Datasheet
Emulex VFA5 ML2 Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Adapter for IBM System x 3
Table 3. Supported direct-attach cables
Supported switches
Description
Part
number
Feature
Code
Brocade
VDX 6730
IBM G8124E,
IBM G8264
Juniper
EX4500
Passive direct-attach cables
0.5m IBM Passive DAC SFP+ Cable 00D6288 A3RG No Yes No
1 m IBM Passive DAC-SFP+ Cable 90Y9427 A1PH No Yes No
3 m IBM Passive DAC-SFP+ Cable 90Y9430 A1PJ No Yes No
5 m IBM Passive DAC-SFP+ Cable 90Y9433 A1PK No Yes No
1m Juniper DAC SFP+ Cable 68Y6927 5986 No No Yes
3m Juniper DAC SFP+ Cable 68Y6947 5987 No No Yes
Active direct-attach cables
1m IBM Active DAC SFP+ Cable 95Y0323 A25A No Yes No
3m IBM Active DAC SFP+ Cable 95Y0326 A25B No Yes No
5m IBM Active DAC SFP+ Cable 95Y0329 A25C No Yes No
1m 10GE Twinax Act Copper SFP+ 81Y8295 A18M Yes No Yes
3m 10GE Twinax Act Copper SFP+ 81Y8296 A18N Yes No Yes
5m 10GE Twinax Act Copper SFP+ 81Y8297 A18P Yes No Yes
Features
The VFA5 reduces cost by enabling a converged infrastructure and improves performance with powerful
offload engines. The adapter has the following features and benefits:
Multi-protocol support for 10 GbE
The Emulex VFA5 supports 2x10 GbE and is cost- and performance-optimized for integrated and
converged infrastructures. The VFA5 offers a “triple play” of converged data, storage, and low latency
RDMA (RDMA support is planned for 1H/2014) networking on a common Ethernet fabric. The Emulex
VFA provides customers with a flexible storage protocol option for running heterogeneous workloads
on their increasingly converged infrastructures.
Full hardware storage offloads
The Emulex VFA5 supports an optional hardware offload engine that accelerates storage protocol
processing, delivering up to 1.5 million I/O operations per second (IOPS), which enables the server’s
processing resources to focus on applications, improving the server’s performance.
IBM Features on Demand (FoD)
The VFA5 uses IBM Features on Demand (FoD) software activation technology. FoD enables the
adapter to be initially deployed as a low-cost Ethernet NIC, and then later upgraded in the field to
support FCoE or iSCSI hardware offload.