817709-B21 HPE 631FLR 10/25GBPS 2-Ports SFP28 Adapter

Highlights of HPE 10/25GBPS 2-Ports Adapter

The HPE 817709-B21 631FLR Network Adapter is a high-performance solution offering dual SFP28 ports with 10/25GBPS capability. Designed for enterprise-grade systems, it ensures secure, fast, and reliable Ethernet connectivity for modern IT infrastructures.

Main Information

• Manufacturer: HPE
• Model Number: 817709-B21
• Device Type: Network Adapter

Technical Highlights

Port Configuration

Number of Ports

• 2 x SFP28 ports
• Supports 25 Gigabit Ethernet

Data Link Protocols

• 10 Gigabit Ethernet (10 Gige)
• 25 Gigabit LAN

Data Transfer Rate

• Up to 25 Gbps throughput
• Optimized for high-bandwidth workloads

Advanced Features

Security and Reliability

• Firewall protection for enhanced safety
• Function Level Reset (FLR) support
• Secure Boot capability

Expansion and Connectivity

Expansion Slots

• Total Slots: 2
• Available Slots: 2 free (SFP28)

Compatibility Information

Designed For HPE ProLiant Servers

DL360 Gen10 Series

• DL360 Gen10 Base
• DL360 Gen10 Entry
• DL360 Gen10 High Performance
• DL360 Gen10 Performance

DL380 Gen10 Series

• DL380 Gen10 Base
• DL380 Gen10 Entry
• DL380 Gen10 High Performance
• DL380 Gen10 Performance

DL560 Gen10 Series

• DL560 Gen10 Base
• DL560 Gen10 Entry
• DL560 Gen10 Performance

Overview of HPE 817709-B21 2-Port SFP28 10/25Gbps Adapter

The HPE 817709-B21 2-Port SFP28 10/25Gbps 631FLR Network Adapter represents a high-performance networking category designed for modern enterprise data centers that demand scalable throughput, low latency, and flexible connectivity options. Built to integrate seamlessly within HPE ProLiant server ecosystems, this adapter category is engineered to support next-generation workloads that rely on high-bandwidth data exchange between servers, storage systems, and virtualized environments. The architecture of this category emphasizes parallel processing of network traffic, optimized packet handling, and efficient hardware offloading capabilities to ensure stable performance under heavy enterprise workloads.

This category of network adapters is specifically aligned with the evolution of Ethernet standards, transitioning from traditional 10GbE infrastructures toward 25GbE high-density environments. The dual-port SFP28 interface enhances flexibility, allowing administrators to deploy mixed-speed environments where 10Gbps and 25Gbps links coexist within a unified data center fabric. The HPE 631FLR form factor further strengthens integration efficiency by ensuring direct attachment to supported server systems without occupying standard PCIe slots, thereby preserving expansion capabilities for additional enterprise components.

Role in Modern Data Center Networking Infrastructure

In enterprise environments, the HPE 817709-B21 category plays a vital role in enabling converged networking, where storage, data, and virtualization traffic are transmitted over a unified high-speed Ethernet infrastructure. The adapter is designed to handle intensive east-west traffic common in distributed computing environments, ensuring minimal congestion and consistent throughput. This makes it highly suitable for cloud computing platforms, virtualization clusters, and high-performance computing workloads that require uninterrupted data flow between nodes.

By supporting both 10Gbps and 25Gbps speeds, this category provides scalability for growing data center demands. Organizations can begin with existing 10GbE infrastructure and gradually transition to 25GbE without requiring a complete hardware overhaul. This flexibility significantly reduces long-term infrastructure costs while ensuring compatibility with evolving networking standards.

Technical Architecture and Design Efficiency

631FLR Form Factor Integration

The 631FLR form factor is a defining characteristic of this adapter category, optimized for HPE rack-mount servers. It enables a compact and efficient internal layout that reduces cable clutter and improves airflow within the server chassis. By integrating directly into the server’s flexible LOM (LAN on Motherboard) slot architecture, it eliminates the need for full-height PCIe card installation, thereby maximizing internal space efficiency and thermal management.

This design approach ensures that enterprise systems maintain optimal cooling performance even under sustained high-throughput network loads. Reduced cable congestion also contributes to easier maintenance and improved serviceability, which is essential for large-scale data center operations.

SFP28 Interface Capability

The SFP28 interface is a critical component of this category, enabling support for both 10GbE and 25GbE optical transceivers. This dual-speed compatibility allows network administrators to deploy flexible optical or DAC (Direct Attach Copper) connections depending on distance, bandwidth, and cost considerations. The SFP28 ports ensure high signal integrity and reduced latency, making them suitable for latency-sensitive applications such as financial trading systems, real-time analytics, and virtualization clusters.

The modular nature of SFP28 connectivity also enhances future scalability, as organizations can upgrade transceivers without replacing the entire adapter hardware. This modular upgrade path ensures long-term investment protection and operational flexibility.

Advanced Controller and Offload Engine

At the core of this network adapter category is an advanced controller architecture designed to offload CPU-intensive networking tasks. Features such as checksum offloading, TCP segmentation offloading, and interrupt moderation significantly reduce the processing burden on host CPUs. This allows server resources to be redirected toward application processing rather than network management.

