HP z840 does not support 40Gb network cards?

[okurum]

Hello,

I have a couple z840 workstations that I want to connect with infiniband network cards.

Quickspecs for z840 (or even the latest desktop workstations) don't list anything faster than 10Gb cards. 

Does anybody know a way around it or can explain why a PCIe gen3 network card is not recognized by the system? 

The cards I want to use are Mellanox ConnectX-3 VPI 40 / 56GbE Dual-Port QSFP Adapter MCX354A-FCBT CX354A

These are PCIe gen3 cards. They are pretty old but fast enough for the application (10Gb is not enough). 

I updated to latest BIOS M60 v.02.47

The slot works, I tested by installing a second GPU. Booted up just fine.

Tried various positions for the network card. I am getting a 6 beep bios error which indicates a graphics card issue (but it's not - it actually does not recognize the network card).

Any help/advice would be appreciated.

[NonSequitur777]

Hi Okurum, perhaps this link is perchance useful to you: Installing the Adapter Cards into the HP Workstation | Flame Products 2022 | Autodesk Knowledge Netw...

Another issue to consider is your OS (Linux) -maybe there is an open source update available.  Just spitballing here.

Good luck!

[okurum]

Thanks for the suggestion but I still get the same 6 beep error. I tried every possible configuration and no luck.

This is not a driver issue, I can't even boot to linux. I wish that was the problem. 

[NonSequitur777]

Interesting.  The HP Z840 appears to be capable to accept at least two different network adapters to support up to 40GB/s bi-directional near line rate throughput: the Intel X540-T2 2-Port 10GbE NIC (K4T75AA) and the HP 560SFP+ 2-Port 10GbE SFP+ NIC (C3N52AA), but not all 40GB/s network adapters, like the Intel X550-T2 2-Port 10GbE NIC (1QL46AA).

Why not your card(s)? -That is a question best reserved for HP (employee) network gurus who may or may not check questions submitted to this forum...

[okurum]

Well, I can only hope they will. 
I still feel like maybe there is a bios solution but haven’t seen anything about it. 

[okurum · Accepted solution]

Finally found the solution: 

Installed the cards on a non-Z840 machine. Non-Z840 pc booted fine.

Flushed the firmware on the card and burned the latest from Firmware for ConnectX®-3 IB/VPI (mellanox.com)

Put it back to z840 - Boots fine and I can see the card listed with lspci

PS: Apparently the cards I bought were taken out from Oracle servers because they had Oracle firmware on them which (I assume) made them unrecognizable by the HP z840. Original firmware from Mellanox works.

Hope this helps someone else one day.