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Table of Contents
Abstract
The ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 Ethernet Adapter, available as a PCIe low profile adapter or OCP adapter, is an advanced cloud Ethernet network adapter that accelerates mission-critical data-center applications such as security, virtualization, SDN/NFV, big data, machine learning, and storage.
This product guide provides essential presales information to understand the adapters and their key features, specifications, and compatibility. This guide is intended for technical specialists, sales specialists, sales engineers, IT architects, and other IT professionals who want to learn more about the ConnectX-6 Dx adapters and consider their use in IT solutions.
Change History
Changes in the April 23, 2025 update:
- Added OS support information for the following adapter - Operating system support section:
- ThinkSystem Nvidia ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port OCP Ethernet Adapter(Generic)
Introduction
The ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 Ethernet Adapter, available as a PCIe low profile adapter or OCP adapter, is an advanced cloud Ethernet network adapter that accelerates mission-critical data-center applications such as security, virtualization, SDN/NFV, big data, machine learning, and storage.
The following figure shows the ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe 4 Ethernet Adapter (the standard heat sink has been removed in this photo).
Figure 1. ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe 4 Ethernet Adapter
Did you know?
The ConnectX-6 Dx adapter offers a range of advanced built-in capabilities that bring security down to the end-points with performance and scalability, including stateful firewall acceleration powered by Open vSwitch connection tracking, embedded HW root-of-trust, secure FW update, and secure boot.
Part number information
The following table shows the part numbers for the adapter.
The part numbers include the following:
- One Mellanox adapter
- PCIe adapter includes Low-profile (2U) and full-height (3U) adapter brackets
- Documentation
Supported transceivers and cables
The following table lists the supported transceivers.
Configuration notes:
- Transceiver AV1D also supports 40Gb when installed in a Mellanox adapter.
The following table lists the supported optical cables.
The following table lists the supported direct-attach copper (DAC) cables.
Features
The Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 Ethernet Adapter offers a number of features, including the following:
Security to every end-point
In an era where privacy of information is key and zero trust is the rule, ConnectX-6 Dx adapters offer a range of advanced built-in capabilities that bring security down to the end-points with unprecedented performance and scalability, including:
- Probes & DoS Attacks Protection – ConnectX-6 Dx enables a hardware-based L4 firewall by ASAP2 offloading of stateful connection tracking.
- NIC Security – Hardware Root-of-Trust (RoT) Secure Boot and secure firmware update using RSA cryptography, and cloning-protection, via a device-unique secret key.
Advanced virtualization
ConnectX-6 Dx delivers another level of innovation to enable building highly efficient virtualized cloud data centers:
- Virtualization – Mellanox ASAP2 - Accelerated Switch and Packet Processing® technology for vSwitch/vRouter hardware offload, delivers orders of magnitude higher performance vs. software-based solutions. ConnectX-6 Dx ASAP2 offers both SR-IOV and VirtIO in-hardware offload capabilities, and supports up to 8 million rules.
- Advanced Quality of Service – Includes traffic shaping, and classification-based data policing.
Industry-leading RoCE
Following the Mellanox ConnectX tradition of industry-leading RoCE capabilities, ConnectX-6 Dx adds another layer of innovation to enable more scalable, resilient and easy-to-deploy RoCE solutions.
- Zero Touch RoCE – Simplifying RoCE deployments ConnectX-6 Dx allows RoCE payloads to run seamlessly on existing networks without requiring special configuration on the network (no PFC, no ECN). ConnectX-6 Dx’s features ensure resiliency and efficiency at scale of such deployments.
- Configurable Congestion Control – API to build user-defined congestion control algorithms, best serving various environments and RoCE and TCP/IP traffic patterns.
Efficient storage solutions
With its NVMe-oF target and initiator offloads, ConnectX-6 Dx brings further optimization to NVMe-oF, enhancing CPU utilization and scalability. Additionally, ConnectX-6 Dx supports hardware offload for ingress/egress of T10-DIF/PI/CRC32/CRC64 signatures thereby enabling user-based key management and a one-time-FIPS-certification approach.
