Old Brocade (QLogic) BR-1020 CNA on Windows 10

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TallGraham

Member
Apr 28, 2013
143
23
18
Hastings, England
Hi All


It has been a long time and I have been off the forums here for probably the best part of 2 years. Life and that sort of thing gets in the way sometimes.

Anyway, I remember there being a lot of buzz around the Brocade (QLogic) BR-1020 10Gbe cards a couple of years back. I got 3 imported from the states and the proper DAC cables too. Worked like a charm in an old triangle style network.

Things have moved on and my rig has totally changed now. I was wanting to use these on Windows 10 but notice there is no driver. Has anyone here got them running nicely on Windows 10 as an ethernet device please? If so could you share how you did the driver install and which one you used?

Any advice on the process to update the firmware would be great too.


Many Thanks
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
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I've upgraded the firmware, but I get a Code 10 error when I install the server 2012 drivers on each port. Anyone have a procedure for installing the drivers they know works? I'm using the ones from the QLogic site. Thanks.

Using Win 10 Home, BTW.
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
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I was concerned that might be the case, but I did a little more messing around, and it looks like I have them "working". Had to Uninstall the two Ethernet drivers, then the FCoE drivers, reinstall the FCoE drivers, and *then* reinstall the Ethernet drivers. I have both Server 2008 and 2012 drivers, I may have mismatched them initially, installing different versions on the two functions.

At least now they're not showing as Stopped anymore. I'll see if I can get either port running on fiber to a WS-4900M switch tomorrow.
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
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Well, no luck getting it going on fiber, still won't see the network. I suspect the SFP transceiver, it shows as "Unsupported SFP" in BCU (Can't see the card at all in HCM, the install doesn't load the service needed, it seems).

The Twinax 3 meter cable I had ordered arrived today, however, and it certainly does see that! The link is now showing as up in BCU, and as being on an "Unidentified network" in Windows (no red x anymore!). I need to provide a fixed IP between it and the NAS when I get a chance.

I have a Cisco transceiver coming tomorrow, I'll give fiber another try at that point. Need to build an enclosure for the switch to cut down on the noise also.
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
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Still waiting on the transceivers to arrive. Will experiment on whether I need only one on the Brocade Card end or if both ends must have them, either in peer-to-peer, or through the switch.

Managed to install iperf on the TrueNAS box, testing in the current peer-to-peer arrangement over the Twinax Active DAC I'm getting between 600-900MBs, usually in the 700-800MBs range. It'll be interesting to see if fiber runs any differently.
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
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Finally got one of the Brocade transceivers today. Connected it to the BR-1020 and then to the Solarflare card in the NAS via a 3m MMF optic cable; So only one of the transceivers is needed - at the BR-1020 end - to get it working. The destination card can use whatever transceiver works for it. Consistently seeing 850-950MB/s, so averaging about 100-150MBytes higher than the Active DAC cable. Haven't had a chance to try it through the switch yet, that'll come tomorrow.

Also haven't had a chance to try out the generic QLogic 10Gbe drivers I saw in Windows 10 in place of the Server 2012 ones currently being used. I'm not sure if anyone else had seen that there is a generic driver in Windows that loads successfully for these cards. Once I've done the switch test I might try them in place of the Server 2012 drivers - see if they work beyond just loading, and how well.

Brocade transceiver part number is 57-0000075-01. Optic cable used is a "3 Meter 10G Multimode OM3 Duplex LC to LC Fiber Optic Patch Cable" as described on eBay. Cyan in color, part number is listed as FT-M3LL-003M. The transceiver on the Solarflare card is a Fiberstore SFP+ 10GSR-85.

Switch and generic driver results tomorrow, I hope.
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
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Works fine through the switch, but now having trouble getting the generic drivers installed (Code 10 failure). They installed on a previous occasion, not sure why not now. Perhaps it's something to do with the Fiber Channel port side of things, not sure. If i get a chance sometime I'll try again, but for now, it's at least working on the Win Server 2012 drivers.

Using Windows Home, BTW
 
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ADCBop

New Member
Jan 30, 2021
7
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One more thing. If you purchased the version with the low-profile bracket and need the full height one, the bracket for the BR-825 works. It's near impossible to find the BR-1020 brackets anywhere.

Doesn't have the same markings, but fits perfectly.
 
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