X710-T4-DELL Dell 10 Gigabit Ethernet Pci Express Network Adapter

Dell X710-T4-DELL 10GbE Converged Network Adapter Overview

The Dell X710-T4-DELL is a high-performance 10 Gigabit Ethernet converged network adapter designed for modern data centers, enterprise servers, and virtualization-heavy environments. Built on PCI Express 3.0 x8 architecture, this adapter delivers fast, reliable, and scalable wired networking for demanding workloads.

General Product Information

• Brand: Dell
• Manufacturer Part Number: X710-T4-DELL
• Device Category: Converged Network Adapter

Form Factor and Bus Interface

Physical Design

• Plug-in card with low-profile form factor
• Optimized for space-efficient server installations

System Interface

• PCI Express 3.0 x8 bus type
• High bandwidth support for enterprise networking

Network Connectivity and Performance

Port Configuration

• Four 10 Gigabit Ethernet ports
• 10GBASE-T RJ-45 interfaces

Speed and Throughput

• Data transfer rate up to 10 Gbps per port
• Backward compatibility with Fast Ethernet and Gigabit Ethernet

Supported Protocols

Data Link and Transport Protocols

• Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, and 10 Gigabit Ethernet
• TCP/IP, UDP/IP, iSCSI, SMB, and NFS

Remote Management

• SNMP support for network monitoring
• RMON for advanced traffic analysis

Advanced Networking Features

Performance and Optimization

• TCP/IP, UDP/IP, and checksum offloading
• Large Send Offload (LSO) and Giant Send Offload (GSO)
• Receive Side Scaling (RSS)
• TCP Segmentation Offload (TSO)

Virtualization and Data Center Capabilities

• Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV)
• Virtual Machine Device Queues (VMDq)
• Data Center Bridging (DCB)
• Adaptive Load Balancing (ALB)

Network Control and Security

• VLAN tagging and VLAN support
• Packet filtering and flow control
• IPv4 and IPv6 compatibility
• Watchdog Timer (WDT)

Additional Functionalities

• PXE boot and iSCSI boot support
• Teaming for improved redundancy
• Quality of Service (QoS) prioritization

Compliance and Industry Standards

• IEEE 802.3 Ethernet standard
• IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging
• IEEE 802.1P traffic prioritization
• IEEE 802.3ad Link Aggregation (LACP)
• IEEE 802.1AS and IEEE 802.1Qbg

Expansion and Connectivity Options

• Four RJ-45 10GBASE-T network interfaces
• Ideal for scalable server and storage networking

Core Technical Architecture and Specifications

The fundamental value proposition of this adapter category rests on its robust technical architecture. Understanding these specifications is key to evaluating its fit for specific infrastructure needs.

Host Interface and Bus Compatibility

The X710-T4-DELL leverages the PCI Express 3.0 x8 host interface. This provides a theoretical maximum bidirectional bandwidth of approximately 7.88 GB/s (63 Gb/s), which comfortably sustains the aggregate 40 Gb/s (4x10GbE) full-duplex potential of its four network ports. Crucially, the adapter is designed for backward compatibility with PCIe 2.0 slots, ensuring deployment flexibility across server generations, though maximum throughput may be constrained in older slots. The x8 form factor is a strategic balance, offering ample bandwidth without consuming the larger x16 slots often reserved for high-end GPUs or storage controllers.

Data Transfer Efficiency: SR-IOV and RSS

At a deeper architectural level, features like Single Root I/O Virtualization (SR-IOV) and Receive Side Scaling (RSS) are cornerstones of this category's performance. SR-IOV allows a single physical adapter to present itself as multiple virtual functions (VFs), which can be assigned directly to virtual machines (VMs). This bypasses the hypervisor's virtual switch for data processing, drastically reducing CPU overhead and latency, and improving overall VM network performance. RSS intelligently distributes network receive processing across multiple CPU cores, preventing a single core from becoming a bottleneck and enabling linear scalability with core count.

Physical Port Configuration and Cabling

This adapter is distinguished by its quad-port SFP+ configuration. The SFP+ (Small Form-factor Pluggable Plus) cages offer unparalleled flexibility in connectivity. Administrators can choose from a variety of SFP+ transceiver modules—including DAC (Direct Attach Copper) cables for short, cost-effective links within a rack, or optical modules (SR, LR) for longer distances over fiber optic cabling. This flexibility is a significant advantage over fixed-port RJ-45 adapters, allowing the hardware to adapt to the physical layer topology of the existing or planned data center network.

Primary Deployment Scenarios and Use Cases

The Dell X710-T4-DELL adapter category is not a general-purpose upgrade; it is a strategic investment for specific, high-demand computing scenarios.

