prepared in case they 10GB CNA reported errors during

One of our storage partners sent over some second-generation (Gen2) Qlogic QLE8142 dual-port converged network adapters 10GB CNA for me to use. These adapters joined the Emulex CNAs that I had already procured for the lab, and I’d use the Qlogic and Emulex 10GB CNA to connect my HP servers to the Nexus. I don’t know if it’s because these cards are cutting edge (they are pre-production/beta units, apparently), but if all Nexus and FCoE deployments are this difficult to get up and running then FCoE will have a bleak future indeed. I’ve managed to finally get them working and recognized, but it most certainly was not as straightforward as I had anticipated.

Next I had to obtain a special beta flash image of the firmware and BIOS for the 10GB CNA and flash it to the latest version. The first time I flashed it, the 10GB CNA reported errors during the POST on the next reboot. I repeated the process and the errors went away.I’m quite confident that this is just because this card is an early Gen2 card, and that the strangeness I’ve been seeing is not a reflection on QLogic or VMware. I am a bit disappointed that the 10GB CNA is not supported by ESX 4.0.0 out of the box; I guess that will probably be remedied in ESX 4.0 Update 1. No, I don’t have any special insider knowledge. I’m just guessing.