System Requirements; Hardware Requirements; Airflow Requirements; Software Requirements - Nvidia ConnectX-5 User Manual

System Requirements


Unless otherwise specified, NVIDIA products are designed to work in an environmentally
controlled data center with low levels of gaseous and dust (particulate) contamination.
The operating environment should meet severity level G1 as per ISA 71.04 for gaseous
contamination and ISO 14644-1 class 8 for cleanliness level.

Hardware Requirements


For proper operation and performance, please make sure to use a PCIe slot with a
corresponding bus width and that can supply sufficient power to your card. Refer to the
Specifications section of the manual for more power requirements.
A system with a PCI Express x16 slot for OCP spec 3.0 is required for installing the card.

Airflow Requirements

ConnectX-5 adapter cards are offered with two airflow patterns: from the heatsink to the network
ports, and vice versa, as shown below.
Please refer to the "Specifications" chapter for airflow numbers for each specific card model.

All cards in the system should be planned with the same airflow direction.
Heatsink-to-port Airflow Direction

Software Requirements

• See Operating Systems/Distributions section under the Introduction section.
• Software Stacks - NVIDIA OpenFabric software package MLNX_OFED for Linux, WinOF-2 for
Windows, and VMware. See the Driver Installation section.
Port-to-heatsink Airflow Direction
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