HP supports 40Gbps 4x Quad Data Rate (QDR) and 20Gbps 4X Double Data Rate (DDR) InfiniBand products that include Host Channel Adapters (HCA), switches, and cables for HP ProLiant servers, and HP Integrity servers.

For details on the InfiniBand support for HP BladeSystem c-Class and server blades, please refer to the HP InfiniBand for HP BladeSystem c-Class QuickSpecs at: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12586_na/12586_na.html.

HP supports InfiniBand Products from InfiniBand technology partners Mellanox, Voltaire and QLogic.

The following InfiniBand products based on Mellanox technologies are available from HP

• HP IB 4X QDR CX-2 PCI-e G2 Dual-port HCA
• HP IB 4X DDR CX-2 PCI-e G2 Dual-port HCA
• HP IB 4X DDR PCI-e Dual-port HCA
• Mellanox IB 4X QDR 324-port switch

The HP IB 4X QDR CX-2 PCI-e G2 Dual-port and DDR CX-2 PCI-e G2 Dual-port HCAs are based on the Mellanox ConnectX-2 IB technology. The HP IB 4X DDR PCI-e Dual-port is based on the Mellanox InfiniHost III technology. The Mellanox ConnectX-2 InfiniBand technology delivers low-latency and high-bandwidth for performance-driven server and storage clustering applications in High-performance computing (HPC), and enterprise data centers. Parallelized HPC applications, clustered data bases, and latency and bandwidth sensitive transactional services will achieve significant performance improvements resulting in reduced completion time and lower cost per operation.

InfiniBand host stack software (driver) is required to run on servers connected to the InfiniBand fabric. For HCAs based on Mellanox technologies, HP supports Mellanox OFED driver stacks on Linux 64-bit operating systems, and Mellanox WinOF driver stack on Microsoft Windows (HPC) server 2008.

The Mellanox IB 4X QDR 324-port switch is the MTS3610 chassis switch that provides the high performance fabric solution by delivering high bandwidth and low-latency to Enterprise Data Centers and High-Performance Computing environments in a compact 19RU chassis.

An InfiniBand fabric is constructed with one or more InfiniBand switches connected via inter-switch links. The most commonly deployed fabric topology is a fat tree or its variations. A subnet manager is required to manage an InfiniBand fabric. OpenSM is a host-based subnet manager that runs on a server connected to the InfiniBand fabric. Mellanox OFED software stack includes OpenSM for Linux, and Mellanox WinOF includes OpenSM for Windows. For comprehensive management and monitoring capabilities, Mellanox FabricIT™ is recommended for managing the InfiniBand fabric based on Mellanox InfiniBand products.

The following InfiniBand products based on Voltaire technologies are available from HP

• Voltaire IB 4X QDR 36-port switch
• Voltaire IB 4X QDR 324-port director switch
• Voltaire IB 4X DDR 24-port internally managed, and externally managed switches
• Voltaire IB 4X DDR 96- port and 288-port DDR director switches

Voltaire IB 4X QDR 36-port switch is an internally managed switch. Voltaire IB 4X 324-port switch is a director-class switch that features 324 ports of 40 Gb/s InfiniBand connectivity in a 19U chassis. With Voltaire HyperScale™ technology, two 324-port switches configured with 648P fabric boards can be connected via CXP cables to form a 648-port 4X QDR switch.

For HCAs based on Mellanox technologies, HP supports Voltaire OFED driver stacks on Linux 64-bit operating systems, when Voltaire switches are used in the solution. A right-to-use (RTU) license is required for Voltaire OFED driver stack. A subnet manager is required to manage an InfiniBand fabric. For comprehensive management and monitoring capabilities, Voltaire Unified Fabric Manager™ (UFM) is recommended for managing the InfiniBand fabric based on Voltaire InfiniBand switch products and Mellanox HCA products with Voltaire OFED stack.

The following InfiniBand products based on QLogic technologies are available from HP

• QLogic IB 4X QDR PCI-e G2 Dual-port HCA
• QLogic IB 4X QDR 36-port Switch
• QLogic IB 4X QDR 324-Port Switch
• QLogic IB 4X QDR 648-Port Switch

The QLogic IB 4X QDR HCA is part of the QLogic family of InfiniBand Host Channel Adapters based on the TrueScale ASIC architecture. It has a unique hardware architecture that delivers unprecedented levels of performance, reliability, and scalability, making it an ideal solution for highly scaled High Performance Computing (HPC) and high throughput, low-latency enterprise applications.

InfiniBand host stack software (driver) is required to run on servers connected to the InfiniBand fabric. For HCAs based on QLogic technology, HP supports QLogic OFED driver stacks on Linux 64-bit operating systems.