Technical specifications
Physical adapter:
- PCIe 4.0 x16 host interface
- Two form factors:
- Low profile form factor adapter (142mm x 69mm)
- OCP 3.0
- Two QSFP56 cages
Ethernet:
- IEEE 802.3cd, 50, 100 Gigabit Ethernet
- IEEE 802.3bj, 802.3bm 100 Gigabit Ethernet
- IEEE 802.3by, 25, 50 Gigabit Ethernet supporting all FEC modes
- IEEE 802.3ba 40 Gigabit Ethernet
- IEEE 802.3ae 10 Gigabit Ethernet
- IEEE 802.3az Energy Efficient Ethernet (supports only “Fast-Wake” mode)
- IEEE 802.3ap based auto-negotiation and KR startup
- IEEE 802.3ad, 802.1AX Link Aggregation
- IEEE 802.1Q, 802.1P VLAN tags and priority
- IEEE 802.1Qaz (ETS)
- IEEE 802.1Qbb (PFC)
- IEEE 802.1Qbg
- 25/50 Ethernet Consortium “Low Latency FEC” for 50GE/100GE PAM4 links
- Jumbo frame support (9600 byte)
- IPv4 (RFQ 791)
- IPv6 (RFC 2460)
Virtualization:
- VirtIO in-hardware
- Single Root IOV
- 1K VFs per port
- 64 PFs (16 per host)
- VMware NetQueue support
- Per VM QoS
- Hardware offloads
- Connection tracking
- Header rewrite
- Stateless offloads for overlay network tunneling protocols
- Encapsulation and decapsulation of VXLAN, NVGRE, GENEVE and more overlay networks
Cyber Security:
- Hardware root-of-trust for Secure Boot
- Secure firmware update
Networking Offloads:
- TCP/UDP/IP stateless offload
- LSO, LRO, checksum offload
- RSS (also on encapsulated packet), TSS, VLAN and MPLS tag insertion/stripping, Receive flow steering
Networking Accelerations:
- Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK)
- Hardware-based and software-enabled XDP acceleration
Storage:
- NVMe over Fabric offloads for target
- Storage protocols: SRP, iSER, NFSoRDMA, SMB Direct, NVMe-oF and more
- T10 DIF - signature handover
- CRC16, CRC32 and CRC64 signature offloads
Time Seventieths Networking (PTP):
- Clock synchronization accuracy better than 16ns
- Software controlled hardware clock
- Full wire-speed hardware time stamping
- Accurate package scheduling
- IEEE 1588v2 (PTP)
- Supports OC, SC, BC, MC PTP clocks
- One & two step sync methods
- E2E and P2P
- Integrated with any PTP daemon
RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE):
- Zero-touch Network configuration
- Selective Repeat
- Programmable congestion control mechanism
- Mellanox PeerDirect RDMA (GPUDirect)
- Dynamically Connected transport (DCT)
- Burst buffer offload
- RoCE over overlay networks
Management & Control:
- NC-SI, MCTP over SMBus and MCTP over PCIe - Baseboard Management Controller interface
- PLDM for Monitor and Control DSP0248
- PLDM for Firmware Update DSP026
- I2C interface for device control and configuration
Media & Entertainment:
- SMPTE 2110 streaming offload
- 2110-10, 20, 21N, 30, 40, 50
- ST2022-6/7
- SMPTE ST-2059-2 PTP profile
- Windows and Linux OS support
Remote Boot:
- Remote boot over Ethernet
- Remote boot over iSCSI
- UEFI support
- PXE Boot
Server support
The following tables list the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.
Support of adapters with generic firmware
One or more of the adapters described in this product guide uses standard vendor firmware (look for "Generic FW" or "Generic" in the adapter names). These adapters are supported in Lenovo servers however there are currently limitations on the use of Lenovo management tools.
Support in Lenovo XClarity management tools for adapters with generic firmware is per the following table.
Tip: Always use firmware that is obtained from Lenovo sources to ensure the firmware is fully tested by Lenovo and is supported. You should not use firmware that is obtained from the vendor web site, unless directed to do so by Lenovo support.
Operating system support
The following table indicates which operating systems can be preloaded in the Lenovo factory for CTO server orders where this adapter is included in the server configuration.
