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Table of Contents
Abstract
The ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter is a PCIe Gen 4, 64-Gigabit Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter (HBAs) for Lenovo ThinkSystem servers. This adapter offer industry leading native FC performance with extremely low CPU usage with full hardware offloads. With performance of more than 1 million I/O operations per second (IOPS) per port, these adapters can be used to support all-flash storage arrays.
This product guide provides essential presales information to understand the adapter and its 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 QLE2872 adapter and consider its use in IT solutions.
Introduction
The ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter is a PCIe Gen 4, 64-Gigabit Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapter (HBAs) for Lenovo ThinkSystem servers. This adapter offer industry leading native FC performance with extremely low CPU usage with full hardware offloads. With performance of more than 1 million I/O operations per second (IOPS) per port, these adapters can be used to support all-flash arrays -- Fibre Channel storage systems comprised completely of high-speed solid-state drives.
Powerful management tools automate and simplify SAN provisioning to help reduce cost and complexity, while the unmatched 64 Gbps performance eliminates potential I/O bottlenecks in today’s powerful multiprocessor, multicore servers.
Figure 1. ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter
Did you know?
QLE2872 adapters incorporate a hardware-based Root of Trust that prevents malicious firmware from hijacking the adapters. The QLE2872 RoT enables both integrity and authenticity during adapter firmware updates by both validating firmware embedded signatures with hardware embedded keys to ensure that only validated firmware executes, and protecting firmware updates that are applied over public networks.
Part numbers
The following table lists the ordering information for the ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter.
| Part number | Feature code | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 4XC7A96744 | C4L3 | ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter(Generic FW) |
The part numbers for the QLE2872 HBA includes the following items:
- An FC HBA adapter with two 64 Gb FC SW SFP+ transceivers installed
- 3U (full height) and 2U (low-profile) adapter brackets
- Publications flyer
Fiber optic cables
The following table lists the supported cable types and distances.
The following table lists the supported fiber optic cables that are available from Lenovo.
Key features
The ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter has the following features:
- Hardware Root of Trust ensures SAN Integrity with Cryptographically Secured Firmware
- Universal SAN Congestion Mitigation (USCM) helps pinpoint and prevent SAN Congestion utilizing Fabric Performance Indication Notification (FPIN) technology
- Improve scale out NVMe efficiencies by delivering concurrent support for FCP and FC-NVMe
- Greater than 1 million IOPS and 12,800 MBps (12.5 GBps) throughput of full duplex performance per port (double the IOPS and bandwidth for a 2-port adapter)
- Port isolation design delivers deterministic and scalable performance on each port while improving reliability
- Marvell StorFusion technology accelerates deployment, simplifies diagnostics, enhances reliability, and optimizes performance
- Improve database transactional performance, enable faster business decisions with up to 2x faster data mining, and host more VMs
Technical specifications
The ThinkSystem QLogic QLE2872 64Gb 2-Port PCIe Fibre Channel Adapter has the following specifications:
Physical specifications:
- QLE2872: Dual-port Fibre Channel adapter
- Low profile PCIe card (6.6 inches × 2.731 inches)
Host bus interface specifications:
- QLE2872: PCIe 4.0 x8
- Host Interrupts: INTx and MSI-X
- Compliance
- PCIe Base Specification, rev. 4.0
- PCIe Card Electromechanical Specification, rev. 3.0
- PCIe Card Electromechanical Specification, rev. 4.0 draft 0.9
- PCI Bus Power Management Interface Specification, rev. 1.2
- PCI Hot Plug Specification, rev. 1.1
Fibre Channel specifications:
- Throughput: 12,800MBps full duplex line rate per port
- Logins: Support for 2,048 concurrent logins and 2,048 active exchanges per port
- Port Virtualization: NPIV
- Compliance
- SCSI Fibre Channel Protocol-4 (FCP-4)
- Fibre Channel Tape (FC-TAPE) Profile
- Fibre Channel Generation Services-8 (FC-GS-8)
- Fibre Channel-Physical Interface-5 (FC-PI-5)
- Fibre Channel-Physical Interface-6 (FC-PI-6)
- Fibre Channel-Physical Interface-7 (FC-PI-7)
- Fibre Channel Link Services 4 (FC-LS-4)
- Fibre Channel Framing and Signaling-5 (FC-FS-5)
- Fibre Channel-Non Volatile Memory Express-2 (FC-NVMe-2)
Tools and utilities:
- QConvergeConsole unified management tool (CLI)
- Boot support
- BIOS
- Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI)
- Forth code (FCode)
- APIs
- SNIA HBA API V2
- SMI-S
End-to-end provisioning and management features:
The following features require either a supported Brocade or Cisco switch.
- Performance
- QoS CS_CTL
- FEC for 64GFC/32GFC/16GFC
- BB-CR: automatic buffer credit loss detection and recovery
- FPIN and hardware signaling for Universal SAN Congestion Mitigation
- Diagnostics
- Diagnostics Port
- LCB
- RDP
- Deployment and management
- FA-WWN
- F-BLD
- FC ping
- FC traceroute
- VM-ID
- Fabric device management interface (FDMI) enhancements
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.
Storage systems
Lenovo offers the ThinkSystem DE Series, ThinkSystem DG Series and ThinkSystem DM Series external storage systems for high-performance storage. See the DE Series, DG Series and DM Series product guides for specific controller models, expansion enclosures and configuration options:
- ThinkSystem DE Series Storage
https://lenovopress.com/storage/thinksystem/de-series#rt=product-guide - ThinkSystem DM Series Storage
https://lenovopress.com/storage/thinksystem/dm-series#rt=product-guide - ThinkSystem DG Series Storage
https://lenovopress.com/storage/thinksystem/dg-series#rt=product-guide
SAN switches
Lenovo offers the ThinkSystem DB Series of Fibre Channel SAN switches for high-performance storage expansion. See the DB Series product guides for models and configuration options:
- ThinkSystem DB Series SAN Switches:
https://lenovopress.com/storage/switches/rack#rt=product-guide
Warranty
The QLE2872 adapters carry a one-year limited warranty. When installed in a supported server, the adapters assume the server's base warranty and any Lenovo Services warranty upgrade.
Operating environment
The QLE2872 adapters are supported in the following environment:
- Temperature
- Operating: 0°C to 55°C (32°F to 131°F)
- Storage: –20°C to 70°C (–4°F to 158°F)
- Humidity
- Relative (noncondensing): 10% to 90%
- Storage: 5% to 95%
Agency approvals
The QLE2872 adapters conform to the following regulations:
Safety approvals:
- US and Canada
- UL 60950-1
- CSA C22.2
- Europe
- TUV EN60950-1
- TUV IEC 60950-1
- EN IEC 62368 2nd, 3rd Edition
- CB Certified
EMI and EMC (Class A) approvals:
- US and Canada
- FCC Rules, CFR Title 47, Part 15, Subpart Class A
- Industry Canada, ICES-003: Class A
- Europe
- EN55032
- EN55035
- EN61000-3-2
- EN61000-3-3
- Japan
- VCCI: Class A
- New Zealand and Australia
- AS/NZS: Class A
- Korea
- KC-RRA Class A
- Taiwan
- BSMI CNS 13438
- UK
- UKCA
- BS DoC
Related publications and links
For more information, see the following resources:
- Lenovo ServerProven
http://serverproven.lenovo.com - Marvell product page for QLE2872 HBAs
https://www.marvell.com/products/fibre-channel-adapters-and-controllers/2870-series.html - Marvell home page for Lenovo products
https://www.marvell.com/lenovo
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® is a trademark of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries.
Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.
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