Xincuan Server | Enterprise Server Hardware Supplier
Your Storage Cluster Is Bottlenecked at 25GbE. The Next Step Is Not Two More 25GbE Ports. It Is One 100GbE Port.
Adding a second 25GbE port and configuring LACP gives you 50 Gbps aggregate — but no single flow exceeds 25 Gbps. A vMotion migration of a 500 GB VM still takes 3 minutes. A Ceph recovery after a drive failure still runs at 25 Gbps per node. The Intel E810-CQDA2 is a dual-port 100GbE QSFP28 adapter that delivers 100 Gbps per port, line rate, with RDMA support and the same Intel E810 driver stack that VMware, RHEL, and Windows Server have shipped inbox since 2021. It is the NIC that turns your network bottleneck into headroom.
Technical Specifications
| Parameter | Specification |
|---|---|
| Chipset | Intel Ethernet Controller E810 (Columbiaville) |
| Ports | 2x QSFP28 (100GbE per port), also supports 50GbE, 40GbE, 25GbE, and 10GbE via breakout/QSFP+ cables |
| Host Interface | PCIe 4.0 x16 (256 Gbps — sufficient for 2x 100GbE bidirectional) |
| RDMA | iWARP and RoCE v2 (configurable in firmware) |
| SR-IOV | Up to 256 virtual functions per port |
| ADQ (Application Device Queues) | Dedicated hardware queues per application — isolates latency-sensitive workloads at 100GbE |
| DDP (Dynamic Device Personalization) | Reprogram packet processing pipeline for specific protocols |
| Stateless Offloads | VXLAN, NVGRE, GENEVE, IP-in-IP, checksum, TSO, LRO at 100GbE line rate |
| Power | ~14W typical (both ports active, 100GbE, DAC cables) |
| Form Factor | Full-height, half-length (FHHL) PCIe (x16 physical connector) |
| Physical | 167 x 111 mm (FHHL PCIe card) |
| Cable | QSFP28: DAC passive copper 1-3m, active optical (AOC) 3-30m, QSFP28 SR4 optics up to 100m, QSFP28 LR4 optics up to 10km |
| OS Support | VMware ESXi 7.0 U3+, 8.0+ | Windows Server 2019/2022/2025 | RHEL 8.6+/9.x | SLES 15 SP4+ | Ubuntu 20.04/22.04/24.04 |
| Driver | In-box for VMware ESXi 8.0+, RHEL 8.6+, Ubuntu 22.04+ |
| Compatible Servers | All Dell, xFusion, Lenovo servers with PCIe 4.0 x16 slot |
| Warranty | 3-year (with server) |
100GbE vs 4x 25GbE LACP — The Single-Flow Performance Gap
| Scenario | 1x 100GbE (E810-CQDA2) | 4x 25GbE LACP | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single 500 GB VM vMotion | ~40 seconds (single 100 Gbps flow) | ~160 seconds (single flow limited to 25 Gbps) | 100GbE (4x faster on single-flow workloads) |
| 10 concurrent 50 GB vMotions | ~40 seconds (10 flows, each gets ~10 Gbps) | ~40 seconds (10 flows distributed across 4x 25GbE ports) | Tie (LACP is effective for multi-flow) |
| Ceph OSD recovery (single PG backfill) | ~40 minutes (100 Gbps single flow) | ~160 minutes | 100GbE (single-flow dominates in Ceph) |
| NVMe-oF target (multi-initiator, 8 hosts) | ~95 Gbps aggregate (8 flows) | ~90 Gbps aggregate (8 flows across 4 ports) | Tie (multi-initiator distributes well) |
The single-flow advantage of 100GbE matters for three specific workloads: vMotion of large VMs, Ceph recovery, and backup/restore of large datasets. For multi-flow workloads, LACP with 4x 25GbE delivers comparable aggregate throughput at roughly the same cost.
Compatible Platforms
PCIe 4.0 x16 slot required for full 200 Gbps bidirectional bandwidth. Compatible with Dell R760, R770, R7715, R860, R960, xFusion 2288H V7, 2488H V7, 5885H V7. QSFP28 ports accept QSFP28 DAC, QSFP28 AOC, or QSFP28 SR4/LR4 optics. 100GbE switches: Dell S5232F-ON (32x 100GbE), Arista 7060CX5, Cisco Nexus 9336C-FX2.
Source Through Xincuan
We supply E810-CQDA2 adapters pre-installed in Dell and xFusion servers. Factory-direct pricing, 3-year warranty, and global shipping.
