Driver Software and Firmware
Rev 1.9
Mellanox Technologies
24
4.2
VMware
For VMware download and install the latest Mellanox OFED Driver for VMware® ESXi Server-
software package available via the Mellanox web site at:
http://www.mellanox.com
=> Products
=> Software => Ethernet Drivers => ConnectX® EN 10GbE Driver for VMware® ESX Server
=> Download. Follow the installation instructions included in the download package (also avail-
able from the download page).
4.3
FlexBoot
Mellanox FlexBoot is a multiprotocol remote boot technology. FlexBoot supports remote Boot
remote boot over Ethernet, Boot over Ethernet (BoE) or Boot over iSCSI (Bo-iSCSI). Using
Mellanox Virtual Protocol Interconnect (VPI) technologies available in ConnectX® adapters,
FlexBoot gives IT Managers’ the choice to boot from a remote storage target (iSCSI target) or a
LAN target (Ethernet Remote Boot Server) using a single ROM image on Mellanox ConnectX
products.This technology is based on the Preboot Execution Environment (PXE) standard speci-
fication, and FlexBoot software is based on the open source iPXE project (see www.ipxe.org).
For more information go to
http://www.mellanox.com
=> Products => Software => Ethernet
Drivers => FlexBoot => Download.
4.4
RDMA over Converged Ethernet
ConnectX®-3 connected to an Ethernet fabric provides all of the basic NIC functionality plus
RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE). RoCE utilizes advances in Data Center Bridging
(DCB) to enable efficient and low cost implementations of RDMA over Ethernet, supporting the
entire breadth of RDMA and low latency features. This includes reliable connected service, data-
gram service, RDMA and send/receive semantics, atomic operations, user level multicast, user
level I/O access, kernel bypass, and zero copy. This capability is enabled when using the Mella-
nox OFED or WinOF VPI drivers.
ConnectX®-3 EN with RoCE based network management is the same as that for any Ethernet
and DCB-based network management, eliminating the need for IT managers to learn new tech-
nologies.
4.4.1
Hardware and Software Requirements
Software:
•
Mellanox OFED 1.5.3 or WinOF VPI 4.5or later
Hardware:
•
ConnectX®-3 Mezzanine card
4.5
Updating Mezzanine Card Firmware
Each card is shipped with the latest version of qualified firmware at the time of manufacturing.
Firmware is updated occasionally, and the most recent firmware can be obtained from:
http://www.mellanox.com
=> Support => Download Firmware. Check that the firmware on your
card is the latest found on the Mellanox site, if not update to the latest version found on the Mel-
lanox web site.
Firmware can be updated on the stand alone single card using the
flint
tool of the
Mellanox Firm-
ware Tools (MFT)
package. This package is available for download, along with its user manual,