The offload engine also improves packet processing efficiency by handling multiple data streams simultaneously. This is particularly beneficial in virtualized environments where multiple virtual machines share a single physical network interface. The result is improved throughput consistency and reduced latency variability across workloads.

Performance Optimization in Enterprise Environments

Low-Latency Data Transmission

The HPE 817709-B21 category is engineered for ultra-low latency communication between compute nodes. This is critical for environments such as high-frequency trading platforms, distributed databases, and real-time analytics systems. The adapter minimizes packet processing delays through hardware acceleration and optimized queue management, ensuring that data packets are transmitted with minimal jitter and maximum reliability.

The architecture prioritizes deterministic performance, ensuring that network behavior remains consistent even under peak load conditions. This consistency is essential for applications that require predictable response times and high service-level agreement compliance.

High Throughput Efficiency

With dual 25Gbps-capable ports, this category supports aggregated throughput that can scale to extremely high bandwidth levels when configured in link aggregation environments. This enables enterprises to handle massive data transfers associated with backup operations, virtualization migration, and large-scale database synchronization.

The adapter’s internal buffering and flow control mechanisms ensure that data congestion is minimized, even during burst traffic scenarios. This allows for smooth handling of unpredictable workloads commonly found in cloud-native environments.

Traffic Prioritization and QoS Support

Quality of Service (QoS) capabilities embedded within this category allow administrators to prioritize critical network traffic over less sensitive data streams. This ensures that mission-critical applications such as ERP systems, financial applications, and cloud services maintain stable performance even during network congestion.

Traffic classification and prioritization mechanisms help maintain balanced bandwidth allocation across multiple workloads, preventing resource contention and ensuring fair distribution of network capacity.

Enterprise Use Cases and Deployment Scenarios

Cloud Data Center Infrastructure

In cloud environments, the HPE 817709-B21 631FLR network adapter category supports highly scalable multi-tenant architectures. Cloud service providers rely on this type of adapter to ensure efficient virtual machine communication and seamless workload distribution across compute clusters. The high-speed SFP28 connectivity allows for rapid scaling of cloud resources without network bottlenecks.

Virtualization and Hyper-Converged Systems

Virtualized environments require consistent and high-bandwidth network performance to support multiple virtual machines running on a single physical host. This adapter category provides the necessary throughput and offload capabilities to ensure that virtualization platforms such as hypervisors operate efficiently. It enables smooth VM migration, rapid snapshot replication, and consistent inter-VM communication.

High-Performance Computing Clusters

High-performance computing (HPC) environments depend on extremely fast interconnects for parallel processing tasks. The 25Gbps capability of this adapter category ensures that compute nodes can exchange large datasets quickly, reducing processing time for scientific simulations, AI training workloads, and complex modeling applications.

Enterprise Storage Networking

This network adapter category also plays a critical role in storage area networking and software-defined storage systems. By providing high-speed connectivity between compute and storage layers, it ensures efficient data replication, backup operations, and storage virtualization performance. The low-latency design improves responsiveness in storage-heavy applications such as databases and analytics platforms.

Compatibility and Server Integration

HPE ProLiant Server Ecosystem Integration

The HPE 817709-B21 adapter is specifically designed for seamless integration with HPE ProLiant server families. This ensures full compatibility with firmware, management tools, and system-level diagnostics. Integration within the server ecosystem enables administrators to monitor network performance and manage configurations through unified management interfaces.

Firmware and Driver Optimization

Optimized firmware support ensures that the adapter operates efficiently within enterprise environments. Regular updates improve performance stability, security, and compatibility with evolving operating systems and virtualization platforms. Driver optimization ensures minimal overhead and maximum throughput efficiency across supported workloads.

Operating System and Virtual Platform Support

This category is designed for broad compatibility with leading enterprise operating systems and virtualization platforms. Whether deployed in Windows Server environments, Linux-based infrastructures, or virtualization stacks, the adapter ensures consistent performance and reliable connectivity.

Security and Data Integrity Features

Hardware-Level Offloading for Secure Processing

Security is a critical aspect of enterprise networking, and this adapter category incorporates hardware-level offloading to support secure data transmission. By reducing CPU exposure to network traffic processing, the system minimizes potential attack surfaces and enhances overall infrastructure security.

Packet Validation and Error Reduction

Advanced packet validation mechanisms ensure that corrupted or incomplete packets are identified and handled efficiently. This reduces retransmission overhead and improves data integrity across high-speed network environments.

Secure Virtualization Traffic Handling

In virtualized infrastructures, secure isolation of network traffic between virtual machines is essential. This adapter category supports secure traffic segmentation, ensuring that data flows remain isolated and protected within multi-tenant environments.

Energy Efficiency and Thermal Optimization

Low Power Consumption Design

The HPE 631FLR network adapter category is engineered for energy efficiency, reducing overall power consumption while maintaining high performance. This is particularly important in large-scale data centers where power efficiency directly impacts operational costs.

Thermal Management Integration

Efficient thermal design ensures that the adapter operates within optimal temperature ranges even under sustained high traffic loads. Integration with server airflow systems allows for effective heat dissipation without compromising performance stability.

Green Data Center Contribution

By optimizing power usage and reducing unnecessary CPU load, this category contributes to environmentally sustainable data center operations. Energy-efficient networking reduces carbon footprint while maintaining enterprise-grade performance standards.