The same network card often has single-port, dual-port or even four-port versions. With one more port, the price, number of modules, and ports occupied by the switch will change accordingly. The more ports the better, the key depends on what kind of traffic this server handles.

Typical uses of three mouth numbers

Single-port cards are suitable for scenarios where traffic is single and redundancy is taken care of by upper-layer protocols, such as computing nodes that only run the business network. Please refer toPCI-EX8 40G single optical port fiber optic network card (Intel XL710 chip). Dual-port is the most common configuration: two ports are used for link aggregation or active and backup, and one port can be connected to the business network and the other port to the storage network, such asPCI-EX8 40G dual optical port fiber optic network card (Intel XL710 chip). Four mouths such asPCI-EX16 25G four-port optical fiber network card (Intel E810 chip), suitable for situations where the physical machine is responsible for multiple network planes and does not want to insert multiple cards.

Don't forget the hidden cost of doubling ports

• The number of optical modules and jumpers is doubled per port, and the budget for procurement and spare parts is doubled.
• The number of occupied ports on the switch side increases, and the slots for high-density aggregation ports must be arranged in advance.
• The binding policy needs to be configured: dual-port aggregation requires LACP to be enabled simultaneously on the switch side, otherwise a loop may occur.

List the traffic type first and then determine the number of ports

A practical planning method is to list the traffic of this server: business, storage, migration, and out-of-band management. Each type of traffic occupies one port or a group of aggregate ports, and then compare the slot margin to decide whether it is one four-port or two two-port. The extra ports can also be reserved for future expansion, which is much easier than temporarily changing cards to add uplinks. On the contrary, if you only run one type of traffic for a long time but buy a four-port card, the money on modules and switch ports will be wasted. After setting the number of ports, go back to the PCIe channel: Four-port 25G generally requires x8 or above slots. If you insert the wrong slot, the bandwidth will be stuck. If you are not sure about the number of ports and modules, you can contact EB-LINK technical support for balancing according to the traffic list, call 0755-83179002.