Solarflare SFP+ 10Gbe cards

[asmo]

Bought a Solarflare SFN6122F off ebay for my opnsense box and it works fine with a DAC to my switch but I am not able to get a 10gbe copper module to my modem working TP-Link TL-SM5310-T (no link or activity lights) has anyone had any luck with any 10gbe modules on the solarflare cards?

 

[ziggygt]

SF do not like some DACs. Arista, Melanox, Cisco, worked but Molex did not.

 

[nereith]

Bought a Solarflare SFN6122F off ebay for my opnsense box and it works fine with a DAC to my switch but I am not able to get a 10gbe copper module to my modem working TP-Link TL-SM5310-T (no link or activity lights) has anyone had any luck with any 10gbe modules on the solarflare cards?

I've tried AQS107 and S+RJ10 with Solarflare SFN8522, both weren't detected.

However, Fibermall 80m 10GbaseT module worked. This module reported itself as a fiber module.

So it's either a power draw issue, or the card only works with modules that identify their type as non-RJ45...

 

[ziggygt]

I missed the RJ45 part even though the 10Gbe copper was stated. My mistake. I only have fiber and DACs. I have no experience with RJ45 10Gb but I understand they do draw a lot of power.

 

[super_nas]

Bought a Solarflare SFN6122F off ebay for my opnsense box and it works fine with a DAC to my switch but I am not able to get a 10gbe copper module to my modem working TP-Link TL-SM5310-T (no link or activity lights) has anyone had any luck with any 10gbe modules on the solarflare cards?

I have a sodola sfp+ to 10gbe transceiver that works fine in my 6122F in Windows 10 Pro. Ran an ethernet cord straight out of my fiber ONT and it connected at 10gbps, and I was able to surf the web, all worked fine. I picked up 2, in case one didnt work, but they both ended up working. The other is a sfp+ 10gbe transceiver made my qsftpek that also worked directly plugged into my 6112f from my ONT. I returned the QSFTPEK one because the Sodola one seems better built.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CQ4V96LM?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details&th=1

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BHYJYGHF?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

 

[Halken]

I am close to getting a few S7120. Does the work with any SFP+ to RJ45 that supports all 1/2,5/5/10 ??
Also have anyone used them in the Lenovo Tyny as router succesfully?

 

[Pakna]

I am trying to update the firmware on a couple of SFN6122 NICs but using the latest bootable firmware update utility from AMD, I could not do it. Looking at the readme, these NICs might not be supported anymore. I tried finding an older SolarFlare firmware update utility but could only find a readme file here but not the utility itself.

Any clues how to update these older cards? Thanks.

 

[ziggygt]

Does this work:

Windows

web.archive.org

 

[Pakna]

Does this work:

Windows

web.archive.org

Thank you very much - it just might!
I was able to to download these. I'll report back after I try the update out.

Thanks again

 

[Pakna]

@ziggygt Thanks one more time for these updates. I searched like a maniac for I don't know how long and it never occurred to me to use the Wayback :facepalm:

At any rate, ran the update under Windows Server 2022 - seems like firmware was pretty crusty but was updated successfully. I'll know more after I put the cards through paces in my Proxmox host but for now just curious: I have two NICs, yet both Windows and the sfupdate think I have four? I thought I had a SFN6122F, but now I am no longer sure

Curious what happened here.

 

[ziggygt]

Glad I could help. This forum has helped me so much. I am glad to give back a little.
I have a bunch of Solarflare cards. The dual port cards show up as 2 adapters the single port cards show up as one. The 6122F card works with many different DACS but the 7122f does not like Molex DAC. I have no experience with the 5122F. does it physically look different? I do not get great performance on my machines only 2.5-3Gb between nodes. Please post your performance numbers.

 

[Pakna]

I am pretty sure it's a 6122F - I've read somewhere on this forum that 6122Fs have silver heatsinks and 5122Fs have black ones, but it ought to be the same chip underneath (SFC9020?) so the distinction is probably rather moot at this point. To emphasise once again - there are two phy NICs with two ports each in two slots; that accounts for the four adapters but I can't understand why some ports are seen as 5122F and some as 6122F. I've tried switching NIC boot mode in BIOS from `Option ROM and UEFI` to `UEFI only` but that didn't change anything.

As far as performance goes, I can't make out any difference - all four ports are capable of reaching 10 G speeds without a problem. I've tested this with `iPerf3`. Tested from a Win10 box (client) to a Proxmox box (server) and I was able to max out the link (see screenshot below for spikes on all four ports with the same cable and transceiver). `iPerf3` on Windows is working in emulation mode. Windows does not make Posix calls but iperf3 understands only Posix so there's some adapting going on, and it usually took around 10 threads to max out the link consistently. Once I get a Linux box up and running, I may retest this.

 

[ziggygt]

I looked at my system tonight and found a sfupdate that is much newer v4.12.2 1002x64 on my disk drive.
this is the report I ran
C:\tools>sfupdate
Solarflare firmware update utility [v4.12.2]
Copyright Solarflare Communications 2006-2017, Level 5 Networks 2002-2005

1: Solarflare SFN6322F SFP+ Precision Time Synchronization Server Adapter #2
MAC address 00-0F-53-0D-86-E4
Firmware v6.5.1
Boot ROM v5.0.5.1002 - version is up to date
Adapter v3.3.2.1000 - version is up to date
FPGA v1.2.0.3593 (Timestamp peripheral) - version is up to date

2: Solarflare SFN6322F SFP+ Precision Time Synchronization Server Adapter
MAC address 00-0F-53-0D-86-E5
Firmware v6.5.1
Boot ROM v5.0.5.1002 - version is up to date
Adapter v3.3.2.1000 - version is up to date
FPGA v1.2.0.3593 (Timestamp peripheral) - version is up to date
I think the source was an IBM or Xlink site. It's not in my notes