topic Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity in EF & E-Series, SANtricity, and Related Plug-ins

IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

sfrmast — Wed, 04 Jun 2025 10:05:34 GMT

Dears,

We are having IBM System X 3650 M5 server, want to connect E-Series Storage. How to find the working HBA card suitable for the connectivity between storage and server.

Can we select any of the HBA card found here https://lenovopress.com/lp0068-lenovo-system-x3650-m5-machine-type-8871

Will be compatible with E -series

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

Ontapforrum — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:02:15 GMT

For FC connectivity, Storage OS compatibility is key. You can check the FC HBA compatibility for your ESERIES (Running SANtricity OS) here.

https://support.netapp.com/matrix

Do you have the details:
1) ESERIES Hardware ?
2) SANtricity OS version ?
3) FC HBA(Make/Model) on the IBM that you want to confirm?

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

sfrmast — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:31:46 GMT

1) ESERIES Hardware ? E2812
2) SANtricity OS version ? its new box version would be latest i believe
3) FC HBA(Make/Model) on the IBM that you want to confirm? Emulex / QLogic

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

sfrmast — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 12:43:58 GMT

So host server found using windows 2016 based on the selection from matrix its listed Qlogic .. Can you compare and which Card should we buy and will it comaptible.

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

Ontapforrum — Mon, 31 Jan 2022 13:33:53 GMT

Supported HBAs listed for ESERIES SAN Host is attached as jpeg here. Those are the only 2 listed I am afraid. Please note, I am not the authority on ESERIES SAN host compatibility, so feel free to reach out to your NetApp local account Manager for any help with respect to this.

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

sfrmast — Tue, 01 Feb 2022 12:57:49 GMT

Client existing setup for recording server 2 (IBM System X 3650 M5) is connected with storage through copper cable (patch cable) with normal iscsi connection.

Client requirement : use to get a 1 gig nic card for the storage and enable the iscsi feature for the same in the storage for 1 gig. Since getting card and service of the server which is out of warranty is not a reliable solution and in future also in case of server failures we can quickly transfer this storage to other servers in the same site easily as all servers are working with 1 gig ports . Can you advice on this

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

NetApp_RZ — Wed, 02 Feb 2022 07:22:06 GMT

Given you mentioned iSCSI, a lot of E2800 systems come with quad-port FC host interface cards in them that can be configured as either 4/8/16GB FC or 1/10GB iSCSI.

If the controllers do not have a host interface card installed the two host ports built-in on the motherboard also have the same optional configurability.

Usually requires a service ticket to switch the host protocol.
This is the KB we use to convert between FC/iSCSI on the host ports.
https://kb.netapp.com/Advice_and_Troubleshooting/Data_Storage_Software/E-Series_SANtricity_Software_Suite/How_to_convert_the_host_protocol_of_an_E-Series_storage_system_between_FC_and_iSCSI

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

sfrmast — Thu, 03 Feb 2022 11:32:07 GMT

Can we use Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Adapter on this server for iSCSI connection ?

Broadcom NetXtreme Dual Port 10GbE SFP+ Adapter

94Y5182

Re: IBM System X 3650 M5 HBA card for FC connectivity

elementx — Fri, 13 May 2022 02:48:10 GMT

While the tested client-side cards are best bet for iSCSI, any standard Ethernet cards should work just fine.

If you don't have dedicated HCIs (25G) and use just built-in optical ports (10G), that card looks fine to me. Generally I'd just ask the server seller which NIC they most often configure for iSCSI and get those.

Those Broadcom adapters look common enough. NetXtreme II listed 2 rows below that could be newer (Gen II) so you could get a newer model if your reseller can confirm that.