Hypervisor Host and Virtualization Backbone

In virtualized environments powered by VMware vSphere, Microsoft Hyper-V, or KVM, network I/O is a common constraint. The X710-T4 is engineered to be the preferred NIC for vSphere and Hyper-V hosts. Its features directly map to virtualization needs: SR-IOV for VM direct-path I/O, support for VMQ (Virtual Machine Queue) and VMDq (Virtual Machine Device Queues) to efficiently direct traffic to correct VM queues, and robust offloads to free hypervisor CPU cycles. A typical deployment uses port aggregation (via LACP) or dedicated assignments for management, vMotion, VM traffic, and storage traffic, ensuring isolated, high-bandwidth paths for each critical function.

Enabling Advanced vSphere Features

When paired with VMware vSphere, the adapter’s capabilities unlock advanced suite features. It is fully compatible with vSphere NetQueue and is a foundational component for building a high-performance vSphere Distributed Switch (VDS). For environments utilizing VMware's software-defined storage, vSAN, the X710-T4 provides the low-latency, high-throughput network layer required for consistent performance, especially in all-flash vSAN clusters.

Storage Networking and Convergence

As a Converged Network Adapter, the X710-T4-DELL excels in storage networking roles. It provides a robust hardware foundation for iSCSI SAN initiator connections, with full TCP/IP offload engine (TOE) support to reduce server CPU load during block storage operations. For environments transitioning from traditional Fibre Channel, the adapter's support for Fibre Channel over Ethernet (FCoE) enables a unified data center fabric, carrying both LAN and SAN traffic. This requires Data Center Bridging (DCB) capabilities on both the adapter and the connected switch, which the X710-T4 provides, ensuring lossless transport for storage protocols.

High-Performance Computing

In HPC clusters or big data analytics platforms (e.g., Hadoop, Spark), the time for node-to-node communication is often a limiting factor. The low latency and high bandwidth of the X710-T4's 10GbE ports significantly accelerate east-west traffic patterns prevalent in these scale-out architectures. Features like jumbo frame support (up to 9KB) improve efficiency for large data transfers by reducing per-packet overhead, directly translating to faster job completion times.

Advanced Features and Protocol

The sophistication of this adapter category is embodied in its comprehensive support for modern networking protocols and traffic management features.

Offload Engine Capabilities

The integrated hardware offload engine is a core differentiator from software-based networking. By handling specific tasks in dedicated hardware, it dramatically reduces CPU utilization. Key offloads include:

TCP/UDP/IP Checksum Offload: Calculates and validates packet checksums, relieving the main CPU.
Large Send Offload (LSO) and Receive Side Scaling (RSS): LSO (also called TCP Segmentation Offload) allows the OS to send large data buffers, which the adapter segments into standard-sized TCP packets, improving outbound efficiency.
Storage Protocol Offloads: Comprehensive support for iSCSI and FCoE offloads, handling protocol-specific processing in hardware.

Quality of Service (QoS) and Data Center Bridging (DCB)

For converged environments, the adapter's DCB suite—including Priority Flow Control (PFC, 802.1Qbb), Enhanced Transmission Selection (ETS, 802.1Qaz), and DCB Exchange (DCBX)—is essential. PFC creates a lossless class of service, critical for FCoE traffic to prevent frame loss that could disrupt storage operations. ETS allows for bandwidth allocation between different traffic classes (e.g., LAN, SAN, cluster).

VLAN and Network Segmentation

The adapter supports IEEE 802.1Q VLAN tagging with up to 4095 VLAN IDs. This is vital for logical network segmentation in multi-tenant or multi-purpose servers, allowing a single physical port to carry traffic for numerous isolated networks, improving security and traffic management.

Management, Firmware, and Compatibility

Enterprise-grade adapters require enterprise-grade management tools and broad compatibility assurance.

Unified System Management

The Dell X710-T4 is fully integrated into the Dell OpenManage ecosystem. It can be discovered, monitored, and managed through tools like OpenManage Server Administrator (OMSA) and OpenManage Enterprise. For operating systems, Dell provides a unified, feature-rich driver suite—the Network Interface Card (NIC) teaming driver or the more advanced Intel Ethernet Connection OSP (Open Source Platform) Driver, which is often the basis for Dell's customized drivers, ensuring stability and feature parity.

Broad Operating System

Compatibility is exhaustive, covering all major environments:

Microsoft Windows: Full support for Windows Server 2022, 2019, 2016, and legacy versions, with optimized drivers available.
Linux: Native inclusion in modern kernel distributions, with Dell providing enhanced drivers for enterprise distributions like RHEL, SLES, and Ubuntu Server.
VMware: Certified and included in the VMware vSphere ESXi image, ensuring out-of-the-box functionality.
Citrix Hypervisor and Others: Supported through vendor-specific or community drivers.