Is it possible to connect XL710-QDA2 directly using XLDACBL3 - without switch, does it work in full duplex mode?

[APand8]

Hi All,

I am using two DELL Poweredge R430 servers and each server has one dual port XL710-QDA2 [1]. Now we want to connect these two NICs directly using XLDACBL3 [2] cable, but we are not sure if the setup will work. On server 1, we are running DPDK based L2Fwd application and on the other server DPDK-pktgen is generating the packets. Server 1 returns the packets back to server 2.

So can we use XLDACBL3 cables to connect these NICs directly and will they work in full-duplex mode?

[1]: https://www.intel.in/content/www/in/en/ethernet-products/converged-network-adapters/ethernet-xl710-brief.html Intel® Ethernet Converged Network Adapter XL710 10/40 GbE

[2]: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/support/articles/000006051/network-and-i-o/ethernet-products.html QSFP+ Modules/Cables Compatible with Intel® Ethernet Server Adapter...

Thanks,

Anmol

[Brian_J_Intel1 · Accepted solution]

yes it should work. I do back-to-back testing all the time using our DA cables.