QLogic IB 4X QDR 36 Port Switch, QLogic IB 4X QDR 324 Port Switch and QLogic IB 4X QDR 648 Port Switch are based on QLogic TrueScale™ technology. The QLogic 36-port switch supports QLogic BLc 4X QDR IB Management Module (505959-B21). QLogic 324- and 648-port switch chassis are configurable: with the QLogic 18-port high performance leaf modules, they can be configured to support up to 324 and 648 ports, respectively; with the QLogic 24-port high density leaf modules, they can be configured to support up to 432 and 864 ports, respectively, with 2:1 oversubscribed bandwidth on the backplane.

An InfiniBand fabric is constructed with one or more InfiniBand switches connected via inter-switch links. The most commonly deployed fabric topology is a fat tree or its variations. A subnet manager is required to manage an InfiniBand fabric. OpenSM is a host-based subnet manager that runs on a server connected to the InfiniBand fabric. QLogic OFED software stack includes OpenSM for Linux. For comprehensive management and monitoring capability, QLogic InfiniBand Fabric Suite (IFS) is recommended for managing the InfiniBand fabric based on QLogic InfiniBand products.

HP supports InfiniBand copper and fiber optic cables with CX4 to CX4, CX4 to QSFP, and QSFP to QSFP connectors. The CX4 to CX4 copper cables range from 0.5M to 8M for HCA to switch, or inter-switch links at DDR speed, and up to 12M for certain inter-switch links at DDR speed. The CX4 to CX4 fiber optic cables range from 1M to 100M for HCA to switch, or inter-switch links at DDR speed. Please note that only 12 ports on Voltaire 24-port DDR switches support fiber optic cables. The CX4 to QSFP copper cables range from 1M to 5M for HCA to switch, or inter-switch links at either DDR or QDR speed. The QSFP to QSFP copper cables range from 1M to 7M for HCA to switch, or inter-switch links at either DDR or QDR speed (please note that QLogic QDR switches only support up to 5 meters at QDR speed) , and up to 10M at DDR speed. The QSFP to QSFP fiber optic cables range from 3M to 30M for HCA to switch, or inter-switch links at either DDR or QDR speed.

4X QDR ports on 4X QDR HCA cards and switches run at 40 Gbps signaling rate, with a peak data rate of 32 Gbps each direction, 4X DDR ports on 4X DDR HCA cards and switches run at 20 Gbps signaling rate, with a peak data rate of 16 Gbps each direction.

• 4X QDR HCA cards (Mellanox and QLogic): PCI Express 2.0 x8
• 4X DDR ConnectX cards: PCI Express 2.0 x8 (1.1 compliant)
• InfiniHost III card: PCI Express revision 1.0a
• IBTA version 1.1 or 1.2 compatible

• Mellanox OFED for Linux (64-bit)
  • RHEL 5, RHEL 5 U1, RHEL 5 U2SLES10, SLES10 SP1, SLES10 SP1 (up1) SLES 10 SP2,, RHEL 4 U4,U5, U6,
• Mellanox WinOF for Microsoft Windows HPC server 2008 (64-bit)
• Voltaire OFED for Linux: (64-bit)
• RHEL 4 U4, 5, 6, 7, and RHEL 5 U1, 2
• SLES 10 SP1, 2, 3
• QLogic OFED+ for Linux (64-bit)
• RHEL 5.2, 5.3
• SLES 10 SP2, 11
• CentOS (Rocks) 5.2, 5.3
• Scientific Linux 5.2, 5.3

InfiniBand QDR ports support auto-negotiation down to DDR/SDR, InfiniBand DDR ports support auto-negotiation down to SDR. For example, external uplink ports of a DDR switch blade will negotiate down to SDR speed if they are connected to a device which can only operate at SDR.

Self-discovery is supported by subnet manager. Check the documents of the specific subnet manager for more details: http://www.docs.hp.com.

Mellanox OFED, Voltaire OFED and QLogic OFED+ include drivers and utilities to configure and manage the HCA in a Linux environment and Mellanox WinOF includes drivers and utilities to configure and manage the HCA in the Microsoft Windows server HPC 2008 environment.

InfiniBand fabric has to be set up with a subnet manager: see the subnet manager discussion above.

The IB HCA cards have one year for parts exchange only or the warranty of the server it is attached to whichever is greater.

The IB switches have one year parts exchange warranty. Enhancements to warranty services are available through Flexible CarePack services. The following Flexible CarePack services are available for the IB switch products:

• 1, 3, 4, 5 year Next Business Day HW Support
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year Same Day HW Support
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year 24x7 HW Support
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year 6 hour Call to Repair HW Support
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year Support Plus Service
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year Support Plus 24 Service
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year Proactive 24 Service
• 1, 3, 4, 5 year Critical Service

NOTE: InfiniBand management software suites licenses include one year email support and updates.
NOTE: For more information, visit HP Care Pack Services at: http://www.hp.com/services.