Intel S2600CP4 Network Support

[Davewolfs]

This board comes with 4 GB ethernet ports and is validated for ESXI 5.0 and ESXI 5.0 U1.  Can anyone confirm that all networking ports will work with VMWare?

Thank you!

[seetee]

The key thing to do with the Intel Serverboards is to checkout the TPS (Technical Product Specification) for the Board; any TPS updates; and any forum messages @ Intel about the board.  Also make sure you subscribe to the RSS Feed for the product - so that you can be notified of BIOS updates and the like.  Intel are very good with updates and builds when they discover issues with the server products in the field.

A quick check shows that it looks like a pretty new NIC and the TPS update shows that there could potentially be some issues with the NICs - see http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/server/s2600cp/sb/s2600cp_msu_june12.pdf 

The type of issue identified is something that might not be picked up @ hcl certification time - looks like it is more a tick in the box rather than any load/stress testing.

There are instances where Intel Serverboards are on the HCL but with NICs that VMWare have not provided driver support for.

I would go back to your reseller/distributor and ask for a demo/proof system.....and load it to see if there is any issue.

[Davewolfs]

I assume you are referring to the Windows 7/2008 Server CPU utilization issues that are posted.

So aside from this (which seems major for anyone using windows) is it safe to assume that this board should work on ESXI since it is an approved board?

[seetee]

As mentioned, I'd want to proof this first.

The Intel Powerville ethernet chip is very new and given what Windows users are experiencing, i would want to know that is fine with ESXi before going ahead with it.  There are HP and IBM servers which are based on this new intel platform.  Even if the NICs are identified correctly by ESXi, you may later see things grinding to a halt - as with the Windows builds in the TPS Update/TA.

The TPS update also points to issue with UEFI and ACPI......which may have a bearing on the installation of ESXi.

If it was my site, I'd want a demo system to play with first before shelling out the money and later needing to put in a PCIe quad port nic card.