Tip: If an OS is listed as "No support" above, but it is listed in one of the support tables below, that means the OS is supported by the adapter, just not available to be preloaded in the Lenovo factory in CTO orders.
The adapters support the operating systems listed in the following tables:
- ThinkSystem Mellanox ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port PCIe Ethernet Adapter
- ThinkSystem Nvidia ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port OCP Ethernet Adapter(Generic)
Tip: This table is automatically generated based on data from Lenovo ServerProven.
1 The iboot hard drive can't be identified)
2 Ubuntu don't support SW iSCSI
3 For limitation, please refer Support Tip 104278
4 The iboot hard drive can't be identified
5 IONG-11838 tips #TT1781
6 For limitation, please refer Support Tip TT2258
1 The iboot hard drive can't be identified)
2 The OS is not supported with EPYC 7003 processors.
3 ISG will not sell/preload this OS, but compatibility and cert only.
Warranty
One year limited warranty. When installed in a Lenovo server, this adapter assumes the server’s base warranty and any warranty upgrades.
Related publications
For more information, refer to these documents:
- ThinkSystem Ethernet and InfiniBand Adapter Reference
https://lenovopress.lenovo.com/lp1594-thinksystem-ethernet-infiniband-adapter-reference - ServerProven compatibility
http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven - Mellanox product page for ConnectX-6 Dx
https://www.mellanox.com/products/ethernet-adapters/connectx-6-dx - User Manual for ConnectX-6 Dx
https://docs.mellanox.com/display/ConnectX6DxEN
Trademarks
Lenovo and the Lenovo logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both. A current list of Lenovo trademarks is available on the Web at https://www.lenovo.com/us/en/legal/copytrade/.
The following terms are trademarks of Lenovo in the United States, other countries, or both:
Lenovo®
ServerProven®
ThinkSystem®
XClarity®
The following terms are trademarks of other companies:
AMD is a trademark of Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.
Intel® and Xeon® are trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Linux® is the trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries.
Microsoft®, Windows Server®, and Windows® are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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Full Change History
Changes in the April 23, 2025 update:
- Added OS support information for the following adapter - Operating system support section:
- ThinkSystem Nvidia ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port OCP Ethernet Adapter(Generic)
Changes in the February 25, 2025 update:
- Added the following adapter - Part number information section:
- ThinkSystem Nvidia ConnectX-6 Dx 100GbE QSFP56 2-port OCP Ethernet Adapter(Generic), 4XC7A99190
- Added information about adapters with generic firmware - Support of adapters with generic firmware section
Changes in the August 1, 2024 update:
- Added information about factory preload support for operating systems - Operating system support section
Changes in the September 15, 2023 update:
- Withdrawn cables are now hidden; click Show Withdrawn Products to view them - Supported transceivers and cables section
Changes in the July 5, 2023 update:
- Added the following transceiver - Supported transceivers and cables section:
- Lenovo 100GBase-SR4 QSFP28 Transceiver, 4TC7A86257
Changes in the May 3, 2022 update:
- Updated the Did you know section - the adapter does not offer inline acceleration for offloading IPsec and TLS data-in-motion
Changes in the January 16, 2021 update:
- 100Gb transceiver 7G17A03539 also supports 40Gb when installed in a Mellanox adapter. - Supported transceivers and cables section
Changes in the June 16, 2021 update:
- Added 100Gb transceiver - Supported cables and transceivers section:
- Lenovo 100Gb SR4 QSFP28 Ethernet Transceiver, 4M27A67042
Changes in the March 26, 2021 update:
- The adapter does not support certain cryptographic features such as IPsec and TLS data-in-motion inline encryption/decryption offload, and AES-XTS block-level data-at-rest encryption/decryption offload. It also does not support the high precision oscillator features.
Changes in the February 15, 2021 update:
- The server support tables are now automatically updated - Server support section
Changes in the October 13, 2020 update:
- Added the SR850 V2 and SR860 V2 servers - Server support section (no support)
Changes in the September 2, 2020 update:
- Added detailed OS support information - Operating system support section
First published: 25 August 2020
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