How to use Mellanox ConnectX®-4 Lx

Infrastructure & Networking Adapters And Cables
#1

Hello,

I have a ​Mellanox ConnectX®-4 Lx and a Voltaire Grid Director 4036E infiniband switch. I also have a Mellanox cable that goes from 4 of the smaller ends to one of the bigger (regular sized) ends to work for this switch and card (Mellanox Technologies QSFP / 4 SFP+, 1m InfiniBand Cable 4 x SFP+).

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Unfortunately, I’m starting to think that I have the wrong card (and that this only works for Ethernet), because I am unable to change the link type of this card to infiniband. I have followed all the instructions, but it says that the option (LINK_TYPE) isn’t found when I try via the command line.​

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This command just says that LINK_TYPE_P1, LINK_TYPE_P2 is not an existing parameter:

mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4117_pciconf0 set LINK_TYPE_P1=1 LINK_TYPE_P2=1

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And this query here does not show this “LINK_TYPE” as an option at all:

mlxconfig -d /dev/mst/mt4117_pciconf0 q

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Is it impossible to get this adapter to work just like a regular infiniband card… ? Just like how the ConnectX-3 works?​

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Thanks

#2

Hello Shaun,

Thank you for posting your inquiry on the NVIDIA Networking Community.

Unfortunately the ConnectX-4 Lx is an Ethernet adapter only. You will not have the option to change the port-type as with our VPI adapter cards.

Thank you and regards,

~NVIDIA Networking Technical Support

#3

Hey,

Thank you for officially confirming. I thought as much based on research I did, but I wanted to hear it from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. How come you make the cables for it then? https://highgate-it.co.uk/mc2609130-001-mellanox-technologies-qsfp-4-sfp-1m-infiniband-cable-4-x-sfp-black (Unless I guess you can use that older infiniband end as ethernet too… probably…)