HP BladeSystem Dual NC370i Multifunction Network Adapter - Manual (Page 4)

Overview 4
Overview
In this section
About HP ProLiant Essentials RDMA for HP Multifunction Network Adapters.................................................... 4
HP RDMA environment and configuration requirements ................................................................................ 4
Supported operating systems ..................................................................................................................... 5
About HP ProLiant Essentials RDMA for HP
Multifunction Network Adapters
Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) is a communications protocol that provides direct transmission of
data from the memory of one computer to the memory of another with minimal demands on the host CPU.
RDMA technology is implemented in hardware on the network server adapter to accommodate ever-
increasing network speeds. RDMA provides a high-speed, high-performance connection between servers
on the same network. This advanced feature can be activated through the purchase and installation of the
HP ProLiant Essentials RDMA pack license. HP RDMA pack licenses are port based; the licensed seats are
available to individual ports on multifunction adapters.
RDMA is supported on Windows Server 2003 (SP1 or later) or Windows Server 2003 x64 (SP1 or later)
only.
HP RDMA environment and configuration
requirements
The following environment and configuration requirements apply to the HP ProLiant Essentials RDMA
Pack.
• The Network Driver Interface Specification (NDIS) stack must not contain any non-HP or non-
Broadcom intermediate drivers or filter drivers.
• HP highly recommends that you upgrade all Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter firmware
bootcode to version 1.9.6 using the Multifunction Firmware Upgrade Utility found on the HP ProLiant
Networking Software CD in the \apps directory.
• RDMA supports subnet-only traffic (traffic between adapters connected within the same subnet).
RDMA does not support off-subnet connections.
• RDMA does not support teaming.
• RDMA does not support IPv6.
• RDMA does not support VLANs.
• RDMA does not support generic filter drivers inserted on the NDIS API.
• RDMA performance may drop significantly if an application stresses the system with large numbers
of short-lived connections.
• Microsoft Windows Firewall must not be enabled.
• Multi-threaded applications may not run correctly when RDMA is enabled.