SFP+ 10G network card for a new Proxmox setup

[Michael Andreasen]

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out what SFP+ 10G network card to buy for a new Proxmox server.
Is there any compatibility page?
Or is there a standard recommendation?
The server setup is on a budget

 

[LnxBil]

Is there any compatibility page?

PVE is using an Ubuntu LTS kernel, so their hcl hopefully answers your question.

Or is there a standard recommendation?
The server setup is on a budget

Every standard enterprise hardware should work. For my setup, I bought used-enterprise parts from ebay all well under 100 € including the GBIC. Over the years I used Intel 82599ES, various Broadcom, QLogic Corp. cLOM8214 and many more. Haven't had any NIC that didn't work.

 

[ucholak]

i only highly dont recommend intel x520 / 82599ES, it has always problems with some gbics and

options ixgbe allow_unsupported_sfp=1 # OR modprobe ixgbe allow_unsupported_sfp=1

not works on proxmox

 

[zodiac]

I shopped for surplus on EBay and found an inexpensive card based on an old Marvel FastLinQ QL41000 chipset. It's automatically supported by the "qede" driver. Despite being relatively dated hardware at this point (~5 years old), it works just fine and the price was right. The only problem was that I had to disable some of the hardware offloading. My VLAN and bridges didn't do the right thing until I turned off hardware transmit checksums. I now have 4 ports that all can do 10GigE.

 

[emunt6]

Hi!

Use Broadcom (BCM) chipset based cards.

Do not use any INTEL chipset based cards, the newer kernels ( 5.x ; 6.x ) has many problems (Intel 5xx , 7xx , 8xx series cards) with these, because using some new "redesigned" driver.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000025890/ethernet-products.html

 

[ucholak]

Hi!

Use Broadcom (BCM) chipset based cards.

Do not use any INTEL chipset based cards, the newer kernels ( 5.x ; 6.x ) has many problems (Intel 5xx , 7xx , 8xx series cards) with these, because using some new "redesigned" driver.

https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000025890/ethernet-products.html

pls can you link or post some more info on these problems? tnx much

PS: i have X710 (module i40e) and have strange problems, that are very hard to diagnose and point, maybe this is one of them

 

[Michael Andreasen]

Thank you so much everyone, very nice with fast replies.
I will go thru the Ubuntu list when I find a bargin on a 10G SFP+ card.

 

[emunt6]

pls can you link or post some more info on these problems? tnx much

PS: i have X710 (module i40e) and have strange problems, that are very hard to diagnose and point, maybe this is one of them

It has many forum topics about it.
Other possibility, your card is "counterfeit" - not original - you can check the difference between "fake" or "original" cards as described here:

https://www.servethehome.com/identifying-risky-counterfeit-intel-gigabit-ct-network-adapters/
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/intel-x540-t2-fake-chinese-counterfeit.9715/
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/comparison-intel-i350-t4-genuine-vs-fake.6917/

 

[etnicor]

It has many forum topics about it.
Other possibility, your card is "counterfeit" - not original - you can check the difference between "fake" or "original" cards as described here:

https://www.servethehome.com/identifying-risky-counterfeit-intel-gigabit-ct-network-adapters/
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/intel-x540-t2-fake-chinese-counterfeit.9715/
https://forums.servethehome.com/index.php?threads/comparison-intel-i350-t4-genuine-vs-fake.6917/

Aren't most of these so called "counterfeit" cards just Intel chipsets which are put on own designed pcb's. Like x710-bm2 chipsets which are sold in bulk by Intel, which is later sold as X710-DA2 cards which is semi incorrect though.

Don't have any experience of x710 yet, but have bought chinese x520 card which have no problems. They are definietly not Intel genuine cards though..

I would choose x710 over x520 though since X520 do not support aspm.

Have a genuine intel X710-da2 running in a machine and don't have any issues. My chinese X520 cards don't have any problems after 2 years 24/7 action either.