Abstract
The Intel X710 family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) server network adapters addresses the demanding needs of the next-generation data center. By providing unmatched features for server and network virtualization, small packet performance, and low power; the data center network is flexible, scalable, and resilient.
Change History
Changes in the October 29 update:
Introduction
The Intel X710 family of 10 Gigabit Ethernet (GbE) server network adapters addresses the demanding needs of the next-generation data center. By providing unmatched features for server and network virtualization, small packet performance, and low power; the data center network is flexible, scalable, and resilient.
The X710 is available in three form factors: a standard PCIe low-profile card, a Mezzanine LOM (ML2) form factor for ThinkSystem and System x servers, and an AnyFabric form factor for ThinkServer systems.
The following figure shows the two-port PCIe adapter for System x.
Figure 1. Intel X710 two-port PCIe adapter
Did you know?
The Intel X710 adapters support Intel I/O Virtualization Technology, which helps accelerate data and improves application response times. For virtualized environments, the X710 adapters offer advanced features with VMDq that lower processor usage and increase I/O performance.
Mezzanine LAN-on-Motherboard Generation 2 (ML2) and AnyFabric adapters are cost-effective adapters that offers the flexibility advantages of a PCIe adapter while supporting integrated networking features, such as Wake-on-LAN and direct connectivity to the server's service processor for NCSI-compliant out-of-band systems management.
Supported transceivers and cables
The Intel X710 adapters have empty SFP+ cages that support SFP+ SR or LR transceivers, and direct attached copper (DAC) cables.
The following table lists the supported SFP+ SR and LR transceivers,
The following table lists the supported fiber optic cables.
The following table lists the supported direct-attach copper (DAC) cables and active optical cables (AOC).
* Withdrawn from marketing
Figure 2. Intel X710 ML2 4x10GbE SFP+ Adapter
Features
The Intel X710 adapters are optimized for data center, cloud, and mobile applications and include the following features:
- VXLAN/NVGRE Hardware Offloads: These stateless offloads preserve application performance for overlay networks. With these offloads, it is possible to distribute network traffic across CPU cores. At the same time, X710 offloads LSO, GSO, and checksum from the host software, which reduces CPU overhead.
- Mobile and cloud application acceleration: Intel’s Data Plan Development Kit (DPDK) delivers an open driver where users can fine-tune small packet performance, which delivers line-rate at 128 byte, and near line-rate at 64 byte.
- Low latency: Intel Ethernet Flow Director delivers hardware-based application steering and Intel Data Direct I/O makes the processor cache the primary destination and source of I/O data rather than main memory. Combined, latency is reduced and Intel reports a three-fold improvement in RPS.
- Virtualization performance: With Intel Virtualization Technology (VT), the X710 family of adapters delivers outstanding I/O performance in virtualized server environments. These adapters reduce I/O bottlenecks by providing intelligent offloads for networking traffic per virtual machine (VM), which enables near-line rate speeds for small packets and supports almost an unlimited amount of isolated traffic flows so that you can scale your cloud environment.
- Next-generation VMDq: The X710 adapters support up to 256 VMDq VMs and offer enhanced Quality of Service (QoS) feature by providing weighted round-robin servicing for the Tx data. The adapters offload the data-sorting functionality from the hypervisor to the network silicon, which improves data throughput and CPU usage.
- PCI-SIG SR-IOV implementation: Provides an implementation of the PCI-SIG standard for I/O Virtualization. The physical configuration of each port is divided into multiple virtual ports. Each virtual port is assigned to an individual VM directly by bypassing the virtual switch in the Hypervisor, which results in near-native performance.
- VM load balancing: Provides traffic load balancing (Tx and Rx) across VMs that are bound to the team interface. It also provides fault tolerance if a switch, port, cable, or adapter fails.
The ThinkServer X710-DA2 AnyFabric 10Gb 2 port Ethernet Adapter is shown in the following figure.
