CX4121C Dell 2 Port Network Interface Card

Overview of CX4121C Dell ConnectX-4 LX Dual-Ports SFP+ 25Gbps Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express 3.0 for PowerEdge C6420 Mezzanine Card

The CX4121C Dell ConnectX-4 LX Dual-Ports SFP+ 25Gbps Gigabit Ethernet PCI Express 3.0 for PowerEdge C6420 Mezzanine Card is a highly specialized network interface card (NIC) designed for modern data centers and enterprise networks. Built with the cutting-edge ConnectX-4 LX technology, this card supports high-speed data transmission of up to 25Gbps and delivers exceptional performance for both bandwidth and low-latency requirements. The card features dual-port SFP+ connectors, making it ideal for PowerEdge C6420 systems where high-speed networking capabilities are essential. It integrates seamlessly into the PCI Express 3.0 slot for optimal connectivity and efficiency.

Key Features of CX4121C

• Dual-Port Configuration: Two SFP+ ports for high-density networking.
• 25Gbps Speed: Provides up to 25Gbps Ethernet connectivity, offering high throughput.
• PCI Express 3.0 Interface: Ensures fast and reliable data transmission with PCIe 3.0 interface compatibility.
• Low Latency: Designed for low-latency operations, ideal for environments requiring real-time data processing.
• Scalable and Flexible: Supports diverse network topologies and configurations for greater scalability.
• Advanced Security Features: Includes secure boot and encryption capabilities to protect sensitive data.

Benefits of CX4121C Dell ConnectX-4 LX Card

The CX4121C delivers an array of benefits to data centers and businesses that require high-performance networking. The inclusion of dual-port SFP+ connectors allows for redundant network connections, ensuring that systems remain up even if one link fails. With its 25Gbps speed, the card is perfect for high-throughput applications like virtualization, cloud computing, and large-scale data transfers. Additionally, the PCI Express 3.0 interface maximizes bandwidth and minimizes bottlenecks, ensuring smooth data handling for demanding workloads.

Compatibility with Dell PowerEdge C6420

The CX4121C card is designed specifically for the Dell PowerEdge C6420 system, ensuring full compatibility and optimal performance. The PowerEdge C6420, a versatile server platform, benefits from this NIC by providing faster interconnects and robust network throughput, essential for managing demanding applications. This combination of PowerEdge C6420 hardware and CX4121C networking card provides a solid foundation for high-performance computing (HPC) environments, virtualization, and cloud infrastructures.

Installation and Integration

Integrating the CX4121C card into your PowerEdge C6420 server is straightforward. The card is designed to fit into a PCIe 3.0 x8 slot, ensuring a secure connection and maximum data throughput. Users can simply install the card by following Dell's step-by-step instructions to ensure proper installation and network functionality. Once the card is installed, it’s ready for use, requiring minimal configuration to get up and running. The compatibility of the card with various operating systems, including Linux, VMware, and Microsoft Windows, makes it versatile and user-friendly in multi-platform environments.

Software and Drivers

To maximize the performance of the CX4121C card, it's essential to use the correct drivers and software. Dell provides easy-to-install drivers and management tools that support operating systems such as Windows, Linux, and VMware. The software suite includes tools for monitoring performance, configuring network settings, and optimizing the card’s performance for various applications. By keeping your drivers up-to-date, you ensure that your network infrastructure continues to perform at its best.

Advanced Networking Features

Low-Latency Performance

The CX4121C card is engineered with low-latency in mind, making it an excellent choice for real-time data applications such as high-frequency trading, live video streaming, and VoIP services. This low-latency performance helps ensure that your applications operate smoothly without network-related delays or performance degradation, even during peak network traffic.

Optimized for Virtualization and Cloud Environments

In virtualized and cloud-based environments, the CX4121C offers significant performance improvements. The card supports features like RDMA over Converged Ethernet (RoCE), which allows for efficient data transfer without burdening the CPU. This results in lower latency and better performance for virtual machines (VMs) and containerized applications. With cloud computing becoming increasingly essential, the CX4121C card's ability to scale and deliver high-speed connectivity ensures that businesses can meet the growing demands of cloud environments.

Support for Multi-Protocol Networks

The CX4121C supports multiple network protocols, such as TCP/IP, iSCSI, and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE). This multi-protocol capability makes the card highly adaptable to different network environments. Whether your organization is using IP-based applications, storage networks, or even Fibre Channel networks for SAN (Storage Area Network), the CX4121C card can handle all these protocols, providing flexibility for diverse use cases.

Scalability and Future-Proofing

The dual-port SFP+ design of the CX4121C offers scalable connectivity, allowing businesses to expand their networking infrastructure as needed. The 25Gbps bandwidth per port ensures that this card can handle the growing data demands of modern applications. As organizations move toward higher-speed networks, the CX4121C’s 25Gbps ports make it a future-proof investment for businesses that need to scale without constantly replacing their networking hardware.

Security and Data Protection

Integrated Security Features

Security is a paramount concern in today’s networked world, and the CX4121C card offers multiple layers of protection to ensure your data remains safe. The card includes secure boot functionality and hardware-based encryption for sensitive data transmissions. These features provide an added layer of protection against unauthorized access, ensuring that data integrity is maintained in both on-premises and cloud environments.

Data Integrity with Offload Engine

The CX4121C also incorporates a data integrity offload engine that reduces the computational load on the host processor. This engine helps verify that data is correctly transmitted without error, providing reliable data transfers even over extended periods. This offload capability is particularly useful for applications requiring high data reliability, such as scientific simulations or large-scale databases.

End-to-End Data Protection

End-to-end data protection ensures that data remains secure across the entire network, from the point of entry to its final destination. The CX4121C card’s built-in security features help maintain data confidentiality and integrity, providing peace of mind to businesses handling sensitive or proprietary information. Additionally, the card supports advanced security protocols such as IPsec and MACsec, which further strengthen its role in secure network environments.

Applications of CX4121C in Data Centers

Virtualization and Cloud Infrastructure

The CX4121C card is an excellent choice for businesses looking to implement virtualization and cloud infrastructure. With its high-speed capabilities, low-latency performance, and support for RDMA, the card helps ensure that virtual machines (VMs) and cloud instances can communicate efficiently, without bottlenecks or delays. This is critical in virtualized data centers, where performance can often be limited by the networking hardware.

High-Throughput Applications

Data centers that rely on high-throughput applications such as big data analytics, machine learning, or real-time processing benefit greatly from the CX4121C card. Its 25Gbps speed ensures that these applications can access and transfer data with minimal delay, making it a valuable asset for enterprises involved in data-intensive tasks.

Efficient Storage Networking

When it comes to storage networking, the CX4121C supports multiple protocols like iSCSI and Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE), enabling high-performance storage connectivity. This is especially beneficial in environments that require fast, reliable access to data stored across various locations within the data center.

Networking in High-Performance Computing (HPC)

High-performance computing (HPC) systems require the fastest possible networking solutions to handle the immense amounts of data processed in real-time. The CX4121C’s low-latency and high-throughput capabilities make it an ideal choice for these environments. Whether running complex simulations or performing data-heavy computations, this network card provides the bandwidth and speed necessary for effective HPC networking.