle for fiber models.