Figure 3. ThinkServer X710-DA2 AnyFabric 10Gb 2 port Ethernet Adapter by Intel
Specifications
The Intel X710 adapters have the following specifications:
- Empty SFP+ cages for 10GbE connection supporting SFP+ transceivers or DAC cables
- Host interface:
- PCI Express 3.0; x8
- PCI Power Management/ACPI Extensions
- TLP Processing Hint (TPH) Support
- MSI-X Support
- Energy Efficient Ethernet
- Performance:
- Achieves wire-rate throughput on smaller payload sizes (>64 bytes)
- Standard stack Latency: ~7 µs
- Kernel- Bypass Latency: ~3 µs
- Small Packet Developers Tool Kit
- Virtualization features:
- Microsoft Network Virtualization that uses Generic Routing Encapsulation (NVGRE)
- VMware Virtual Extensible LAN (VXLAN)
- Intel Virtual Technology (VT) with VMDq for virtualization
- SR-IOV direct assignment support
- Virtual Bridging Support: VEPA/802.1Qbg, BPE/802.1Qbh
- Virtual Functions: Up to 128 per device
- Hardware Queue Pairs: Up to 1.5K
- Management features:
- Advanced filtering capabilities (IPv4, IPv6)
- SNMP
- RMON statistic counters
- Wake on LAN support (WoL support is for ML2 and AnyFabric adapters only; first port only)
- NC-SI for IMM shared management port connectivity through port 1 (NCSI support is for ML2 and AnyFabric adapters only)
- Additional features:
- Jumbo Frame Support: 9728 bytes
- VLAN support
- Flow Control
- 1588 Time Synchronization Support
- TCP/IP Layer 2 features:
- Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
- Large Send Offload (LSO)
- TCP/UDP/IP/SCTP Checksum Offload
- IPv4, IPv6
- Supports iSCSI as an iSCSI software initiator
- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN support with VLAN tag insertion, with stripping and packet filtering for up to 4096 VLAN tags.
- IEEE 802.3x flow control support.
- IEEE 802.1p Class of Service (CoS)/QoS.
- Support for Advanced Packet Filtering.
- Teaming support:
- Adapter Fault Tolerance (AFT)
- Switch Fault Tolerance (SFT)
- Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)
- VM Load Balancing (VMLB)
- IEEE 802.3ad (link aggregation control protocol)
- Intel PROSet Utility for easy configuration and management.
- UEFI and legacy PXE boot
- Option ROM:
- PCIe adapter: Disabled on both ports by default.
- ML2 adapter: Enabled on all ports by default.
- AnyFabric adapters: Enabled on all ports by default.
- RoHS compliance that is based on latest 2014 standards.
Standards supported
The X710 adapters support the following IEEE standards:
- IEEE 802.1p CoS traffic prioritization
- IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
- IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation Control Protocol
- IEEE 802.3x Full-duplex flow control
- IEEE 802.3ae 10GBASE-SR short range fiber optics 10 Gb Ethernet
- 10GSFP+Cu SFP+ Direct Attach copper
- IEEE 1588, 802.1as Time Sync
The ThinkServer X710-DA4 AnyFabric 10Gb 4 port Ethernet Adapter is shown in the following figure.
Figure 4. ThinkServer X710-DA4 AnyFabric 10Gb 4 port Ethernet Adapter by Intel
Server support - ThinkSystem
The following table lists the ThinkSystem servers that are compatible.
* Support is planned for 4Q/2017
Server support - System x
The following tables list the System x servers that are compatible.
Support for System x and dense servers with Xeon E5/E7 v4 and E3 v5 processors
Support for System x and dense servers with Intel Xeon v3 processors
Support for servers with Intel Xeon v2 processors
For more information about the System x servers that support this adapter (including support for older servers), see ServerProven at this website: http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven/xseries/lan/matrix.shtml
Server support - ThinkServer
The Intel X710 adapters are supported in the servers that are listed in the following tables.
Support for ThinkServer Generation 5 rack & tower servers
This table includes both servers with E5-2600 v3 processors and E5-2600 v4 processors.
For more information about ThinkServer support, see the ThinkServer Options Compatibility Matrix available from http://www.lenovo.com/accessoriesguide
Operating system support
The Intel X710 10 Gb Ethernet adapters support the following operating systems:
- Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012
- Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2
- Microsoft Windows Server 2016
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Server x64 Edition
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 for AMD64/EM64T
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 11 with Xen for AMD64/EM64T
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12
- SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 with XEN
- VMware vSphere 5.5 (ESXi)
- VMware vSphere 6.0 (ESXi)
- VMware vSphere 6.5 (ESXi)
For more information about the specific supported versions and service packs, see the following ServerProven web page:
http://www.lenovo.com/us/en/serverproven/xseries/lan/matrix.shtml
Select the check mark that is associated with the server in question to see the operating system support information.
