The thread starter documented that 82599-based X520 cards carry an undocumented EEPROM bit (IXGBEDEVICECAPSALLOWANYSFP, lowest bit of the capability word at byte offset 0x58, typically 0xFC locked / 0xFD unlocked) that decides whether non-Intel active SFP+ modules are accepted on ESXi and Windows…
Intel X520 (82599) cards enforce a list of approved SFP+ modules; under Linux the ixgbe parameter helps, but on Windows or ESXi there is no such option. The gist provides a Python script that reads the card EEPROM with ethtool -e and sets bit 0 of the byte at offset 0x58 (0 = Intel modules only, 1…
The poster had third-party SFP+ optics for both the on-board Intel X553 ports of a Netgate XG-7100 and an add-in X520-DA2 and had found that hw.ixgbe.unsupportedsfp=1 in /boot/loader.conf enables them. Questions: does it apply to both on-board and PCIe Intel ports, what is the difference between…
A Dell R720 with the integrated i350/X520 daughter card ran Proxmox VE; Cisco-branded 10G multimode LC SFP+ modules that worked elsewhere were rejected as unsupported. Adding options ixgbe allowunsupportedsfp=1 to the module options had no visible effect. Respondents walked through GRUB kernel…
The poster wanted a cheap 10G link between servers with Intel X520-DA2 NICs and an HP switch and worried that a direct-attach cable is coded either for Intel or for HP but not both. A respondent shared that two X520-DA2 cards would not link directly over a DAC in their case, but a Dell DAC…
For a deployment on Dell PowerEdge R630 and C4140 servers the poster had Intel X520-SR2 adapters (E10G42BFSR) fitted with the bundled Intel FTLX8571D3BCV-I3 10GBASE-SR SFP+ modules (850 nm, 300 m multimode). The uplink switch is a Huawei Quidway 9300 whose SFP+ ports carry 10GBASE-LR (1310 nm)…
The poster planned to install an Intel X520 adapter (Cisco PID N2XX-AIPCI01) into a Cisco UCS C240 server and use Cisco SFP-10G-SR or SFP-10G-LR transceivers, and asked whether the combination has compatibility problems. A later reader asked whether the Cisco SFP-H10GB-CU3M= twinax cable would work…