Solarflare dual 10Gb SFP+

I saw two Solarflare NICs that are looking really cheap compared to normal:

SF329's:
$75 obo - Solarflare SF329 9021 Dual Port 10GbE PCI E Low Profile | eBay
$99 - Solarflare SF329 9021 Dual Port 10GbE PCI E Adapter 104 | eBay

SFN5162F (only 4.9w but do no support OpenOnload)
$125 obo #1 - Solarflare SFN5162F Dual Port 10GbE Mid Range SFP Performant Server Adapter | eBay
$125 obo #2 - Solarflare SFN5162F Dual Port 10GbE Mid Range SFP Performant Server Adapter | eBay

I saw the CloudFlare case study and sound neat. I don't think these have the new features CF is using.

 

On Ebay now, Solarflare SFN7322F new retail box, dual port 10GbE SFP+, hardware time stamping - only $139 with free delivery:
SFN7322F Solarflare 2 x 10GbE SFP+ FLAREON, TIME STAMPING, PTP SERVER I/O CARD 362312182844 | eBay Ebay item 263945138820
SFN7322F Solarflare Flareon Ultra Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ PTP Server I/O card, ultra-low latency, HARDWARE TIME STAMPING, 1PPS, Stratum 3 clock, 8.0GT/s, PTP daemon (PTPd v2), 0.37 PPM Stratum 3 clock source, MSI-X etc.

PTP Server I/O Adapter with Hardware Time Stamping. Ultra-low latency. NEW IN SEALED FACTORY RETAIL BOX. One opened for photos. Full height bracket is fitted. The low profile bracket is also in the box. Fast and free delivery. Fed Ex next business day delivery is also available.

More details from solarflare.com - very high spec:
Flareon Ultra SFN7322F dual port 10G Ethernet SFP+ server adapter combines accurate host clock synchronization and precise hardware packet time stamping with unmatched message rates and ultra low latency 10G Ethernet.
The SFN7322F delivers unmatched precision and performance on a single data network and in a single PCIe slot for financial services and other enterprise data centers with the industry’s lowest power consumption for additional cost savings.
SFN7322F Highly Accurate Time Synchronization and Precise Hardware Time Stamping Solarflare’s SFN7322F utilizes a highly stable and precise Stratum 3 clock source, which enables a server to be synchronized to a data network clock with greater precision. Standard crystals can drift significantly, resulting in an inferior solution for clock synchronization and time stamping

 

You can pick Solarflare NICs up *really* cheaply if you search for the mis-labeled "Solarflare S6102" parts. Here's one of the SF329 S6102's listed above for $25 shipped: Solarflare Sf329-9021-r7.2 10gb Dual Port Server Adapter Low Profile S6102 | eBay

 

When you say it's "mislabeled", what is the real model number of this card? I'm looking through Solarflare web site and cannot find a match for it. It's currently being offered for $22.99, would it make sense to pay twice as much for Mellanox ConnectX-3 MCX312A-XCBT?

 

For SF model nos. see: https://support.solarflare.com/inde...FjAAegQIAhAB&usg=AOvVaw1TqCZ9NICOPb-N3fl0W684

I had the same dilemna. Wide ESXI support for SF eventually won me:https://www.vmware.com/resources/co...FjACegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw31U-UjDoZUZonBggJuWzh2

 

Do the Solarflare cards play nice with other cards? For instance, if I wanted to use one of these on one end and an intel X520-DA2 on the other will it work? Does it even matter?

 

It would definitely work. Also, solarflare cards are not picky at all about transceivers, it will accept any brand. Intel nic on the other hand, is picky about having Intel transceivers

 

these work great on mac pro 4,1/5,1 with free osx drivers last time i checked. Free osx 10gbe drivers is uncommon!

 

What's the advantage of these over options?

I'm kind of clueless about 10Gb stuff in general, but I just picked up one of those cheap aruba switches with 4 10gb ports, and now have an excuse to gear up the rest of by boxes with 10gb nics.

 

Never owned any mellanox cards, but these stay cooler than similar age chelsio. Cheap, drivers for any os, work with every DAC/optical transceiver I throw in it, what's not to like?

 

SFN6122F - Though I don't really see the "mislabled" (S6102 is the regulatory code) NICs priced any cheaper

 

Price of almost all 10gb NICs hiking up a lot recently, not sure if it's because the MS bid on Mellanox cause the hike.

 

Thanks, figured it out myself and have purchased and put to use since. The card is still available from the same seller (22 available) for the same price with BO: SolarFlare S6102 Dual Port Low Bracket Adapter Card SF329-9021-R7.2 | eBay

 

Actually now I see whats going on. not applicable to the S6120, but for example if you search S7120, you get the whole range of SFN7000 series cards. Some of them are the higher end models that sell for hundreds when labeled correctly.

 

Anyone know the difference between the S6120 and S7120 card? Are they as good as the Mellanox MCX354A-FCBT or Intel X520-DA2 card?

 

Anyone knows if these supported in pfSense out of the box or do they require driver compilation?

 

The driver won't be automatically loaded but it's present in FreeBSD (and pfSense) so no compilation required. sfxge

 

@mimino are you by any chance running this card in pfSense? Any issues with it?

 

Yes I am running the S6102 one, pass through from proxmox. I could not get the SR-IOV to work but that is most likely my platform issue. The only problem I ran into was that the auto detection would not work, but setting media via ip or in pfSense UI takes care of that.

Have one port (WAN) connected via active copper Finisar FCLF8521P2BTL 1000Base-T transceiver, the other (LAN) via Finisar FTLF8524P2BNV SFP optical to some crappy switch until I get my shiny Aruba S2500 up and running.

 

Yeah, @arglebargle went through the angle of setting up Proxmox, setting up VFs off the solarflares and then passing it onto a pfsense VM - it doesn't seem to work. Pretty sure it was a driver issue on the FreeBSD end of things.