Network card compatibility list?

[thany]

Where can I find a list of compatible/supported network cards?

 

I don't like going out to purchase an expensive 10GbE card only to find out it doesn't work. And since unRAID is not a general purpose OS, I suppose it has support for a specific set of hardware. Kind of like Synology Diskstation does, is my thinking (they do have HW compatibility lists published, jsyk).

 

I have never seen a way to install drivers into unRAID, nor have I ever seen unRAID drivers on the driver support sites of manufacturers...

So the question is: what does it have drivers for?

[Frank1940]

I would suggest googling   unraid.net 10gbe nic   and unraid 10gbe nic  Then look through the results for each search.  You will probably several cards that work (and probably some that don't).  Lime Tech is usually good about incorporating NIC drivers into their builds if they exist.  You just have to make a feature request.

[thany]

Okay, so there's no list of NICs for which drivers are included? I can't imagine that being too too hard for a developer to come up with, would it?

I'll try googling, but it's kinda fuzzy, if you know what I mean. There's no guarantee either way, whatever results I get. A strong suggestion at best.

 

Or is there way to install (linux? what flavour?) drivers in a way that I haven't found yet? Just in case a NIC is not supported OOTB and a driver happens to be available from the manufacturer.

Edited December 22, 2019 by thany

[bonienl]

44 minutes ago, thany said:

I can't imagine that being too too hard for a developer to come up with, would it?

You think a developer buys all hardware out there to test for compatability? Think again ...

 

For 10G ethernet controllers used by the community, you'll find three names more often

• Mellanox - fiber based, usually multi-mode
• Intel - copper based, RJ45 CAT6, 1 or 2 ports version
• Aquantia - copper based, RJ45 CAT6 (I am using an ASUS controller card)

 

Edited December 22, 2019 by bonienl

[escocrx]

I have a Tehuti Networks Ltd. TN9710P 10GBase-T/NBASE-T Ethernet Adapter based NIC. It works but in my use it's be buggy. Randomly disappears and overwhelms my syslog with errors. I have it disabled for now. It is fast when it wants to work. 

 

It is Rosewill brand. Cost me roughly 40 bux. In my bare metal windows box it runs great. 

[thany]

On 12/22/2019 at 9:35 PM, bonienl said:

You think a developer buys all hardware out there to test for compatability? Think again ...

No not that, but they oughta know what sort of hardware their software is supposed to work on (tested or not). Regardless, for an OS that is partly meant to function as a NAS, network compatibility is quite important, so it should probably get some priority to compile a list of known good hardware to run it on. Same for storage controllers. But not so much for graphics drivers, for example.

 

Anyway, there must be a way to know which hardware unRAID is *supposed* to work with. Someone must've included all the drivers that hardware is detected for OOTB, so someone must also know what those drivers are, and what they are for. You can't just willy-nilly chuck a random collection of drivers at an OS and not know what they are.

 

Hardware that is actually *tested* with, should definitely be on a known-good list. Given the price of unRAID, I assume this is being done to a degree.

[Frank1940]

Network drivers have been a bone of contention for several years.   First level is that someone designs a chip set.  This 'someone' should write a driver  for the various OS's.  Now they generally do a good job for Windows.  Other OS's-- including Linux -- Usually are further down on the pecking order and may not be kept current with newer generation of kernel releases.  Next that chip set is used on a MB or a Network Card.  The manufacturer for these must also try to keep things current.  Again, anything but Windows is a lower priority item.   Sometimes, the Kernel developers will attempt to provide 'generic' drivers and they have had varying levels of success over the years.  Remember the cheaper a card is, there is less money available and less incentive to keep updating drivers for a piece of hardware that is either manufacture discontinued or soon to be placed in that status. 

 

Another factor is that the actual manufacturer of many Network cards is one of many outfits you will never learn the name of for they sell all of their production to Wholesalers who put their own name on it.  Now, who is responsible for driver updates???

 

I can remember working with LimeTech a few years back with a networking issue and we found that the Linux Kernel provided driver had a bug that the manufacturer had corrected in a driver update.  The problem was that this manufacturer was often the last one to update the Linux driver for this chip set to address other issues.  It was a catch-22 position. Sometimes the Linux kernel driver was the one to use and, occasionally, the manufacturer's driver was the one to use. 

[thany]

That doesn't deny or confirm that it should be possible for someone to compile a list of hardware (chipsets or cards) that *should* work. Whether they *actually* work is of no concern to this list.

 

And there's still the matter of cards that *are* tested. I mean, the OS must've have been tested with *something*, right? And that something is likely not the same hardware ever since 1.0.0.

 

To respond to your explanation of driver issues: does unRAID provide a facility to install a manufacturer's driver, or a facility to choose between it and its built-in driver? Because even in the unlikely event that a manufacturer provides unRAID drivers for their card, it would be nice to able to install them.

[itimpi]

1 minute ago, thany said:

To respond to your explanation of driver issues: does unRAID provide a facility to install a manufacturer's driver, or a facility to choose between it and its built-in driver? Because even in the unlikely event that a manufacturer provides unRAID drivers for their card, it would be nice to able to install them

Unfortunately not.    Unraid is such a cut-down Linux build that tHere is no realistic way to install your own drivers, it has to be done from the Limetech end.

[thany]

Okay, so for most intends and purposes, there is no such thing as an "unRAID driver". I assumed there was

[Prickle28]

I Have a Myricom 10G-PCIE2-8C2-2S 2-Port 10Gb ultra low latency card in my server and i haven'd had any problems.