Physical specifications
The physical specifications of the adapters are described in this section.
The Intel X710 2x10GbE SFP+ Adapter has the following dimensions:
- Length: 168 mm (6.6 in.)
- Width: 69 mm (2.7 in.)
- Height: 15 mm (0.6 in.)
The Intel X710 ML2 4x10GbE SFP+ Adapter has the following dimensions:
- Height: 69 mm (2.7 in.)
- Length: 168 mm (6.6 in.)
- Width: 17 mm (0.7 in.)
The AnyFabric adapters have the following dimensions:
- Width: 165 mm (6.5 in)
- Depth: 73 mm (2.9 in)
- Height: 16 mm (0.6 in)
The adapters have the following shipping box dimensions (approximate):
- Length: 238 mm (9.4 in.)
- Width: 143 mm (5.6 in.)
- Height: 51 mm (2.0 in.)
Operating environment
These adapters are supported in the following environment:
- Operating temperature: 0 - 55 °C (32 - 131 °F)
- Storage temperature: -20 - 65 °C (-4 - 149 °F)
- Shipping conditions: -20 - 70 °C (-4 - 158 °F)
- Air flow requirement (LFPM): 45 minimum
- Wet bulb (max): 27 °C (81 °F)
- Relative humidity (operating/nonoperating): 10% - 90%
- Relative humidity (shipping): 5% - 95%, no condensation
- Relative humidity (storage): 5% - 80%
- Maximum dew point (operating): 21 °C (70 °F)
- Maximum operating altitude: 7,000 feet (2,134 m)
- Vibration and shock: IEC 68, FCC Part 68.302, NSTA, 1A
- Electrostatic/electromagnetic susceptibility: IEC 801-2, -3, -4, and -5
Warranty
One-year limited warranty. When installed in a supported server, these adapters assume the system’s base warranty and any warranty upgrade.
Agency approvals
The System x and ThinkSystem adapters conform to the following standards:
- EN55022
- EN55024
- EN 61000-3-2
- EN 61000-3-3
- ICES-003, Issue-004
- FCC 47 CFR Part 15 Class A
- VCCI
- AS/NZS CISPR 22 / C-tick
- RRL for KC
- BSMI
- UL 94 V-1
The ThinkServer adapters conform to the following standards:
- EN55022
- EN55024
- EN 61000-3-2
- EN 61000-3-3
- ICES-003, Issue-004
- FCC 47 CFR Part 15 Class A
- AS/NZS CISPR 22 / C-tick
- UL 94 V-1
Top-of-rack Ethernet switches
The following 10 Gb Ethernet top-of-rack switches are supported.
Table 10. 10Gb Ethernet Top-of-rack switches
| Part number |
Description |
| Switches mounted at the rear of the rack (rear-to-front airflow) |
| 7159A1X |
Lenovo ThinkSystem NE1032 RackSwitch (Rear to Front) |
| 7159B1X |
Lenovo ThinkSystem NE1032T RackSwitch (Rear to Front) |
| 7159C1X |
Lenovo ThinkSystem NE1072T RackSwitch (Rear to Front) |
| 7159BR6 |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8124E (Rear to Front) |
| 7159G64 |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8264 (Rear to Front) |
| 7159DRX |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8264CS (Rear to Front) |
| 7159CRW |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8272 (Rear to Front) |
| 7159GR6 |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8296 (Rear to Front) |
| Switches mounted at the front of the rack (front-to-rear airflow) |
| 7159BF7 |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8124E (Front to Rear) |
| 715964F |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8264 (Front to Rear) |
| 7159DFX |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8264CS (Front to Rear) |
| 7159CFV |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8272 (Front to Rear) |
| 7159GR5 |
Lenovo RackSwitch G8296 (Front to Rear) |
For more information, see the Lenovo Press Product Guides in the 10Gb top-of-rack switch category:
https://lenovopress.com/networking/tor/10gb
Related product families
Product families related to this document are the following:
