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knowledge-base/CONNECTIVITY.en.md
Stanislav Hubacek ef3c2f75b1 18.6.2026
2026-06-18 16:25:33 +02:00

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🔌 Server connectivity — network and storage connectivity

Ethernet — network connectivity

Speeds and formats

Speed Designation Form factor Cabling Standard year Use case
1 GbE 1000BASE-T RJ45 (copper) Cat5e/Cat6 1999 Management, legacy
10 GbE 10GBASE-T / SFP+ RJ45 / SFP+ Cat6A (30m) / Cat7 (100m) / DAC / SR/LR 2006 Common server, storage
25 GbE 25GBASE-R SFP28 Cat8 (30m) / DAC (5m) / SR/LR (100m/10km) 2016 Standard for servers (2020+)
40 GbE 40GBASE-R QSFP+ DAC (7m) / SR (150m) / LR (10km) 2010 Legacy, spine
50 GbE 50GBASE-R SFP56 DAC / SR / LR 2018 Emerging server
100 GbE 100GBASE-R QSFP28 DAC (3m) / SR4 (100m) / LR4 (10km) / PSM4 (500m) 2015 Spine, storage, AI
200 GbE 200GBASE-R QSFP56 DAC / SR4 / DR4 2019 AI/ML, HPC
400 GbE 400GBASE-R QSFP-DD / OSFP DAC (2.5m) / SR8 (100m) / DR4 (500m) / FR4 (2km) 2017 AI training, hyperscale
800 GbE 800GBASE-R QSFP-DD800 / OSFP DAC (2m) / SR8 (100m) / DR8 (500m) 2024 Next-gen AI/ML

Recommendations for servers (2026):

  • Standard: 2× 25 GbE (management + data) or 2× 100 GbE for demanding workloads
  • AI/ML training: 8× 400 GbE (InfiniBand preferred for GPU communication)
  • Storage: 2× 25/100 GbE (iSCSI/NFS) or dedicated FC (16/32 Gbps)

NIC form factor

Form factor PCIe lanes Speed Use case
OCP 3.0 x8/x16 25/100/200 GbE Modern servers (Dell, HPE), small form factor
PCIe HHHL x8 25/50 GbE Standard 1U/2U servers
PCIe FHHL x16 100/200/400 GbE GPU servers, high-density
Mezzanine x8 10/25 GbE Blade servers (HPE Synergy, Dell MX)
LOM (LAN on Motherboard) — 1/10/25 GbE Integrated, basic connectivity

NIC features

Feature Description Benefit
TSO/GRO TCP Segmentation Offload / Generic Receive Offload Reduced CPU load for TCP
LRO/LSO Large Receive/Send Offload Equivalent of TSO/GRO for legacy
RSS Receive Side Scaling Distribution of incoming packets across multiple CPU cores
RPS/RFS Receive Packet Steering / Flow Steering Software RSS, cache affinity
XDP eXpress Data Path BPF-based packet processing (DDoS, load balancer)
RDMA (RoCE v2) RDMA over Converged Ethernet GPU direct communication, storage (NVMe-oF)
iWARP RDMA over TCP RDMA without special switch (higher latency)
DPDK Data Plane Development Kit Userspace for packet processing (VNF, vSwitch)
VXLAN/NVGRE offload HW offload for tunneling Overlay networking (VMware NSX, OpenStack)
SR-IOV Single Root I/O Virtualization Direct NIC access for VMs (VF), low latency
Flow Bifurcation Split NIC traffic between kernel and DPDK Concurrent management and high-speed data path
PTP (IEEE 1588) Precision Time Protocol Financial services, 5G, telco

NIC selection per workload

Workload Recommended NIC Rationale
Web / API servers 2× 25 GbE SFP28, OCP Low cost, sufficient bandwidth
Virtualization (VMware) 2× 25 GbE (SR-IOV, VXLAN offload) SR-IOV for VMs, VXLAN for NSX
Database (OLTP) 2× 25/100 GbE (RSS, low latency) Low latency, RSS for CPU scaling
Storage (NFS/iSCSI) 2× 25/100 GbE (RoCE v2) RDMA for NVMe-oF, low latency
Storage (FC SAN) 2× 32 Gb FC HBA SAN for VMware VMFS, block storage
AI/ML training 8× 400 GbE + InfiniBand NDR GPU communication, data ingestion
AI/ML inference 4× 100 GbE (RoCE v2) Model serving, GPU direct
HPC InfiniBand NDR 400 Gbps MPI communication, low latency
Telco / Edge 2× 25 GbE (DPDK, PTP) VNF, 5G UPF, low latency

Storage connectivity

Fibre Channel (FC) SAN

Generation Speed Designation Form factor Reach (SMF) Use case
Gen 5 16 Gbps 16GFC SFP+ 10 km Legacy SAN
Gen 6 32 Gbps 32GFC SFP28 10 km Current standard
Gen 7 64 Gbps 64GFC SFP56 10 km Emerging, high-performance
Gen 8 128 Gbps 128GFC QSFP28 10 km Emerging (first production deployments)

HBA (Host Bus Adapter):

Manufacturer Model Speed PCIe Ports Features
Broadcom / Emulex LPe35000 32 GFC PCIe 3.0 x8 1-2 NVMe-FC, T10-PI, SR-IOV
Broadcom / Emulex LPe36000 64 GFC PCIe 4.0 x16 1-2 NVMe-FC, FC-NVMe
Marvell / QLogic QLE2770 32 GFC PCIe 3.0 x8 1-2 FC-NVMe, T10-PI
Marvell / QLogic QLE2870 64 GFC PCIe 4.0 x8 1-2 NVMe-FC, 64GFC

FC SAN topology:

Server ──HBA── FC Switch ──── Storage Array (FC port)
          │          │
          │     ┌────┴────┐
          │     │  Fabric  │
          │     └─────────┘
          │
    ──── ISL (Inter-Switch Link) ──── backup fabric (B)

Zoning (FC):

Zone A: Server1_HBA1 + Storage_Port1 (production)
Zone B: Server1_HBA2 + Storage_Port2 (backup fabric)
Zone C: Backup_Server + Storage_Target (backup)

iSCSI

Property iSCSI Note
Transport TCP/IP (port 3260) Over standard Ethernet
Speed 1/10/25/100 GbE Same as Ethernet
Initiator SW (OS) or HW (TOE) SW initiator free, ~5-10 % CPU load
Multipathing MPIO (Multiple Connections per Session) Up to 8 paths, active/active or active/passive
CHAP Authentication Mutual CHAP recommended
Jumbo frames Recommended MTU 9000 Reduced CPU overhead, higher throughput
Use case Small and medium SAN, backup, DR Cheaper than FC, lower performance

iSCSI configuration:

# Software initiator (Linux)
iscsiadm -m discovery -t sendtargets -p 10.0.0.100:3260
iscsiadm -m node --login -T iqn.2024-05.storage:array01

# Multipath (dm-multipath)
mpathconf --enable --with_multipathd y
# /etc/multipath.conf: aliases, failback, rr_min_io

NVMe-oF (NVMe over Fabrics)

Transport Protocol Latency CPU overhead Use case
NVMe over FC FC-NVMe (FC Gen 6/7) <10 µs Low Enterprise SAN, VMware
NVMe over RDMA (RoCE v2) RDMA (RoCE) <5 µs Very low AI/ML, HPC, K8s (CSI)
NVMe over TCP TCP ~50 µs Moderate (10-20 % CPU) Standard Ethernet, no RDMA
NVMe over InfiniBand IB RC/UC <3 µs Lowest HPC, AI training

NVMe-oF comparison:

Property FC-NVMe NVMe/RoCE NVMe/TCP NVMe/IB
Latency (target) ~8 µs ~4 µs ~50 µs ~3 µs
Bandwidth 64 Gbps 100/200 GbE 25/100 GbE NDR 400 Gbps
Requires special HW FC HBA + switch RoCE NIC + DCB switch Standard NIC IB HCA + switch
Ecosystem Broadcom, Marvell NVIDIA, Broadcom OS built-in NVIDIA Mellanox
Use case VMware, enterprise SAN AI/ML, K8s, HPC SMB, K8s, cost-effective HPC, large AI

SAS (Serial Attached SCSI)

Generation Speed Cabling Reach Use case
SAS 3 12 Gbps SAS cable (SFF-8644) 6-10 m Legacy storage, DAS
SAS 4 22.5 Gbps SAS cable (SFF-8644) 6-10 m Current standard
SAS 5 45 Gbps SAS cable (SFF-8644) 6-10 m Emerging

SAS topology: Server → SAS HBA → SAS expander → SAS disk (point-to-point, not shared like FC)

Server connectivity — decision matrix

Workload Primary Secondary Management
Web / API 2× 25 GbE (LACP) — 1× 1 GbE BMC
Database 2× 25/100 GbE (RSS) 2× 32 Gb FC (SAN) 1× 1 GbE BMC
Virtualization 4× 25 GbE (SR-IOV) 2× 32 Gb FC (VMFS) 1× 1 GbE BMC
Kubernetes 2× 25/100 GbE — 1× 1 GbE BMC
Storage node 2× 100 GbE (RoCE) 2× 25 GbE (management) 1× 1 GbE BMC
AI training 8× 400 GbE + IB NDR 4× 100 GbE (storage) 1× 1 GbE BMC
AI inference 4× 100 GbE (RoCE) 2× 25 GbE (management) 1× 1 GbE BMC
HPC InfiniBand NDR 2× 100 GbE (storage) 1× 1 GbE BMC

Server NIC placement (PCIe slot optimization)

2U Server (GPU/AI):
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ PCIe 0: GPU (x16) — NVLink / InfiniBand (x16)   │
│ PCIe 1: GPU (x16) — NIC 100 GbE (x16)           │
│ PCIe 2: GPU (x16)                                │
│ PCIe 3: GPU (x16)                                │
│ PCIe 4: GPU (x16)                                │
│ PCIe 5: GPU (x16) — NIC 100 GbE (x16)           │
│ PCIe 6: Storage HBA / NIC (x8)                   │
│ PCIe 7: Management / OCP (x8)                    │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

1U Standard:
┌─────────────────────────────────┐
│ OCP: 2× 25 GbE (management)     │
│ PCIe 0: NIC 25 GbE (x8)        │
│ PCIe 1: Storage HBA / FC (x8)  │
│ PCIe 2: GPU (x16, optional)    │
│ PCIe 3: NVMe (x4, M.2)        │
└─────────────────────────────────┘

NVIDIA Mellanox ConnectX NICs

NVIDIA Mellanox is a leading manufacturer of NIC adapters for AI/HPC and cloud data centers.

Model PCIe Max speed Form factor Key features
ConnectX-5 PCIe 3.0 x16 100 GbE (dual) HHHL RoCE, NVMe-oF target offload, MPI offload
ConnectX-6 Dx PCIe 4.0 x16 200 GbE (1-port) / 100 GbE (2-port) HHHL, OCP 3.0 ASAP² vSwitch offload, IPsec/TLS inline crypto, AES-XTS, 215 Mpps DPDK
ConnectX-6 Lx PCIe 4.0 x8 25 GbE (dual) HHHL, OCP 3.0 RoCE, Secure Boot, low-power
ConnectX-7 PCIe 5.0 x16 400 GbE (1-port) / 200 GbE (2-port) HHHL NDR InfiniBand + 400GbE, GPUDirect, SHARP
ConnectX-8 PCIe 6.0 x16 800 GbE (1-port) / 400 GbE (2-port) HHHL XDR InfiniBand, sub-500ns latency, in-network computing, multi-host

Platforms: Spectrum-X Ethernet (end-to-end AI networking), Quantum InfiniBand, BlueField DPU.

Broadcom Emulex FC HBA

Model Speed PCIe Ports Features
LPe35000 (Gen 7) 32 GFC PCIe 3.0 x8 1-2 NVMe-FC, T10-PI (DIF), SR-IOV, Silicon Root of Trust
LPe35002 (Gen 7) 32 GFC PCIe 3.0 x8 2 NVMe-FC, Secure Boot, digitally signed firmware
LPe36000 (Gen 7) 64 GFC PCIe 4.0 x16 1-2 First 64GFC HBA on the market, 10M IOPS, 3× better latency than Gen 6

Key features: NVMe over FC support, T10 DIF (Data Integrity Field), 10M MTBF, NIST SP 800-193 compliant. Gen 7 delivers up to 10M IOPS and 3× lower latency compared to Gen 6.

NVMe-oF specification

NVMe over Fabrics (NVMe-oF) extends the NVMe protocol from local PCIe to network transports. First specification 1.0 released in June 2016, currently part of NVMe 2.3 (August 2025). Supported transports:

Transport Specification Use case
NVMe over PCIe NVMe Base Local NVMe SSD
NVMe over RDMA (RoCE, InfiniBand, iWARP) NVMe Transport AI/ML, HPC, lowest latency <5 µs
NVMe over TCP NVMe Transport Standard Ethernet, no RDMA, latency ~50 µs
NVMe over FC (FC-NVMe) INCITS T11 Enterprise SAN, FC fabric

NVMe 2.3 adds Computational Programs Command Set, Storage Level Management (SLM), and Zoned Namespaces (ZNS). NVMe-MI defines the management interface.

Dell PowerEdge R760 — NIC placement

Dell R760 server supports:

  • OCP 3.0 adapters (up to 2×) — 1/10/25/100 GbE
  • PCIe Gen5 slots — 8× slots (6× FHHL + 2× LP)
  • LOM — 2× 1 GbE Broadcom 5720 on motherboard
  • Maximum NIC speed: 100 GbE (QSFP56)
  • Supported types: RJ45, SFP+, SFP28, QSFP28, QSFP56

Recommended configurations:

  • Standard: OCP 3.0 2× 25 GbE + PCIe storage HBA
  • AI/ML: PCIe 100 GbE (riser config 1, slot 1-2) + GPU in other slots

HPE Gen11 NIC options

HPE ProLiant Gen11 (DL360/DL380) supports:

  • OCP 3.0 slots (up to 2) — 10/25/100/200 GbE (Broadcom, Intel, NVIDIA Mellanox)
  • PCIe Gen5 adapters — 8× slots (DL380) / 3× slots (DL360)
  • iLO 6 dedicated management port (1 GbE)
  • Supported NICs: Broadcom BCM57412 (10GbE), BCM57504 (25GbE), NVIDIA ConnectX-6 Dx (100GbE)

Sources

Links, books, and standards: sources/infrastructure/sources.en.md

Recommended literature

Book Authors ISBN Description
AI Data Center Network Design and Technologies (1st ed., 2026) Subramaniam, Styszynski, Tambakuwala 978-0-13-543628-8 First vendor-agnostic guide to network design for AI training and inference. Covers high-radix fabric, lossless Ethernet/IP, UEC technologies, cooling and power for AI clusters. Authors from HPE Juniper Networking.

Last revision: 2026-06-03

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